To be clear I am not a competitive "Build-a-Better-Birthday-Party" Mama. I have definitely rolled my eyes at some of the over-the-top kids' birthday parties I've seen chronicled on the reality TV shows on TLC. No, I'm pretty sure your two year old doesn't need a 10 foot tall Cookie Monster ice sculpture on his big day, but if it makes you happy, whatever. I generally try to keep birthdays relatively simple. Cupcakes and "Pass the Parcel" are more my speed, but this year Harry got involved, and things got a little bit colorful.
So please know, if you are reading this, that I fully support whatever level of birthday party planning you're into. I happen to be a ridiculous Harry Potter fan, so all of this was a labor of love. I already had the Harry Potter character dolls, the Harry Potter Christmas lights, the Gryffindor scarf, and a head full of crazy Harry Potter ideas. We also found that lots of our Halloween decorations worked with the theme.
Now here is what basically happened when we turned my house into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter...
When the girls arrived, they first got to choose their new Wizarding names and make name tags. All of the girls at our party were completely giggly and excited about this. We had prepared three jars with folded paper containing the essential components of a good wizard name. In the first jar fabulous, traditional British first names were written on the slips of paper. Names included: Gertrude, Bronwyn, Magda, Agatha, etc. The papers in the second jar carried the first part of a good wizard's surname. This often turned out to be an animal name or a nonsensical-sounding word that ended in -le like: Buckle, Badger, Mumble or Fox. The final jar contained the last part of the surname, a collection of one-syllable words describing something kitchen-related or a body part. Girls selected one bit of parchment from each numbered jar and combined the words to create a new wizard identity. In the end we were rewarded with groovy new names like Edwina Grindlewick, Tuesday McGertlebloom, Phoebe Lemonfire, and Mildred Tigerplum. Would you doubt the magical abilities of any of these characters?
Next the girls wandered about the house and chose their own adventures. They could visit Ollivander's to select the perfect wand: a large pretzel rod which they dipped in melted white or milk chocolate and decorated with magical-looking sprinkles. Every girl also wanted to stop by the Bertie Bott's Bean Guess table. I had twenty different flavours of Jelly Bellies sorted into individual paper cups. The girls sampled one bean from each cup and recorded their flavor guesses on a numbered grid that I designed on the computer. Later, during the birthday feast, I revealed the actual answers which were met by a chorus of cheers and groans depending on the accuracy if each girl's taste buds. It was such fun and made the mind-boggling jelly bean sorting that I had done the night before seem well worth the time and effort.
My fantastically arty-crafty friend Allison took charge in the dining room and helped the girls make Wizarding Clocks like the one in Mrs. Weasley's kitchen. They used cardboard cake circles for the clock faces and made colorful "hands" for each person in their own families. The hands were attached to the center of the clock-face with a brad. The clock was decorated with stickers, glitter, and markers and were labeled with possible "statuses" of family members: Sleeping, Traveling, At school, In mortal peril, etc.
At some point I threw on a pair of ridiculously large glasses and a gauzy shawl and entertained interested girls with my grim divination skills. I used Tarot Cards, runes and gazed into my crystal balls, white balloons which were "pre-loaded" with dreadful Trelawney-style prophecies printed on rolled-up strips of paper. In the midst of divining, I'd somehow manage to pop the balloon and extract the awaiting girls' fortune, something like, "You were clearly born under the baleful influence of Saturn. You should avoid chocolate at all costs!"
The best part of our party by a mile was potions class which was held at the kitchen table and led very dramatically by my own dear husband who assumed a character of his own making, Professor Snivelbottom. Snivelbottom seemed to be a combination of Snape and every character ever played by Dick VanDyke. Be still my heart. Needless to say the girls absolutely loved every moment of the potions lesson. They giggled endlessly and intentionally provoked the professor in hopes of extracting a hilariously nasty retort from him. "I always knew you were an idiot, Miss Ravenbum, or whatever your name is! Ten points from Gryffindor!"
The night before the party, the birthday girl helped me come up with some potion recipes. These are the recipes that the girls used under the guidance and critical gaze of Professor Snivelbottom. He made the class far more dramatic with the addition of dry ice which was purchased at our local supermarket. True sticklers of the Harry Potter text will point out that our potion ingredients did not jive with those used in the books. We assumed our party-goers came for fun more so than authenticity. Here are our potions recipes for your consideration:
Polyjuice Potion:
1 Scoop of Troll Snot (lime sherbert)
A dash of Whomping Willow Sap (pineapple juice)
3 dashes if Phoenix tears (ginger ale)
Eye of newt (maraschino cherry with a jelly bean pressed inside)
1 Mandrake pod (circus peanut)
1 Phineas Finnegan Fatal Fish (Swedish fish)
Felix Felices:
1 Scoop Frozen Spider Silk (vanilla ice cream)
Large glug of Burdock root juice (root beer)
2 Flobber worms (gummy worms)
Eye of newt (see above)
Rat Droppings (chocolate covered raisins)
3 Spirit teeth (mini marshmallows)
So please know, if you are reading this, that I fully support whatever level of birthday party planning you're into. I happen to be a ridiculous Harry Potter fan, so all of this was a labor of love. I already had the Harry Potter character dolls, the Harry Potter Christmas lights, the Gryffindor scarf, and a head full of crazy Harry Potter ideas. We also found that lots of our Halloween decorations worked with the theme.
