Harry Potter 8 year old party.
My son is a huge Harry Potter fan, as are many of his friends, so it was no big surprise that he wanted a Harry Potter themed party for his 8th birthday in February 2006. Almost everyone he invited was able to come, so we ended up with 11 boys and 4 girls, all 7-8 years old, plus our 6-year-old daughter. We found a lot of great ideas here and elsewhere on the web, and we found some good deals on ebay for supplies. I used parchment-type paper for the invitations, and I downloaded the Hogwarts school crest and a font called GǣMagic School One that worked better than the actual Harry Potter font. I used green ink to make it look like an official invitation from Hogwarts. In addition to the crest, the letterhead included the words HOGWART'S SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY, Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE, Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards. Here is the wording for the rest of the invitation: Dear Mr.guest'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 Potions, Transfiguration, Divination, Care of Magical Creatures and Quidditch training (broom skills). There will also be a special Birthday Feast in honor of Gryffindor House's newest Head Boy, birthday child's name, International Confederation of Prefects, Honorary Junior Mugwump. The birthday feast will feature treats from Honeyduke's Sweete Shoppe in Hogsmeade. Classes will begin at the stroke of 2:00 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday, February 25, 2006. Please take the Hogwarts Express train to our address, currently disguised as a Muggle (non-wizard) home. 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. If you miss the Hogwarts Express and must arrive by way of Muggle vehicle (car), feel free to dress in non-wizard clothing. Gryffindor House colors of scarlet and gold are recommended, but optional. If you are unable to respond by Owl, please reply via the Muggle telephony system at XXX-XXXX. We look forward to your arrival at Hogwarts. Sincerely, my name, Deputy Headmistress of Frolic and Feasts, Hogwarts Academy. We hand delivered as many invitations as possible. We put the letters in matching envelopes, and I wrote the guests names on them in green calligraphy, and I sealed them with green wax and a letter N stamp, which we already had. Otherwise an H for Hogwarts would have worked well. We delivered each with an owl feather, which were actually goose feathers. For those we couldn't hand-deliver, I found some cool Chinese New Year stamps that had creatures like snakes and dragons on them. On the day of the party, my son and husband made signs to hang on either side of the front door reading Platform 9 and Platform 10. We also put some black and silver balloons out front. Due to some construction, part of our yard was off-limits to guests, so they also made signs to hang on the fence reading Forbidden Forest, Peril Awaits Those Who Dare Enter and my son painted large fir trees on these. Inside, we hung a Hogwarts Academy banner from the top of the stairs and decorated our foyer and living room with a Harry Potter balloon, more black and silver balloons, and lots of streamers. The dining room was the Gryffindor table, so we used red and gold balloons and streamers and the HP Literary style party supplies. We also used a lot of Halloween decorations around the rooms, such as a huge spider (Aragog) in a web on our staircase and several cool lights a blue one that looks like lightning, a weird disco ball, lava lamp, a black cat that moves, etc. I played one of the HP soundtracks for background music. My husband and I both wore our black college graduation robes, and I wore a witch's hat, so we looked rather official. For his birthday, I had bought a nice red/gold HP quidditch shirt on ebay for our son, so he wore that with black pants. Many of the guests wore red/gold and a few wore wizard robes too. Some of the parents stayed to help out. As soon as guests arrived, we invited them to the Gryffindor House (our dining room, with the table extended as long as we could make it) and set them to work decorating their own wands. My husband had cut, routered, sanded and stained sturdy dowel rods in various shades and shapes. We made a big deal of the kids selecting theirs, finding the right one, etc. I found some oversize gold and silver pushpins which they used to fasten gold or silver ribbon to one end of the wand. They decorated them with star stickers and put their initials on them. Next was Divination Class, where the guests made those folded paper fortune tellers that you open and close with your fingers. I had already cut