Harry Potter birthday party

Molly read the first Harry Potter book last winter and fell in love.  When her birthday started to get close she decided that she wanted a Harry Potter party.  I'm not much of a party planner or a hostess so I didn't really know what I was going to do but once I started looking around online the party all came together and turned out pretty fun.  We made homemade invitations.  I just typed up something that sounded like an acceptance letter to Hogwarts with the details of the party and glued them to some medieval-looking scrapbook paper.  All of Molly's friends came except one little girl so we had a total of 9 girls, Stockton and Rhys, and Brynn.

left to right: Kaylen Burton, Chloe Walker, Elise Jones, Jade Boynton, Molly, Rebecca Greer, Abby Moyes, Hailey Fawson, Rhys Howard, Stockton, Hazel Howard

Our first activity was to decorate witch hats.  I had already formed the construction paper into hats so they just glued some felt and stickers to their hats.

 

You can't have a Harry Potter party without a sorting so that's what we did next.  Molly had chosen before the party which house everyone would be sorted into.  Justin did the sorting.

Stockton and Rhys

 

Here we have Gryffindor:

Brynn, Dad, Molly, Kaylen, Mom, Hailey

Hufflepuff:

Brynn, Chloe, Elise, Hazel
(Don't know how Brynn made it into two houses!)

Ravenclaw:

Jade, Rebecca, Abby

And Slytherin:

Grandma, Stockton, Rhys, Grandpa

After the sorting we had Potions class.  Justin played the part of Professor Snape, although he was loads nicer!  I had whipped up some potions that they passed around to look at and smell.  Some of them even got brave and tasted them!

Molly, Stockton, Hazel

I just used ingredients around the house and gave them a potion-like name.  Grass with water=gillyweed, honey=syrup of Hellebore, red wine vinegar=truth serum, baking soda=horn of bicorn, rock salt=crystallized fairy breath, maple syrup=acromantula venom, black beans=bat eyes, dried prunes=dried beetles, water with purple food coloring and bay leaves=dream fluid.  I had fun putting that together!

My dad brought all his ingredients for slime so that's what we did for potions class.  Everyone made their own individual portion and then they got to take it home.

Rhys and Stockton

Chloe, Molly, Brynn

 We took a break from the Harry Potter stuff next for Molly to open her presents.  It was fun to see Molly's excitement and everyone else's excitement as they crowded around her.  She got some art supplies, girl Legos, makeup, butterfly magnets that she could paint and decorate herself, a mannequin and hair supplies to style its hair, and a backpack that she could color.

 

After Molly got a good look at all her goods and we got everyone settled down again, we had the cupcakes. I am no where close to being a cake decorator but these turned out cute.  Cauldron cakes:

They're supposed to look like witch cauldrons.

Molly got sung to and she blew out her candles.

They were gooey and chocolaty so there were lots of messy faces.  Yum!

Stockton and Rhys
(Yes, these two boys were inseparable.)

Next up was a treasure hunt for the Sorcerer's Stone.  Justin and my dad snuck outside while we were eating cupcakes and hid our treasures.  There were just bugs and spiders and glow sticks (wands) all over the grass in the front, side, and back of our house.  It was funny to watch them all search together in a little pack.

Also hidden was the Sorcerer's Stone, which was really just a red yo-yo.  It worked out perfectly that the birthday girl found it with no help from anyone.  It was hidden in our power socket next to the garage.

Our last game of the party was "Pin the Scar on Harry."  I found an image of Harry Potter online, printed it, and took it to a print shop where they blew it up really big for $3.  Cool, huh?  I printed yellow lightning-bolt scars for the kids to try to pin on his forehead.  It was a nice day so we played outside.  I think the space ended up being a little too big because some of the kids were pretty far away.  Molly went first and was pretty embarrassed about where she placed her scar.

But she cheered up and felt better when she saw where some of the others had ended up.

