Party 2-Triwizard house party We had two Harry Potter parties with the same guests for my sons (6 and 9) who have birthdays three weeks apart. They each wanted the Potter theme, but also wanted separate parties. Because the guests and the themes were the same, I was able to put more into the parties in terms of preparation and decor. This is the second of the two parties we held. In this party, the kids learn their lessons at Hogwarts to prepare them for the Triwizard Tournament at the end of the party.  This party takes place at our home. The kids were sent their back to school letters to Hogwarts printed in a suitable font and signed by Professor McGonagal. These were of course sealed with red wax (melted bits of old red crayons dabbed onto the envelope and stamped with an H from my son's ink stamping set). A Hogwart's express ticket was also included inside. Once outfitted, they met at platform 9 ¾ and boarded the train (after running through a cardboard box flap brick wall at the station). The train was made of appliance boxes and webbing that went over the kids' shoulders so they could walk with it. They chugged around the perimeter of the room to the castle door (cardboard archway, from appliance boxes again) to meet in the great hall. Food consisted of variations on the standard fare-spring rolls, fried rice, noodles, ravioli, garlic bread, (to represent visiting countries) and fruit kebabs topped with star-shaped candy clay star (see candy clay recipe here: http://www.greensim.com/lemonade/food%20recipes.html) to look like a wand. We served butter beer (non-caffeinated root beer mixed with cream soda and soda water and a teaspoon of butterscotch sauce) to drink. We served this from washed-out glass sparking grape juice bottles that had Butterbeer labels printed on them. The tables were decorated with plastic table cloths in house colours, gold coloured plates, real cutlery, and had a house banner (made from bristol board and painted with coat of arms) hanging from the ceiling above each table. from the ceiling hung at various heights with fish line were battery-operated candles (the kind generally sold for Christmas decor). Since the ceiling is supposed to look like the sky, we used a slide projector to project a cloudy sky on the ceiling.   Since we had the first of the two Harry Potter parties three weeks earlier for my other son with the same guests, the kids were already sorted into houses. We did this using a sorting hat makde from old heaby paper grocery bags, scrap fabric, and walkie-talkies. We had a two-line rhyme for each child written tosuit their personalities and interests. The kids also had their cauldrons wands, robes, spellbooks from the last party. (potions ideas found at both Mugglenet.com and theleakycauldron.com). We added potions books to their school supplies for this party.  After the food, the kids went to their classes.  Potions:  Classroom is set up with several bookshelves displaying various ingredients in jars. Sundried tomatoes, cloves, other dried fruit, $ store plastic body organs, etc.-I looked through the books and had fun getting creative! I used various fonts and word art to make labels for the potion ingredients powdered root of asphodel, Doxy Eggs, Bubotuber Pus, Hinkypunk Hearts, Freeze-Dried Condensed Fairy Cocoons, Ashwinder eggs, etc. Many of the potion ingredients were to be used, but some were just for decor purposes. Demonstrations: Using hypo (sodium thiosulphate) purchased from a photography shop, I showed them some of the pitfalls of former potion makers. First, I showed them how disappearing ink kept reappearing. You will need hypo, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, and iodine to make it work. The details of this experiment are found online, or also in Vicki Cobbs book, Chemically Active. The potion will first turn inky blue, then go clear then after a short time time will turn inky blue again. A second experiment will involve making rootbeer turn clear (same book). This one is simpler. Fill a bottle with water, then tint to rootbeer colour with iodine. Using double-sided tape or rubber cement, stick a few crystals of hypo to the inside of the lid. When the bottle is shaken, the rootbeer turns to water. Do not drink or allow the kids to handle any of these mixtures. We were going to do a blush test using ammonia and phenophthaline (from the old exlax tablets) but since it has been pulled from the market, I couldn't find any in time for the party. I'm told educational suppliers may carry this, though I haven't found any yet. The idea is that you draw a face on a piece of paper, then paint a phenophthaline solution over the cheeks which will dry clear. Then you wave your want and the face blushes. The wand has a tiny bit of ammonia on the tip to cause the colour change. Class: 1. Dry ice ice cream First we had the kids mix the main ingredients (milk, cream, sugar, vanilla) together in small metal mixing bowls (not their cauldrons). Using dry ice pellets, and warning the kids not to touch them (we supplied disposable dragon hide gloves for them, but also warned them that direct contact for this might work through their gloves), we put several tablespoons of dry ice directly into their cauldrons. We then put their bowl of ingredients on top of that, so that the dry ice sat beneath the bowl and had the kids stir the mixture as it thickened into ice cream. If you prefer more control around the dry ice, you can make a large batch all together in a similar way, giving kids different jobs (adding ingredients, stirring, etc.). We had milk allergies in our group, so some kids used soy milk instead, which is why we kept them separated. The kids were allowed to eat their potions immediately.    