some brightly colored paper to the proper square shape. We had the kids write color names like gold, scarlet, bronze, or midnight on the top layer and numbers inside. We provided everyone with a list of potential fortunes, and some added their own, which matched the number inside the fortune tellers. They had a lot of fun reading each other's fortune: 1. A Basilisk (snake like monster) 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. Watch for an Owl from someone in this school who has a crush on you. 8. The Weasley brothers will hire you to test their new joke shop products. You will never be the same! 9. You will live a very long life, but as a werewolf. Beware of full moons! Oooooooowwwww. 10. Congratulations! You will receive 10 Outstanding O.W.L.S. and be made a Prefect. Next, we moved to the living room floor for a couple of games. My son has Harry Potter UNO cards, so we used those for a game of Basilisk Stare. Each guest drew one card, peeked at it and then hid it. Whoever drew the card with Professor Snape on it was the Basilisk, a snake-like creature who could turn people to stone with its evil stare. The children all stared into each others eyes. The Basilisk blinked both eyes at its victims, who then silently counted to 10 and turned to stone (collapsed on the floor). Some actually gave agonizing screams before collapsing! When someone who had not been blinked at was able to figure out the Basilisk's identity, the game started over. We next held Transfiguration Class, which was really a game of Who Am I? I had downloaded photos of some of the most famous HP characters and creatures, glued these on index cards and written the names on them, plus some helpful hints. I taped one to the back of everyone's shirt (careful to only give the female characters to the girls!), and they had to figure out who they had been transfigured into by asking each other questions. While my husband and some of the other parents supervised this game, I prepared the next activity, Potions Class, which was a favorite. The wands and fortune-tellers were put in a large basket, and the dining room table was cleared off, and the kids sat or stood around it. Each was given a clear plastic cup, and I set a large black plastic witch's cauldron in the center of the table. Another Halloween item which works great for HP parties! I had placed the following potion ingredients in large black plastic cups with labels on them: o Mandrake Root pretzel sticks (for stirring) o Basilisk Venom - red cabbage juice (start with this red liquid) o Boomslang - powdered laundry soap (add next, turns liquid green) o Leech Juice vinegar (add next, turns liquid pink ) o Horn of a Bicorn - baking soda (add next, turns liquid blue and makes it bubble) o Powdered Root of Asphodel - pop rocks (adds more fizz) o Shrivel Fig yellow raisins (no real effect, add any time) o Blood Worms gummy worms (no real effect, add any time or EAT!) o Hinky Punk Hearts sundried cherries (no real effect, add any time) o Scorpion Stingers lemon peel (no real effect, add any time) The parents and I passed around the ingredients and gave each child an appropriate amount, so that their potions changed colors and fizzed and bubbled, but did not go all over the floor! They enjoyed adding more and more of the vinegar and baking soda, stirring with their pretzel sticks, so that it really bubbled up. At the end, they all poured their cups into the cauldron. It foamed and stunk quite appropriately! After Potions Class, my husband and a couple of the parents took the kids outside for Magical Creatures/Dragon Taming Class, which was actually a dragon pinata. My husband had made a large dowel rod or broom stick into a very large wand to use for hitting the pinata. The next outdoor activity was a treasure hunt which we turned into a trip to Diagon Alley for school supplies for next term. Before the party we had hid ten piles of treasures around the yard, and quests were given a list of school supplies and assigned partners to go hunting. Each child was instructed to only pick up the appropriate number of items 3 gold galleons (chocolate coins), 2 quills (feathers), snakes and frogs (rubber toys), spider rings, crystals (red heart-shaped stones), 3 glow-in-the-dark stars for Astronomy Class, etc. All of these items except the chocolate coins and HP pencils were leftover from Halloween and a previous birthday party. The guests just added them to their ziplock bags of pinata loot. Then the kids played Patrificus Mobilus, which was really just a good old-fashioned game of freeze tag. We tried to hold Quidditch practice, which was broom stick relay races, where the kids hit