Elise, Jade, Rebecca, Hailey, Kaylen, Stockton, Chloe, Hazel, Abby, Molly

That was the end of the games but before everyone left they got to fill their goody bags.  I had set up a table of treats that you would find at Honeydukes, the wizarding candy shop.  I picked everything up at the dollar store.  Blow pops=acid pops, Pop Rocks=pop rocks, pixie sticks=sweet sticks, white chocolate dipped pretzel rods (dipped by me)=edible wands, candy corn=werewolf fangs, grape kool-aid=polyjuice potion (we had this with the cupcakes), bubble gum balls=Droobles best blowing gum, gummy worms=jelly slugs, gummy frogs=gummy frogs, lemonheads=Dumbledore's favorite lemon drops, licorice=licorice wands, jelly beans=Bertie's every flavor beans.  They each left with one of each, or a scoop of each and that was their party favor, along with their slime, their witch hat, and anything they found during the treasure hunt.

And that was the party.  Phew!  I breathed a big sigh of relief that it was over and that we pulled it off without a glitch.  The timing was perfect, too.  We ended right as all the parents starting coming to pick up their kids.  I think Molly and all of her friends had a great time.  I know that I really enjoyed it!

Now, I did Molly's interview in the last post but I didn't jot down a few things about Molly that I'd like to remember.  So, I'll do it here.

-If you know Molly you know that one of her loves is to read.  She will read pretty much anything.  Right now these are the chapter books that she has been reading: Ivy and Bean, The Boxcar Children, The Babysitter's Little Sisters, The Secrets of Droon, Judy Moody, Junie B. Jones, and the American Girl Doll books.  She just keeps them up on her bed and chooses whatever she feels like reading.  I still read to her at night but we get through our books much slower than she does on her own.

-And let's talk about her love for Harry Potter.  Like I said, I finally let her read the first book last winter.  We actually read it together and then watched the movie.  I told her that she could read the second one when she turned 7.  She started it pretty soon after her birthday and read it by herself pretty quickly.  We are currently reading it together but when we only read about 5 pages each night, it goes quite a bit slower.  We did watch the second movie together last week and she was super excited about that.  I told her she could read the third book when she turned 8 but she got sneaky and checked it out from the school library last time her class went.

-Molly can be so shy, especially around grown-ups.  If an adult talks to her she shrinks down and answers them in a very timid way.  However, there are a few grown-ups in our neighborhood that she is not shy with and will go on and on and tell them about anything and everything (Rhys and Hazel's mom, Carver's mom, my two RS counselors, and Corbyn's dad are the one's I've noticed her come out of her shell with a little more).

-She is also really worried about messing up or looking silly around other people.  She decided to try ballet this year and at the end of class they do "free dance" where the teacher turns on music and the girls just dance around the room, doing whatever they want.  This is really hard for Molly.  She is really worried about doing it wrong or looking silly so she just kind of stands in the corner and occasionally will do a leap or something.  I can totally relate to this because I feel the same way in similar situations but we are trying to give her incentive to be a little more brave, a little less worried about what others think. (Her incentive is a new game for her LeapPad.)

-Molly gets home from school everyday and goes up to our room to watch her show, which is usually Jessie.

-Molly is a good distracter for Stockton and Brynn.  They start to fight or get whiny and a lot of times, if she's home, she'll think up a game for them to play.

-It's been so nice as Molly has gotten a little more grown-up in the last couple of years, that she will eat almost anything I put in front of her for dinner.  It makes dinner-time a little easier to have at least 1/3rd of my kids actually eat without a fuss!

-Molly has a hard time falling asleep at night.  She'll often stay up reading for an hour or more once we put her in bed.  Every three or four days it catches up to her and we'll give her some melatonin so that she can get to sleep.
-I think Molly's favorite thing to do at recess is play on the monkey bars.  I'm not there to see it but her hands have the callouses to prove it!

My mind is drawing a blank!  I'm sure there are many more things I can mention but that's all for now!  Molly is really a sweet girl who always tries hard to choose the right.  She is so nice to others and sensitive about their feelings and doesn't understand why anyone is ever rude.  When we found out we were having a girl first I thought that was so wierd (both Justin and I have brothers as our oldest siblings) but I love having Molly as my oldest child.  She is growing up and getting more and more mature and she is a great example to her brother and sister.  We love her to pieces!! 

**Molly took a blogging hiatus but she did post about the Halloween party we had in Plain City here.