Welcome to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry - a Harry Potter party for a boy turning eight

Back in March my boy turned eight. He had just read his way through all seven Harry Potter books over the Christmas holidays and most of his mates were reading too so this party theme was set. Like all our parties this one needed to be created mostly from what we had around the house and after stumbling across a few awesome HarryPotter party ideas on Pinterest we had a plan.

Invitations were sent out to his mates inviting them back to a new term at Hogwarts. He has one friend with red hair, one friend who is a girl, one who loves frogs, two who are pranksters and one who is happy to be the bad guy so welcome Ron, Hermione, Neville, Fred and George Weasley and Draco Malfoy. Little sister was keen to be Dobbie the house elf but refused to garb up in a pillowcase so came in her Christmas elf suit with embellishments.

First up we had a sorting hat ceremony. I quickly sewed some felt onto a witches hat from our dress up box. We poked a mobile phone into the mouth hole and lo and behold as each hat passed from head to head it told everyone which house they would be in. Lots of Gryffindors obviously!

Then it was off to Ollivanders to choose a wand. We made the wands out of tightly rolled paper, spray painted and embellished with hot glue ( I found a tutorial somewhere on Youtube). Phoenix feathers optional.

Then it was straight into our first class, Care of Magical creatures. I rounded up all appropriate creatures from the toy boxes and hid them around the garden. When all creatures were located we had a quiz that determined the security code for Gringotts bank. Once the code had been cracked each wizard received their stash of Galleons to spend later at Honeydukes.

The wizard who located Neville's toad also received the first Golden Snitch of the party. As packs of Ferrero Rochers come in five's, we only had this many so they were highly coveted and an incentive to win games.

Next up was what turned out to be the absolute highlight of the entire party. Potions class. Basically lots of bottles full of vinegar with different food colourings and lots of gruesome names. Add that to bicarb of soda powder aka powdered unicorn horn and lots of sludgy, sloppy, foul slurries in various colours and a selection of beans and seeds and a mortar and pestle or two. My personal favourite was pearl tapioca cooked up with a dash of pink colouring which made spectacular pufferfish eyes.

We had a few lessons in particular potions from Professor Snape (Legoman in a wig) and then we left them to it to concoct the most disgusting foul potion. Another golden snitch for the winner of the most foul and as everything was edible they all had to try their concoctions as well- this led to hysteria interspersed with gagging.

So for the next hour there was much grinding,

 mixing and sloshing. I had stuck a massive black tarp down on the lounge room floor but of course it was nowhere near big enough.

Lets not forget the tasting,

and the collaborative creating. They used up every last Ashwinder egg, rat tail, unicorn horn and pufferfish egg available.

 It was essentially every eight year old's idea of awesome ( that's Legoman's old Harry Potter set in the background, this is the first birthday in years where the birthday boy did not receive Lego).

The cleanup was also interesting.

Then it was time for some Quidditch. I had nabbed the cardboard rolls from leftover fabric rolls at Spotlight, the staff were happy to let me take a few home and they made great broomsticks without concern of broken limbs if anyone got too enthusiastic.

With seven kids it is the perfect number for Muggle Quidditch. Two beaters, two chasers, two blockers and one seeker. Poor Legoman had to run fast as he was the snitch.

And then we staggered home to spend those hard earned galleons at Honeydukes. I had written a full list with prices for each item and the kids took it all very seriously as they calculated which treats they could afford.

And only Legoman could cope with the tedious job of cutting out and assembling those Bertie Bots ever flavour beans packets that I found as a free printable.

And then finally a slab of the fastest cake I have ever slapped together at the last possible minute.

And that is how we do a Harry Potter party. Thank goodness I now have nine months to recover before the next one rolls around. I am wondering though if this may be then end of the road for parties for my boy, in which case it is good to go out with a bang. And this was all he wanted, this eight year old of mine.

Cookie and Jet, welcome to the menagerie.

Australia day heroes

It was a public holiday today, a day off work and school to celebrate the greatness of our wonderful country. Apparently that necessitated  an entire post school afternoon of costume design and production. Actually the whole week involved intense discussions about planning the ultimate water bomb fight, secret codes for signaling the start of the bombing and requirements of action hero costume production for said fight.

I have mentioned before that our street really gets into parties. Last year two local streets combined to celebrate Australia Day with a barbie on the lawn which later degenerated into a waterfight between the Menace brothers and some older kids. So this year, they were planning a revenge assault, covert of course.
My stash of lycra, sequin and satin fabrics was raided, copious safety pins used and look what we knocked together while grieving the fact that holidays were over and school was back.

This was the trial run with the water blasting machines. Before we prepared the water bombs. Let me just say that there was no time for photos at the actual party but copious water bombs were dispatched and our old street is the perfect slope for a slip and slide. And not the shop bought kind, the original slip and slide with 3 tarps joined together and a whole bottle of diswashing liquid.  If only I had managed to get that photo of Roboboy skidding down on his knees, cape flying behind him.

I did manage to nab this one though. Can I preface it by mentioning that dirt is really good for the  immune system.

It has been raining a lot here this week. Some areas of Queensland have flooded, again. Many children have been cooped up in new classrooms going slightly crazy. This started out as a simple play in a puddle across the road in gumboots. And then the Menace brothers came home from school.

Then all of a sudden there is a mud pit, sliding area, mud pies, gumboots being used as mud carrying vessels and mud body paint. All over. I suspect the Menace brother's mother was wishing she had chosen after school sports that day. Or perhaps even that we had not moved in 18 months ago.

Me, I'm just hoping all that mud washes out of that brand new school uniform. The socks unfortunately could not be salvaged. But the memories........ priceless.

Pinkety Pink Party

Happy, happy day to my pink loving tutu wearing girl. She is loud, she is fearless, she will try anything that the big boys try, and she really loves pink, and tutus, and tea parties. She wanted an Angelina Ballerina fairy princess party. The invites did not actually mention pink but suggested wearing a tutu or fairy dress. Since I didn't have a blog when she was a baby, here is a tiny snippet of the last three years.

When you were ONE I baked you a Rainbow Fish. I like to make up my own designs, the only two rules being maximal colour and maximal lolly coverage. Here are Roboboy's birthday cakes.

When you were TWO ....

the party you had been talking about for weeks, or was it months, was rained out and postponed three times. We celebrated with your best friend and a very last minute cake. You thought it was fantastic.

 When you were THREE we invited your best friends for girls only tea party.

And I baked you a Fairy Princess cake. The actual idea came at about 11 pm the night before the party, hence the more slap dash than usual icing.

We were so lucky to have our big kid neighbours on holidays, and BORED. They begged me to come and help out at the party. They help put faces on goody bag gingerbread men, dolloped cream onto scones, hung balloons, lay out more pink food than you could imagine, hid lollies, ran the lolly hunt and pass the parcel and that oldest Menace brother even donned a pink rabbit costume and brought his pet mouse and budgie over for extra entertainment.

Apparently you cannot tyre swing without constant squealing and giggling.

Nothing better than just hanging around with all your mates.

And best of all....... PRESENTS.

HAPPY BIG THREE my gorgeous girl. I think there are going to be a whole lot more tea parties going on over here.