Hazel's Birthday Party & Celebrations

 Before reading this post, just know that, Yes, I am aware that I am a little bit *extra* sometimes. 😉 But I just love being creative and making birthdays special! There's no one right way to do that, I just love parties and so do my kids. haha 

I also need you to know that I borrowed A LOT of things from my wonderful friend, Giannina! Candy jars, potion bottles, old books, owls, a bird cage, caldrons.... And Buck's sister made the cake and cookies and did an incredible job, as always! And we also borrowed a sorting hat from a kind neighbor! 

Okay. So. Anyway. 

Hazel turned 8! 

And she wanted a Harry Potter birthday.
Her and I have been reading the books together and are currently in the middle of book five! 

So she woke up to Hogwarts. ;)

 

We did the traditional coffee cake and then opened family gifts. She was very excited about them all.

 

Yes, that's a screaming Mandrake, for those fellow HP fans, you know what that is.

 

And then, before we knew it, it was time for her party!

 

For favors each kid got an owl from that cage and a handmade wand! Buck made them all and they were so great. 

Beauties.

I rarely label the food for parties but in this case, I felt it was a fun thing to do. We had Professor Sprout Veggies, Firebolts (cheese and pretzels) Sorting cat crescent rolls, Golden Snitch popcorn, and the cutest cookies that were made to look like Harry's birthday cake in the first movie (except with Hazel's name on them. )

 

Polyjuice Potion and Butter beer!

 

And we just had to have the famous candy store, HoneyDukes. 

(My sister in law made these signs too!)

We had: Acid pops, chocolate frogs, sherbet lemons, sugar quills, jelly slugs, every flavour beans, licorice wands, exploding bon bons, and no-melt ice cream. (all real candies from the book. Of course we improvised on the actual candy and interpretation of the candy.)

And yes, we made those frogs. ;) 

 

Lastly, we had Moaning Myrtle in the bathroom.  😜

 

We got all dressed up. haha

 

Once the kids arrived, they all got sorted into their houses by the sorting hat. And yes, this hat actually talks and sorts them! It was a hit.

 

Then they all got to go pick out their unique wands.
Afterwards we went to our first class, which was Charms class. They had to keep their balloon in the air with their wands while saying "Wingardium leviosa"

Then we had Herbology class. We used Hazel's new Mandrake as a prop and then the kids got to replant their own "baby Mandrakes"

After that, the students went to Divination class and had their fortunes told with color changing drinks. They all sat around and took turns seeing what color their drink would be to know their fortune. I don't remember what all we did but red meant wealth, pink was love, and blue meant you were going to live on the sea. haha

 

Then it was time for Potions class, down in the dungeon (basement)

Each kid had a small caldron and we made a potion together with ground up bat bones (baking soda), unicorn tears (soap) and dragon spit (vinegar.)

And then we ate snacks in the great hall.

 

After that we were ready for the last class- Defense Against the Dark Arts. We made a make-shift Dementor pinata haha. We said it was a Boggart and it was taking shape as Harry's fear. So the kids had to yell "Expecto Patronum!" as they hit the pinata. (I know, with a boggart you really say something else but this is what we decided to do.)

 

Inside the pinata were flying keys that everyone got. (from the first book)

Finally it was time for cake and presents!

And we were able to say that we had officially survived another party. ;) 

Oh, and here are the invites: :)

 

One last disclaimer- 98% of the time I like to come up with my own ideas for parties and I only go to pinterest in the end to see if there's anything else I want to add. But this time around I went right to Pinterest because there was just TOO much to think about with Harry Potter, so that's where the ideas for the activities came from and the snacks! I'll take credit for the decorations and party favors, however. ;) 

After all of that crazy time we cleaned up, packed up and headed to a hotel. I took June to a hotel on her 8th birthday and wanted to make that a tradition. Hazel opted to go as a whole family so that's what we did! We got to swim, eat dinner, watch the Olympics AND, what do you know? There was a Harry Potter movie marathon on the SyFy channel. A magical birthday miracle at the end of a great day. 💖