More Time Travel - Peter's Harry Potter Party

Catching up on more news....for Peter's seventh birthday we had Harry Potter themed party. We rented out the neighborhood community center** and converted it to a Hogwarts Annex so that we would have enough room for 14 kids and their parents. (Peter only invited a few kids to the party, but since each had a kid brother or sister we invited them along too.) The kids started out by picking out their wands (created from dowels on a rainy Saturday afternoon) and making their cauldrons (colored bags they could decorate with stars and gems). Then we had a 'History of Magic' class to go over what the party was about, especially since some of the younger kids didn't really know anything about the Harry Potter books. We had a Defense against the Dark Arts class where Peter taught everyone some key spells in a variation of "Red Light/Green Light"


then we split up into two classes with the first years (Abby's age group) coming with me and the 2nd years (Peter's age group) going with Wayne. I did a Potion's class where we used various ingredients to make a good luck potion. We added things like Ground Unicorn Horn (for a unique day) and trolls fingers (to point the way) to a cauldron and then everyone put a 'wish' in for what might happen on their lucky day. We set the cauldron on the stove to cook and later I gave them each a baggie with dried potion in it to take home.



Then we went and rescued dragon or unicorn eggs in Care of Magical Creatures.



While my group was doing all this Wayne was teaching Double Charms in another room - showing and teaching the kids magic tricks.


Then the groups switched so everyone got to do all the classes. This was followed by the 'feast' and then time was up.



It was a lot of fun, and not as much work to set up as it might sound....of course, I had a wonderful friend help us set up the room and lots of helping hands from parents during the party itself. I have to say that Wayne got the hardest part with the magic tricks...some of the older kids were brutal hecklers! But, the kids seemed to enjoy it, with the oldest of the group saying to me that he thought we should do the same party again next year.


**best 50$ I ever spent...it was so nice to be able to concentrate on planning the party and NOT planning the cleanup needed to have a party at the house.