A day at Hogwart's

It all started last spring. Christian's 3rd grade teacher and another 3rd grade class did "Harry Potter Days." For one full month they read and did activities around the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. He was hooked! He was hooked on reading! He could not put Harry Potter down. All summer he read book after book in the series. It seemed only fitting to have a Harry Potter party for his 10th birthday. Here are the details for our party. Maybe this will help other moms who are planning the same type of party.

We started with invitations for Christian, Parker and 8 of his 4th grade friend's to attend Hogwart's for a special mid-term class. Christian insisted they look as close as possible to the ones in the book.

Each invite was personally addressed to each child and personally delivered. The envelope was addressed to each boy but I used Harry's address from the book. Christian REALLY wanted them delivered by owl, and although there are owls everywhere here, it really wasn't a possibility. LOL He then tried to convince me to let him doorbell ditch them. Being the mean mom I am I wouldn't let him do that either. Plus how do you doorbell ditch people that have a house up a mile long dirt lane? About half the kids weren't home so he got to stick them in their door which seemed to appease him.

Each invite read:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Dear Mr. C.Parish (or insert child's name),

We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for special mid-term classes in honor of Head Boy Christian’s tenth birthday. Your class schedule will include orientation and matriculation, potions, care of magical creatures, divination, and defense against the dark arts. There will also be a special birthday feast featuring treats from Three Broomsticks and Honeyduke's Sweet Shop in Hogsmeade.

Classes will begin at the stroke of 2:30 in the afternoon on Friday, September 25 th. After shopping at Zonko's Joke Shop classes will conclude at 5:30 in the evening. Please take the Hogwarts Express train currently disguised as the Muggle school bus #(Our bus) to Hogwarts Academy currently disguised as the Muggle home at (our address). There you will find the magical door visible only to Hogwarts students, friends and families. The password is flibbertigibblet. The surrounding area is well-protected by Memory Charms, so it will be safe to practice magic indoors and outdoors weather permitting. We encourage you to wear wizard attire, but if you must come incognito feel free to arrive dressed in the Muggle manner.

Please respond by OWL to (my email) or Muggle telephone system (my phone number) with a yes or no response. We look forward to your arrival at Hogwarts.

Sincerely,

Professor Parish

Deputy Headmistress of Frolic and Feasts
Hogwarts Academy

I had some equally creative RSVP email responses. It was so fun!

All the children arrived on the bus. We have an awesome bus driver who is also a neighbor so that makes life much easier. Brandon downloaded a bunch of Harry Potter songs from the movies including the theme song and had that playing loud enough that it could be heard outside. We played the music throughout the party and can I just say John William's is the man! I made them line up outside and tell me the password. They were then sorted into houses, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, & Gryffendor. I left out Slitherin because they are all naughty evil guys. LOL They got to wear my witches hat and draw a house crest out of a bag. We talked about the classes they would be attending and that after completing each class they would receive money either a Galleon, Sickle, or Knut (Wizard currency).

Since all wizards and witches need magic wands we made those first. It took a walk through the Forbidden Forest full of spiders to get to wand making but they all survived.

Next was their Defense Against the Dark Arts class. We played a game called the Basilisk Stare. I made cards on the computer that had picture and the name of creatures or animals from the stories. I used the following creatures: 1. Basilisk the deadly serpent with lethal breathe and glance, 2. Buckbeak Sirius Black's hippogriff, 3. Crookshanks - Hermione Granger's cat, 4. Fawkes Dumbledore's pet phoenix, 5. Grawp Hagrid's Giant brother, 6. Hungarian Horntail the dragon Harry faces in the Triwizard Tournament, 7. Hedwig Harry Potter's pet owl, 8. Murcus the Mercheiftaness of the Black Lake, 19. Scabbers Ron Weasley's pet rat, 110. Thestral the creature that pulls the coaches to Hogwarts. The game went like this: Each child drew one card, peeked at it and then hid it. Whoever drew the card with the Basilisk on it was the Basilisk, or IT. The children all stared into each others eyes. The Basilisk blinked both eyes at its victims, who then died (fell over however dramatically they chose-indicating they were dead). When someone who had not been killed yet was able to figure out the Basilisk's identity, they won and the game started over. We played about 5 rounds. I think they could have played this all day!

