Saturday was Spencer's 6th birthday party. For the first time ever, I invited not only his classmates from church, but from school. We have taken Colin to a couple of birthday parties for classmates, and usually there were only a couple of kids from the class there, so we didn't expect too many. Not so! We had 9 kids from his school and 5 from church, making a total of 16 kids and 14 adults in our house! I felt a little bad that everyone had to be so crammed together, but they seemed to have fun.
We had fun decorating the house, putting sheets up over furniture and covering them with gold stars, and hanging gray cloth over windows and doorways.
Greg and I dressed up to be Hogwarts professors (I had a black shirt, skirt, and witches' hat with a feather, and Greg was wearing a graduation gown), and Spencer was in his Harry Potter costume from Halloween. We had invited children to dress up, and we had a couple of Harry Potters, a Hermione, an Aragog, and a Colin Creevey.
When the children arrived, we greeted them, gave them a Hogwarts badge, and sent them to select a wand from Ollivander's. Greg had the brilliant idea of using Spencer's arcade shooting game for testing wands, since he'd discovered that our remote control set it off. He'd have the kids choose a wand and stand in front of it, and then he'd press the remote behind his back while they said "Wingardium Leviosa," and the can would go flying. It was a big hit, and the kids wanted to do it over and over again.
(see the can flying?)
Next, Greg did a magic trick for the kids to welcome them to Hogwarts, and explain a little about what we were going to do.
Then we had Potions class, where the kids gathered around the table and got to make their own potions (with help from many adults - I sure appreciated all the parents who were helping out wherever they could!!). First they poured Magic Elixir (Sprite) into their cups, added an Aragog Egg (Mentos), added a pinch of Phoenix powder (gold Koolaid that turned the drink red), added a pinch of Lava, Fire, or Merweed Crystals (pop rocks), and then had a whole bunch of other powders and gummies (like eyeballs and froglegs and worms) they could add. They stirred the drink with Dragon Tongues (Twizzlers), and many of them wanted to drink the whole thing!
After potions class was Transfigurations and Care of Magical Creatures. Greg took a handful of uninflated balloons and showed them to the kids, telling them they were Flobberworms, but we were going to transform them into dogs.
He had the kids say "Engorgio!" while he blew up a balloon, and then he brought out a bunch of balloons and taught the kids (and parents) how to make a balloon animal. They did surprisingly well. For Care of Magical creatures, he told them not to pop them. (;
Charms class was next, which entailed taking turns with one kid standing on a chair and saying a spell, and the other kids having to act accordingly - "Immobulus" made them freeze, "Rennervate" brought them back to normal," "Ridikulus" made them act silly, "Stupefy" made them fall to the ground, and "Wingardium Leviosa" made them float and fly. They really liked that, too, and were sad when we had to move them on to the next activity.
(You can see some stupefied kids on the ground here)
The last spell we taught the kids was "Expecto Patronum" so they could do Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was defeating a Dementor pinata, which I had made out of a pirate pinata.
Now, Greg and I don't usually care for pinatas, since kids get all grabby and greedy and some kids are left with nothing, but it really fit the theme. I had a big bowl of candy set aside to make sure that EVERY kid got plenty in the end.
Next was Divinations, where the kids got to guess what was going to be in the presents Spencer opened. That was the idea, anyway, but it turned into "Whose present is this?," so we could keep track of who gave what (in the unlikely event that I'll actually be together enough to send thank-you cards. If you went to the party, know that we appreciate you!).
Finally was the Great Feast, consisting of Wizard and Star cupcakes and ice cream, and of course singing to the birthday boy.
It was loads of fun, but we were exhausted afterwards. If only we knew a good cleanup spell!
We had fun decorating the house, putting sheets up over furniture and covering them with gold stars, and hanging gray cloth over windows and doorways.
Greg and I dressed up to be Hogwarts professors (I had a black shirt, skirt, and witches' hat with a feather, and Greg was wearing a graduation gown), and Spencer was in his Harry Potter costume from Halloween. We had invited children to dress up, and we had a couple of Harry Potters, a Hermione, an Aragog, and a Colin Creevey.
When the children arrived, we greeted them, gave them a Hogwarts badge, and sent them to select a wand from Ollivander's. Greg had the brilliant idea of using Spencer's arcade shooting game for testing wands, since he'd discovered that our remote control set it off. He'd have the kids choose a wand and stand in front of it, and then he'd press the remote behind his back while they said "Wingardium Leviosa," and the can would go flying. It was a big hit, and the kids wanted to do it over and over again.
(see the can flying?)
Next, Greg did a magic trick for the kids to welcome them to Hogwarts, and explain a little about what we were going to do.
Then we had Potions class, where the kids gathered around the table and got to make their own potions (with help from many adults - I sure appreciated all the parents who were helping out wherever they could!!). First they poured Magic Elixir (Sprite) into their cups, added an Aragog Egg (Mentos), added a pinch of Phoenix powder (gold Koolaid that turned the drink red), added a pinch of Lava, Fire, or Merweed Crystals (pop rocks), and then had a whole bunch of other powders and gummies (like eyeballs and froglegs and worms) they could add. They stirred the drink with Dragon Tongues (Twizzlers), and many of them wanted to drink the whole thing!
After potions class was Transfigurations and Care of Magical Creatures. Greg took a handful of uninflated balloons and showed them to the kids, telling them they were Flobberworms, but we were going to transform them into dogs.
He had the kids say "Engorgio!" while he blew up a balloon, and then he brought out a bunch of balloons and taught the kids (and parents) how to make a balloon animal. They did surprisingly well. For Care of Magical creatures, he told them not to pop them. (;
Charms class was next, which entailed taking turns with one kid standing on a chair and saying a spell, and the other kids having to act accordingly - "Immobulus" made them freeze, "Rennervate" brought them back to normal," "Ridikulus" made them act silly, "Stupefy" made them fall to the ground, and "Wingardium Leviosa" made them float and fly. They really liked that, too, and were sad when we had to move them on to the next activity.
(You can see some stupefied kids on the ground here)
The last spell we taught the kids was "Expecto Patronum" so they could do Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was defeating a Dementor pinata, which I had made out of a pirate pinata.
Now, Greg and I don't usually care for pinatas, since kids get all grabby and greedy and some kids are left with nothing, but it really fit the theme. I had a big bowl of candy set aside to make sure that EVERY kid got plenty in the end.
Next was Divinations, where the kids got to guess what was going to be in the presents Spencer opened. That was the idea, anyway, but it turned into "Whose present is this?," so we could keep track of who gave what (in the unlikely event that I'll actually be together enough to send thank-you cards. If you went to the party, know that we appreciate you!).
Finally was the Great Feast, consisting of Wizard and Star cupcakes and ice cream, and of course singing to the birthday boy.
It was loads of fun, but we were exhausted afterwards. If only we knew a good cleanup spell!
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