Next we asked the kids to .create their own love potions (assorted cake sprinkles, mini kisses, candy hearts, etc. to layer in a spice bottle). We had the ingredients all creatively labelled (see above). When they handed them in for grading; they were given a red envelope full of magnetic words ($ store Valentine's Day themed words) and challenged to make the goofiest sentences possible (they may combine them with other kids). These potions were given back to the kids when they left the party.  Herbology (outside): Decor: I went through my veggie and herb garden and relabelled the plants with Latin plant name labels, as well as a few plant names from the books.  I borrowed an earlier idea from this site. We talked about Jack and the Beanstalk and magic beans, muggle rules /why muggles need to be protected from magic, etc. and then each kid was given one magic bean to plant. We put a bamboo stake in each pot as well. We did this in pairs so that I'd need less greenery etc., and could concentrate on adding more pods later on.  After classes are over they will return to inspect their plants, except these will now be (pre-made) vines that have grown (on bamboo poles-fake vines from the $ store), together with fruit leather pods filled with three or four jellybeans each. I made these second pots ahead to save time.   Divination The room was darkened, and I pulled out my black lights and glowing stars and lightening bolts and decorated the walls. I hung a solar system mobile over the centre of the room as well. The kids sat at a round table in the middle of the room. We tried lemon-juice messages from beyond (invisible ink). I used strips of paper, then using lemon juice, painted secret messages on each, which dried clear. I found that some didn't work as well as they had when I first tried it "it's best to prepare the messages on the same day as possible. We used a candle to decode these, but an iron or hot pad also works. Either way, an adult should be the one holding the message as it gets decoded, esp. in a party situation.  I had a failure as well (thankfully I tried it out ahead). The idea is that you paint messages with alum on uncooked eggs. When the egg is boiled, the alum seeps through the shell and leaves an imprint on the egg inside (invisible from the outside). The kids each choose an egg, then peel it to see their fortune. It didn't work for us, but it might for you (I'm told it's a hit-and-miss sort of experiment). Do not eat the eggs if you try this one!  If all else fails, you can do what we did for our substitute activity, and read messages in milk (in a shallow pan of milk, add a couple of drops of food colour, then a single drop of dish detergent and watch it swirl).   We also gave the kids fortune cookies in this class, which were a hit as the kids compared their fortunes. In the middle of it all, when the kids were comparing fortunes, Professor Trelawny had a real vision about the Triwizard tournament. My mother played it up, using a very husky deep voice (contrasting with the higher pitched voice she'd been using), rolled her eyes around a lot, waved her arms and rocked back and forth, etc. Then, of course, she denied the whole thing.  Both classes came together for Defense against the Dark arts First, they tried out their patronus spells on a picture of a Dementor, then a real one appears, but they know what to do. For the Dementor, we're going for a bit goofy so that the younger kids won't be traumatized. He'll have a huge hood, but a goofy, benign face underneath, and he'll be a bit clumsy as he moves around.  Once they drove away the Dementor, they joined a DADA game in which they must move their head boy on a life-sized game board to their common room from the front door, braving obstacles along the way. Squares are made from standard white cardstock, slipped into page protectors with consequences/challenges on the back of each sheet that are read once the player lands there. The challenges involve some or all members of the team, and include things like pictionary challenges (charades, draw a picture or use playdoh to convey the creature etc. to your teammates without speaking), build a human pyramid, timed trivia questions, scavenging challenges, and of course, duelling challenges in which they must name or invent a counterspell to a given spell, within an allotted time span. One of the scavenger challenges was that the team had to find unmatched pairs of Dobby socks for each member within the allotted time. I'd hidden a few striped socks around theroom, and they had to supplement with their own that they were wearing. We encouraged full team participation so that kids less familiar with the HP world would still be able to participate. Failure on any task means the head kid doesn't advance to that square and must stay put until the next turn. The teams move their head kid across the board using a prepare chess dice (large dice with chess men pictures on sides-pawn (moves one forward or diagonal), bishop-diagonal (limit 2 spaces though), knight, King, rook (again, limit two spaces), Queen (any direction, limit 2 spaces). The fronts of the challenges are labelled with locations throughout Hogwarts castle. This idea is adapted from an earlier one on this site. House points are awarded when various challenges are met. Time killer activities:  Dementor freeze tag using spells to freeze and disarm each other. Moaning Myrtle like blind man's bluff, but with kids moaning like Myrtle.  