The Harry Potter Birthday Party

Here is a quick overview of the Harry Potter birthday party I threw a few weeks ago. Remember, I am not a professional party planner, but these ideas were great for the 8 year olds I threw it for.

The invite:

They were greeted at the front door with this:

And brought into the Great Hall, where some of the activities took place:

We started by choosing and decorating wands.  I simply took dowels and drew some designs on the "handle" with a sharpie. They took markers and colored to made their wands unique! I wish I got a picture of the finished result..they were awesome.

I also printed Harry Potter glasses out (I can't find the link, but I will link up when I do find them!) and had each of them cut their own out..this was a great time saver for me...and it was fun for them.  I then glued them onto a dowel..and we took pictures as a group for the thank you card that will go out.

Next, I told them while I was preparing to dip the chocolate frogs, the frogs all jumped out into the backyard. I put a freezing spell on them. Now they just needed to find them all..(all 80 of them!)  This ended up being one of their favorite activities..There are a lot of rocks in my backyard and these frogs blended right in.

Potions class was next. We made Dragon Toothpaste and then a Wizard's Magic Rainbow. Both were really big hits.

Quidditch was next outside. We used chairs with hula hoops attached for the goals and balls of differing sizes for the different balls. We used a super bouncy ball for the snitch. This was great to get their energy out..and a fun way to do something physical.

It was then time for cake and presents..

And along with their wands, glasses and frogs, each person took home some sweet snitches (lemonheads)!  Super simple and fun.

And that was it! It went so smoothly..(it helped that I had so many activities planned)..and the kids had a great time.  Best of all, my son was happy with the end result, and for me..that is all that mattered!