For many weeks we have been planning, and now I, with a little help from my friends, have finally pulled off a successful Harry Potter party to celebrate my oldest daughter's tenth birthday. I had a notebook filled with lists of ideas for games, activities and Potter-themed snacks. I had purchased sparkly fabric, pulled out Halloween decorations that seemed appropriate, and scoured the Internet for inspiration. Mentally I was prepared. The night before the party, however, I started to hyperventilate a little as I attempted to sort and separate different shades of brown and pink and yellow Jelly Belly jellybeans into individual party cups for the "Bertie Bott's Bean Guess." My husband walked into the kitchen as I sat at the table staring stupidly back and forth between a marigold-colored jellybean pinched between the fingers of my left hand and the slightly different goldenrod-colored jellybean held similarly in my right hand. "I can't tell which is sun-kissed lemon and which is crushed pineapple?!" I moaned as the crease between my eyebrows deepened.
"You realize that this is a little bit crazy, right?" he asked flippantly, "It's a kids' birthday party." He obviously did not understand. The damn jellybeans required a little more time tha I had anticipated, but I deemed the "Guess the Jellybean Flavour" table to be of utmost importance. The next day when every ten year old declared the activity to be "so cool," I felt validated.
The night before the party I also prepared party bags for the girls to take home afterwards. In addition to a pouch of Jelly Belly beans (the official HP Bertie Bott's beans are ridiculously overpriced), the girls took home chocolate frogs (good ole melted Hershey bars poured into frog-shaped molds) and Skiving Snack Boxes a la Fred and George Weasley.
I will admit I was slightly proud of the snack boxes, particularly since my daughter Emma lists Fred and George Weasley among her most favorite characters in the Harry Potter series. I cooked up a batch of plain chocolate fudge to serve as "Fever Fudge," and my daughter and I literally jumped for joy when we found some actual Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles at our local grocery store in the international aisle. These fit perfectly into small paper cake cups and filled the role of "Puking Pastilles." Snack sized Milky Way bars were wrapped in plain gold paper and passed off as "Nosebleed Nougats," and I was able to dress up some mini Hostess snack cakes to make them look a bit like "Fainting Fancies." And even though my husband thought I might be slightly crazy, all of this preparation was truly a labor of love since I delight in Harry Potter at least as much as the average ten-year-old.
"You realize that this is a little bit crazy, right?" he asked flippantly, "It's a kids' birthday party." He obviously did not understand. The damn jellybeans required a little more time tha I had anticipated, but I deemed the "Guess the Jellybean Flavour" table to be of utmost importance. The next day when every ten year old declared the activity to be "so cool," I felt validated.
The night before the party I also prepared party bags for the girls to take home afterwards. In addition to a pouch of Jelly Belly beans (the official HP Bertie Bott's beans are ridiculously overpriced), the girls took home chocolate frogs (good ole melted Hershey bars poured into frog-shaped molds) and Skiving Snack Boxes a la Fred and George Weasley.
I will admit I was slightly proud of the snack boxes, particularly since my daughter Emma lists Fred and George Weasley among her most favorite characters in the Harry Potter series. I cooked up a batch of plain chocolate fudge to serve as "Fever Fudge," and my daughter and I literally jumped for joy when we found some actual Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles at our local grocery store in the international aisle. These fit perfectly into small paper cake cups and filled the role of "Puking Pastilles." Snack sized Milky Way bars were wrapped in plain gold paper and passed off as "Nosebleed Nougats," and I was able to dress up some mini Hostess snack cakes to make them look a bit like "Fainting Fancies." And even though my husband thought I might be slightly crazy, all of this preparation was truly a labor of love since I delight in Harry Potter at least as much as the average ten-year-old.
("Sheila" was kind enough to allow the Internet community to use her Snackbox artwork via The Leaky Cauldron. Thank you, Sheila. You are a star. I don't think I had it in me after the Jelly Belly palaver.)
Prior to the party we also made our very own pumpkin pasties. Friends who aren't from Michigan or Great Britain were concerned that I might be donning tassels and providing inappropriate entertainment for a party of ten-year-olds. Rest assured, pasties (pronounced with a short a sound) are filled, baked pastry cases. The key, we learned to successfully making a pumpkin pasty, was to bake (and cool) the pumpkin pie filling completely before assembling the pasties. On the day of the party I used regular rolled pastry, but kids might also like pasties made with rolled out/ flattened refrigerated biscuit dough. Before baking, I brushed the tops of the pasties with melted butter and sprinkled on brown sugar. They were rather wonderful when served with the rest of our Hogwarts-style feast.
Stay tuned for my next post all about the actual party, which was basically more fun that you could shake a stick at.
At least I'm pretty sure it was lots of fun.
To be honest it is a bit of a blur, and some of us mommies may have had a glass of wine halfway through it all, but I am still rather confident that it was magical.
At least I'm pretty sure it was lots of fun.
To be honest it is a bit of a blur, and some of us mommies may have had a glass of wine halfway through it all, but I am still rather confident that it was magical.
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