Now here is what basically happened when we turned my house into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter...
When the girls arrived, they first got to choose their new Wizarding names and make name tags. All of the girls at our party were completely giggly and excited about this. We had prepared three jars with folded paper containing the essential components of a good wizard name. In the first jar fabulous, traditional British first names were written on the slips of paper. Names included: Gertrude, Bronwyn, Magda, Agatha, etc. The papers in the second jar carried the first part of a good wizard's surname. This often turned out to be an animal name or a nonsensical-sounding word that ended in -le like: Buckle, Badger, Mumble or Fox. The final jar contained the last part of the surname, a collection of one-syllable words describing something kitchen-related or a body part. Girls selected one bit of parchment from each numbered jar and combined the words to create a new wizard identity. In the end we were rewarded with groovy new names like Edwina Grindlewick, Tuesday McGertlebloom, Phoebe Lemonfire, and Mildred Tigerplum. Would you doubt the magical abilities of any of these characters?
Next the girls wandered about the house and chose their own adventures. They could visit Ollivander's to select the perfect wand: a large pretzel rod which they dipped in melted white or milk chocolate and decorated with magical-looking sprinkles. Every girl also wanted to stop by the Bertie Bott's Bean Guess table. I had twenty different flavours of Jelly Bellies sorted into individual paper cups. The girls sampled one bean from each cup and recorded their flavor guesses on a numbered grid that I designed on the computer. Later, during the birthday feast, I revealed the actual answers which were met by a chorus of cheers and groans depending on the accuracy if each girl's taste buds. It was such fun and made the mind-boggling jelly bean sorting that I had done the night before seem well worth the time and effort.
My fantastically arty-crafty friend Allison took charge in the dining room and helped the girls make Wizarding Clocks like the one in Mrs. Weasley's kitchen. They used cardboard cake circles for the clock faces and made colorful "hands" for each person in their own families. The hands were attached to the center of the clock-face with a brad. The clock was decorated with stickers, glitter, and markers and were labeled with possible "statuses" of family members: Sleeping, Traveling, At school, In mortal peril, etc.
Even little wizards joined in the fun.
The best part of our party by a mile was potions class which was held at the kitchen table and led very dramatically by my own dear husband who assumed a character of his own making, Professor Snivelbottom. Snivelbottom seemed to be a combination of Snape and every character ever played by Dick VanDyke. Be still my heart. Needless to say the girls absolutely loved every moment of the potions lesson. They giggled endlessly and intentionally provoked the professor in hopes of extracting a hilariously nasty retort from him. "I always knew you were an idiot, Miss Ravenbum, or whatever your name is! Ten points from Gryffindor!"
Polyjuice Potion:
1 Scoop of Troll Snot (lime sherbert)
A dash of Whomping Willow Sap (pineapple juice)
3 dashes if Phoenix tears (ginger ale)
Eye of newt (maraschino cherry with a jelly bean pressed inside)
1 Mandrake pod (circus peanut)
1 Phineas Finnegan Fatal Fish (Swedish fish)
Felix Felices:
1 Scoop Frozen Spider Silk (vanilla ice cream)
Large glug of Burdock root juice (root beer)
2 Flobber worms (gummy worms)
Eye of newt (see above)
Rat Droppings (chocolate covered raisins)
3 Spirit teeth (mini marshmallows)
Potion Perfection!
After every girl had finished making her potion, the guests headed downstairs to the Gryffindor Common Room (also known as our basement) where they started watching one of the HP movies. Professor Snivelbottom made occasional visits downstairs to chastise the girls and raise the general level of excitement. While that was going on, I and my trusty Mommy friends, cleared up the great hall (dining room) and set the stage for the birthday feast. We served a tower of cheese with crackers and pita chips, Herbology crudites with hummus, "mental" meatballs (per the birthday girl's request), pumpkin pasties, parchment scrolls (tortillas rolled up with turkey, spinach, and veggie-flavored cream cheese), and Peeps messenger owls. I also improvised some butter beer in the blender with cream soda, heavy cream, butterscotch syrup, butter flavoring and lots of crushed ice. It was nice and frothy and had a sweet and delicate flavor. The girls seemed adequately impressed by the spread.
Wait! There's more!! My wonderful friend Christy volunteered to make Emma a cake which looked like a battered potions textbook. It was rather beautiful, and I am still have sweet dreams about her homemade chocolate butter cream frosting. Please sir, can I have some more?
So... did I go slightly over-the-top? I don't think so. I enjoyed every moment... even those panicky ones about 30 minutes before the party started when I was breathing into a paper bag. I am also planning to very slowly read the Harry Potter series to my eight year old, so that I don't have to recreate these festivities for at least a couple of years. Mama needs a little Harry hiatus. Let the record show that I couldn't have pulled it off without the help of my Mommy friends, my kids, and my husband. I'd also like to thank the Academy. "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" Where's the Tylenol?
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