balloons with their broom sticks through hula hoops, but it was a windy day, so that got a bit wild. I had two smaller witch's brooms left from Halloween, so those did worked nicely. We headed back to the Gryffindor table for the birthday feast. I set the table with candlesticks, lit candles in wall sconces, and turned down the lights on the chandelier above the table. We used gold plates and forks, HP Literary napkins and clear red plastic cups, so it looked pretty formal. Another idea would have been to attach GITD stars to the ceiling or hang them, but that didn't work well in our dining room. I made a Hogwarts castle cake using two chocolate cakes cut into various square, rectangular and round shapes and stacked. I added regular colored and sugar ice cream cones for turrets, topped by flags of the four house colors, white chocolate bar windows, and a brown chocolate bar/pretzel stick drawbridge, gumdrops, candy-coated Hershey's kisses, etc. for decorations. My son added a small toy tree with a blue Hotwheels car to represent the Whomping willow tree. With eight sparkler candles on top, it really looked great! I had cleaned the potion ingredients out of the cauldron, and I filled it up with Iced Pumpkin Juice (orange sherbet and Sprite soda). Some of the kids really thought they were drinking the potion they had made earlier! Ewww. While the kids were eating cake, ice cream and drinking their punch, my son passed around a bag of Bertie Bott's every flavored beans, and quite a few of the boys were brave enough to try some. A couple of friends helped me clean up, and my husband led one final game we called Levitation Class, where the kids just sat in a circle and tried to keep balloons in the air. They loved this. We ran out of time for a planned a game of Who's Hedwig? It is similar to Marco Polo. Once child is selected to be Harry and is blindfolded. The children sit in a circle with Harry in the center. Another child is secretly selected to be Hedwig and is given a feather to hold. All the children begin making animals noises squeaking, squawking, etc. Hedwig hoots like an owl, and Harry tries to find him. Then the child who was Hedwig moves to the center to play Harry and the game starts over. Our son opened his gifts by pointing his wand at a guest, who would pick his or her gift out of a pile and bring it to him. This worked great for me, as I was able to easily keep track of who brought what. I used some leftover treat bags from a previous party that were clear with gold stars on them. The treat bags held red plastic fortune telling fish, disappearing ink pens, party poppers, Fizzing Whizzbees, Acid Pops, HP pencils, the pinata and scavenger hunt goodies, and of course guests also took home their wands and fortune-tellers. Three of my son's best friends, who are all HP fans, spent the night. We took them out for pizza, then back to our house for a game of HP Scene-It and watching the latest movie. They had fun using their wands to cast spells on each other during the movie. For thank you notes, I made up a report card for each child for the period ending date of party, using the same parchment paper and letterhead as the invitations. They all got grades of Outstanding in classes: Charms (making wands), Teacher: Flitwick; Divination (making fortune-tellers), Teacher: Trelawney; Defense against Dark Arts (Basilisk stare game), Teacher: Snape; Transfiguration (Who am I game?), Teacher: McGonagall; Potions, Teacher: Slughorn; Levitation (balloon game), Teacher: Hooch; Magical Creatures (dragon pinata taming), Teacher: Hagrid; Enchantment (fun & friendship), Teacher: our family name. My son wrote in a special thank you to each guest for their gift and for coming to the party. The following was printed at the bottom of each report card: Hogwarts staff congratulates you on your outstanding grades! Note: Next week's Gryffindor house password will be: carpe diem (car-pay D-M). Ask your parents what this means! We included a photo of all the guests from the party and put them in envelopes decorated with HP stickers. Even the kids who were not big HP fans before the party had a blast, and from what I hear, they are still talking about how much fun it was. As a side note, we used the leftover HP supplies for his school classroom party, and I made wizard cupcakes. I frosted the sugar cones bright purple (the Wilton food color gels work great for vibrant colors) and added star-shaped sprinkles. I covered chocolate cupcakes with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and then placed the purple wizard hats on top. The kids added mini chocolate chip faces to the ice cream. They turned out pretty cute.
