Harry Potter themed Birthday Party

Zack had his birthday in August. We wanted to have a friend birthday party for him and I got a great idea for one from my sister (Cammie), but we had some trouble getting one idea to pan out. It was the T-shirt craft/party favor idea. We had to find someone who could make/cut out the vinyl letters for us to put on a T-shirt. We finally found a print shop in North Little Rock that could do it and we were set. Since it was so long after his birthday and because Jordan had a birthday and likes Harry Potter as well, we decided they could each invite friends to a joint party. In the end Kammie, Spencer and Kate each had a friend over as well. One big group party for All.

Saturday, September 10th was the big day. (After the emergency prepardness fair our stake put on in Maumelle that day.) We began by having everyone come in and sit down in the family room in front of a stool near the fire place with a "sorting hat" on it. (Just a witch's costume hat.) Each party guest was invited up one by one to come sit on the stool and be sorted into their house or team. (Kammie and Jordan had recorded the "hat" stating which "house" they belonged to and would play it secretly as each child was sitting on the stool. Lots of fun.) I didn't get any photos of that. I was too busy calling the names of our guests. It seemed to go over well though.

The first activity we did was to paint/make shirts. It was a fun craft activity that served as their party favor too. We bought sticky vinyl lettering that said: "My other ride is a Firebolt" (a magical flying broom in the world of Harry Potter). The kids used black fabric paint to fill in the stencil lettering and then we let them dry. Then you just pull the sticker vinyl stuff off and you have a cool custume shirt.

The vinyl lettering as ordered from the shop...
The vinyl placed on a T-shirt...
The final results...

Kate modeling her fuchsia colored T-shirt...
Kammie in her blue shirt...
Together...
Spencer and his friend Jonathan did white T-shirts, Kammie and Ana Grace did blue, Kate, Jordan, Julia, Tiera and Pricsilla did fuchsia and Zack and his friends Luke, Cole and Spencer did theirs in red.

Our next game was called Quiditch. I bought a golden snitch on line and I would hide it somewhere out in the yard. I would yell quiditch when it was time for them to go search as teams for the golden ball with wings. We did this several times.




Then we played Kill the Dementors. We took balloons (black are best) and blew them up the night before. Then we released all the balloons and called them Dementors. Everyone tried to pop/kill as many as they could.

Next came the "flour" game. Instead of a penny, like I used growing up, we used a fake golden coin we called a galleon (HP money). Each child had a turn cuting away some flour. If they made the coin fall, they had to go in an fish it out with their mouths. Everyone was really careful at the beginning, but by the end, the boys wanted to have a turn and would purposely make it fall.

Tiera taking a turn...
It's getting close...
Zack taking a turn...
Luke goes in...
Luke was a quick, clean grab...
Tiera again, but oops, down goes the coin...
In she went...
What a mess...
Zack's turn...
In he goes...
He loved it...
Cole diving in...

Jonathan...
Spencer...


Then we had pizza and decorated owl cupcakes.

We used white frosting to be like Hedwig, but you can use chocolate as well for a brown owl.


Oh yeah, and opened presents.
A new shirt for Jordan...
And more clothes...

Zack got a Hex bug...
And some $money...
Zack was so excited about that that he lifted Jonathan up in the air...



And last but not least we had potions class--we launched water bottle rockets on the front lawn. This was fun for everyone. We even attracted a few neighbors.