A Trial Day at Hogwarts

Yesterday was Mitchell's long awaited Harry Potter birthday party!  His 10-11 year old friends were invited to a "Trial Day at Hogwarts."  We decorated the house with black streamers and as many candles as I could safely get away with.  Upon arrival, they were given a simple burgundy and gold striped scarf, homemade by me.  Layering fleece around your neck is NOT what we would typically be sporting for triple-digit temperatures in August, but no one seemed to mind too much.  This was the easiest way I could come up with to give them the "wizarding student" look without sewing tons of black cloaks.  (I even thought of matching t-shirts, but this was still much cheaper.  Me likey the cheap.)

WANDS -  as everyone was arriving, the boys got started on their first class.  Each had a 12" dowel that they drizzled hot glue all over to give it those characteristic lumps and bumps of natural wood.  (I operated the hot glue gun, they twisted and turned their dowel to choose where it went.)  Then they picked a color to paint over the whole thing and TA DA - a personalized magic wand!

POTIONS - the next class was extremely fun.  I found easy instructions online to make your own slime.  Each boy had a little set of supplies and mixed up a cup of goo!  It was great to see their reactions as the potion started to clump up right before their eyes.  After playing with it for a little bit, they got an airtight container to take it home in.

CARE OF MAGICAL CREATURES - Next it was time to feed the dragon.  I had my husband draw this frightening creature on foam board and cut out a hole for the mouth.  I had the boys stand behind a line and try to toss little bean bags into the dragon's mouth.  The winner with the most points got a box of candy.

DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS - Always the most interesting class at Hogwarts, don't you think?  For this one we learned 2 ways to fight off the bad guys.  First was to set off bombs to stun them.  Not based on the real stories, yet seemed to fit the bill nicely!  We took this one outside... hee hee.  The boys each got a film canister filled halfway with water.  You drop an Alka-Seltzer tablet inside and quickly put the lid on, then set it lid-side down in the middle of the street.  In about 2 seconds it blows the canister up to 50 feet in the air.  When it works, it was REALLY exciting!  It took some practice, but most of them were able to get a little explosion.  Eventually, most of them chose to just throw the canister in the air and let it pop up there.  They LOVED this, and we did it over and over again until I was all out of Alka-Seltzer.

Our second part of Defense Against the Dark Arts was practicing the Patronus charm.  (This is the charm that  wards off the Dementors - who suck all the happiness out of your soul - scary guys!)  By now their wands were dry, so we used them to whack at some "Dementor" pinatas that I made from scratch out of paper mache.  These pictures didn't turn out too great, but the pinatas were quite cute with their long black streamers, they really seemed to flow and fly like the real thing.  After some major wand-whacking, everyone grabbed up their candy and it was time for dinner!

DINNER - We sat in the "Great Hall" which was my dining table with some tall candles and black plates and black napkins.  In the middle of the table were some gourmet jelly beans (to represent the "every flavor beans" from the Harry Potter books, although ours tasted just great!)  The boys had Mrs. Weasley's cheezy wheezy pizza, some pumpkin peels (Doritos) and goblin eyes (grapes.)  I was so excited to find these little mugs at the dollar store to serve our butterbeer in.  The butterbeer was cream soda with a spoonful of butterscotch syrup mixed in.  Cheers!

HOGWARTS CASTLE CAKE -  My talented sister Angie came over earlier in the day to build and decorate this beautiful cake for us.  She worked SOOO hard on it for nearly 4 hours, and it turned out fabulous!  Unfortunately my husband smeared the writing when he got it out of the freezer, so I don't have ANY pictures in its original state of perfection.  AAUUUGH!  In the long run it hardly mattered, because Mitchell loved it and it still tasted great!

She even painstakingly made the writing look just like the book covers!

...After our huge feast, the birthday boy opened a few presents and they all settled down to watch one of the Harry Potter movies.  The lights were low, the boys were still and quiet, and eventually they grabbed their bags of pinata candy to snack on.  The next few hours were a nice relief from the wild chaos that was the first few hours!!!  Afterwards I felt as if I had 2 broken ankles (from being on my feet all day.)  And in true motherly fashion I can honestly say, it was worth all the pain because they had the BEST TIME!!!

Happy 11th Birthday to my little man!