One Magical Birthday Party

Platform 9 3/4

12 boys, 2 Houses, 4 Classes, 6 Quidditch Matches, I Trip to Honeydukes Sweet Shoppe and Zonko's Joke Shop, 1 very happy birthday boy, and 2 exhausted parents = 1 magical birthday party

As I mentioned the other day, this is not a quilting post, quilting friends, but rather a pay-it-forward post about doing a Harry Potter birthday party. I found so many great ideas for doing a Harry Potter-themed birthday party for my son on the internet that I thought I share what we did for others. In particular I thought I'd share the invitations (bilingual), the party schedule, class schedules, labels, etc. I put together so that others can use them as templates.

Birthday Cake

First, let me say that we do not normally do birthday parties on this scale. There are so many great Harry Potter birthday party ideas out there on the Web though that we couldn't resist trying a bunch of them. And if you haven't already guessed, we are big Harry Potter fans around here!

I was Professor McGonagall and the hubster was Nearly Headless Nick (low-key costume of some red facepaint drawn almost all the way around his neck).

To get a feel for what the party felt and looked like, check out this video the hubster put together. Gotta love iMovie!



So here's what we did...

Harry Potter fonts give the linked documents below a more authentic look so I'd recommend downloading them (they are free).

Invitations (English and French) (PDF) (Template - Use font: Hogwarts Wizard)

Party Schedule (we stuck largely to schedule -- the key is to be very organized and have each activity ready to go):

3:00 - 3:15 p.m.	Arrival via Hogwarts Express (Sign on the front door) Bertie Botts Every Flavour Jelly Bean Tasting Each child takes turns picking a jelly bean (I mixed two packs of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Jelly Beans to regular jelly bellies)
3:15 – 3:35 p.m.	Orientation & Sorting Hat Ceremony Welcome to Hogwarts and any rules of the house Sorting Hat Ceremony (Cell phone placed in the tip of the Sorting Hat on Speakerphone with husband in another room saying the Sorting Hat song and telling each child which house they are in. Tip: Make sure the volume is on maximum!) Once the child is told which House they are in, I gave them their scarf and their class binder (ie. colour-coded duotang with House and Name label -- Gryffindor/Ravenclaw - Font: Harry P): Class Schedule (PDF) (Template - Font: Hogwarts Wizard) Spellbook Make Your Own Spell Worksheet Owl Colouring Page Harry Potter Spells Word Search How Many Harrys Word Search Hogwarts Crest Colouring Page Design Your Own Crest Colouring Page
	Gryffindor	Ravenclaw
3:35 – 3:50 p.m.	Divination Magic 8 Ball – Each child gets a turn to ask a yes/no question to the Magic 8 ball Fortunes in Balloons – Put a fortune in a balloon. We did red balloons for Gryffindor and blue balloons for Ravenclaw	Potions Felix Felicis Veritaseum (in hindsight, I’d tell the kids that this potion induces good behaviour. ;) )
3:50 – 4:05 p.m.	Potions	Divination
4:05 – 4:10 p.m.	Break
4:10 – 4:25 p.m.	Charms Each House make up a spell and corresponding action and share it with the other team Simon Says kind of game where they need to do the actions of the spells I call out: their house spells,  Expelliarmus – lose their wand and fall backwards, Immobilius – freeze, etc. Have them pair off to practice their spells and wandwork. Wizards, Trolls and Goblins – like Giants, Wizards and Dwarves, but changing the names and actions to: Trolls – batting the air in front Goblins – wiggling ears Wizards – same action Who wins: Wizards beat Trolls, Trolls beat Goblins, Goblins beat Wizards
4:25 – 4:35 p.m.	Defence Against The Dark Arts Dinosaur Pinàta that we pretended was a fierce dragon
4:35 – 5:00 p.m.	Quidditch Quidditch Rules
5:00 – 5:20 p.m.	Honeydukes Sweet Shoppe Menu: Butterbeer (I doubled the recipe and used 2 2L bottles of cream soda - plenty for 16 people) Chocolate Frogs – Chocolate in frog molds (Melt, pour, chill, pop out - so easy!) Pizza Fruit and veggies Harry Potter Cake
5:20 – 5:30 p.m.	Zonko’s Joke Shop A variety of joke shop trinkets like whoopee cushions, eyeball bouncy balls, etc. arranged on a table for them to pick for their loot bags Loot bags – plain brown paper bags, long breadsticks and raffia – tied to look like a broom

I got the Joke Shop stuff, quidditch balls and any decorations (that I didn't already have for Halloween) from the dollar store and post-Halloween sales.

My Harry Potter party idea sources - hugely helpful:

• Birthday Party Ideas
• Dirt and Sunshine
• Jengerbread Creations
• All About Cupcakes

The happy birthday boy, who later told me that he knew what HP really meant -- "Happy Party." :)

So I hope some party planners out there find this useful. With 12 kids, the party was crazy loud, exhausting, but SO MUCH FUN!