Next was Divination Class. They first had to climb the stairs past the rats and then to the North Tower aka Parker's bedroom. We all made origami fortune tellers. They had pre-printed fortunes. These are the fortunes we used. 1. A Basilisk will escape and hide in your plumbing. Beware long baths. 2. Congratulations! You will be drafted as the next Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. 3. Oh no! Due to a Transfiguration error, you will spend several weeks as a pumpkin. 4. Way to go! During Astronomy Class, you will discover a new planet which will be named for you. 5. Watch out! You will be stampeded by a herd of raging Hippogriffs. 6. You will fall in love with a Centaur and move to a tree house in the Forbidden Forest 7. The Weasley brothers will hire you to test their new joke shop products. You will never be the same! 8. You will live a very long life, but as a werewolf. Beware of full moons! Oooooooowwwww.

After Divination and passing through the rats again we had Potions Class down in the kitchen. We did this in groups of 5 with the other 5 looking on. Each child chose which potion he wanted to make. We had recipes for

Amortentia - very strong love potion
Flower kernels, Unicorn nectar, Unicorn dust, Dittany, Fairy soil, Asphodel

Babbling Beverage - this potion makes the drinker babble (talk) a lot and speak nonsense Beetle eyes, Lizard slime, Stinking pond water, Asphodel, Dittany, Bat liver

Confusion Concoction this potion causes the drinker to be confused for several hours Lizard slime, Flower kernels, Unicorn dust. Dittany, Wriggly bloodworms, Unicorn nectar

Felixelicis – this is a potion that makes the drinker very lucky.
Goblin sweat, Asphodel, Knotwood, Unicorn nectar, Dittany, Beetle eyes

Sleeping Draught - this potion makes the drinker sleep
Bat liver, Wriggly bloodworms, Latent tonic, Stinking pond water, Fairy soil, Dittany, Unicorn dust.

Some fizzed, some stunk, some smelled good, some changed colors a couple times. They all shrieked and ooohed and ahhhed throughout this class.

Here is what I used for ingredients, this could easily be altered:

Lizard Slime - green jello

Beetle Eyes - poppy seeds

Unicorn Dust - baking soda

Bat Liver - chopped mushrooms (canned)

Wriggly Bloodworms - cooked spaghetti in reddish-pink water

Latent tonic - dark purple water (food colored)

Stinking Pond Water - vinegar

Dittany - Pop Rocks

Flower kernels - candy sprinkles

Unicorn nectar - apple juice

Fairy soil - brown sugar

Goblin Sweat - mustard & water

Asphodel - powdered sugar

Knotwood - peanuts

Next was Care of Magical Creatures. The barn was Hagrid's house. He is on vacation and some of his magical creatures escaped in the fields. They had to work in teams of their house. Each house had the list of escaped magical creatures, which had a picture of the creature and how many points it was worth to recover it. I had bought these pokey balls which had little faces, heads, and tails. I gave them names, Crinkle Sprinklers, Spaghetti Sisters, Quaklers. After they had found all the creatures I told them Fawkes, Dumbledore's Phoenix, was also lost. It was of utmost importance that it was returned to Dumbledore's office before he returned, so was worth the most points. They all ran out to find Fawkes. They loved it. Each creature was worth a different amount of money.

Then it was time to gather in the Great Hall for the head boy Christian to open his gifts.

We sang "Happy Birthday" and blew out candles.

Next we had our feast from Three Broomsticks.

We had chocolate Frog cakes & Shrunken toad pudding,

Licorice wands,

Broomsticks & Cheese, Magic Pumpkin Chunks (cantaloupe), and Unicorn Ice cream (Playdough).

To drink we had Pumpkin Juice (Sprite, Orange Sherbet, Dry Ice) and Butterbeer. Butterbeer is from the books. It is much like Rootbeer. It is non-alcoholic and a butterscotch flavor. I used regular old Creme Soda. They were sure it was something special. ;)

After feasting each child pulled out their money they had been earning for completion of each class and they got to go shopping at Zonko's Joke Shoppe.

I made sure they all had just the right amount to buy one of each fun item.

They then got to go the Honeyduke's Sweet Shoppe

and get one of each goodie. These were on the house and didn't cost a thing. We had:

1. Droobles Best Blowing Gum

2. Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans

3. Dumbledore's Lemon Drops - lemon drops

4. Owl Pellets - Chocolate covered raisins

5. Whizzing Worms - gummy worms

6. Witches Teeth - Candy Corn

7. Gummy Fangs and brains

8. Pop Rocks

9. Chocolate Frogs.

After 3 hours it was time to go home. It was a blast!

(Apparently Parker was turned into some type of bird?)