Triwizard Tournament Task one: get the golden egg from the dragon (outside in my back yard)  An adult helper will dress as the dragon; kids work in teams taking turns to each get themselves an egg (plastic Easter egg); inside each egg is a picture of the person/thing they must rescue in the next task. While the DADA game happens and the dragon looses her eggs, I changed the small bedroom (potions) into an underwater world. I used a revolving blue nursery light, a bubble machine, sand coloured $ store table cloths bunched up on the floor, cutouts of seahorses etc. on the walls (some were hidden behind the bookcases, some on the backs of the bookcases, so simply rotating the cases decorated the walls), and light and dark green crepe paper streamers and stuffed paper fish hung from the ceiling. In this room I'll have hidden the objects the kids need to find (as per their dragon eggs). These will be action figures/dolls/plastic animals, etc. as closely matched to the child's interests as possible. I was going to have an adult dress as a Grindylow, but a couple of the kids were a bit timid, and I ran out of adult helpers.  Once those are found, the next challenge is the maze. This has been built using several refrigerator boxes standing upright, with broomsticks and dowelling duct taped across the top to connect the boxes and extend the walls. From the dowels and broomsticks are hung old bed sheets, tablecloths, etc. to make the walls of the maze. We had some timid kids coming, so it was lit and the kids travelled through it in pairs. Various dead ends lead to strange things-various eree spells that when repeated either cause music to sound, bubbles to appear, or other benign reactions; in one dead end will be Professor Lockheart ready to autograph anything that gets too close, when he isn't peering into his mirror. Another has Aragog (large Halloween spider),but his back is turned as he inspects his web (Halloween webbing). At one point, there will be a misty area (dry ice) and this will be just before the Dementor appears. But the kids had a chance to practice their patronus spells on him earlier in the party, so it wasn't too traumatic (I hope!). At the end of the maze are toy trophies ($ store) or real ones (thrift shop) for everyone who makes it through. Then back to the great hall where the house cup is awarded and cake is served. There was a group tie of course, so the winnings were evenly distributed. This was wizard money made from metallic polymer clay--silver triangular sickles stamped with an s" gold galleons (square with a "g" on one side and a star on the other) and bronze balls to be knuts  The cake was a flat sheet cake with a maze drawn on it. I made this by making fondant icing (I used green) then using a food colouring marker and clean plastic ruler copied on a maze pattern. At various points I added obstacles (creatures etc.) some from the kids toys (plastic snakes and spiders) some made with candy clay. In the middle was the Triwizard cup which I made from a paper bowl cardboard tubing a small cardboard jewelry box (the base) and paper mache (to connect it all together firmly add embellishments and handles) then spray painted gold. Then I made a name plate and stuck that on the front of the base. I filled the bowl with Bertie Botts beans. It was very simple and easy to do but quite effective. When you make your own cake you can be sure of the ingredients. Another cake idea is a wizard hat using several round cakes and inverted ice cream cones for the top. Use a fondant icing to coat then roll out candy clay and cut out stars and lightening bolts from a contrasting colour and decorate. A very large cookie makes a great hat base for this one.  We did not play quidditch this time around though we had pool quidditch in the earlier party. There are many variations on the game that can be found online.  At the end of the party the kids had their love potions triwizard cups and potions booklets to take home with them. They also had the opportunity to shop at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes at the end of the party. I'd made knitted pygmy puffs in various colours (pattern found at the leakycauldron.com) plus they had their choices of fizzing whizbies pixie stix acid pops chocolate frogs (pop rocks and chocolate melted and set in frog candy moulds) and various $ store gag toys.  I kept the pricing simple as the change involved in wizard money gets tricky! "