Harry Potter Birthday Party

Emma is a true lover of all things Harry Potter, so her birthday party theme was not even a real choice. As guests arrived at Hogwarts, brown paper bag lumieries directed them, "1st Years --->". (These didn't turn out as cool in real life as I'd imagined them...the letters weren't very clear. Oh well, they still provided ambiance.)

First the girls were sorted by drawing a house badge out of the sorting hat. We also announced that we were holding tryouts for a new Seeker, they would get the position if they could find the hidden snitch in the castle during the evening (they would also get to keep the snitch).

Two houses went to Divination first. Up in the bonus room they were invited to use their psychic gifts to determine how many Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans were in a jar. Then they took turns drawing from a bag of Harry Potter-related clues, which they tried to get the other girls to guess using their powers of divination--and a huge aqua-doodle mat (you know, Pictionary-style).

The other two houses started out in Transfiguration, where they used magic to transfigure a lump of playdoh into various Harry Potter-related objects.

After a time the two groups switched classes, then they all came together for Defense Against the Dark Arts. This was my favorite. Have you ever played that game States, where everyone sits in a circle and each person picks a state to be and one person is in the middle with a rolled up newspaper and tries to whack you before you can yell out someone elses state and they have to go try and get that person and if the person in the middle hits you with the newspaper they you're it? Well, they played that but with HP bad guys instead of states (Dementor, Bellatrix, Malfoy, Voldemort, etc) and we called the person in the middle the auror.

Once they were worn out from dashing around and laughing we came down to the Great Hall for Potions (adding koolaid mixes--labeled as dragon blood, phoenix tears and such--to their sprite), some snitch cake and opening gifts. (I'd seen candles like this before here.)

The girls each went home with a snitch t-shirt, and finally at the very end someone found the snitch under the dining room table. (Yea Mahaley!)

Many of the guests came dressed in wizardy attire which added to the fun. Emma was thoroughly satisfied with the whole evening, worth the wait from the snow the week before. I think I had as much fun as she did. Ben's birthday is eight months away, he's pretty sure he wants a Harry Potter party too. Maybe we should just leave the ceiling candles up?