You have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

When Savannah and Charlotte are not watching Harry Potter movies, playing Harry Potter Legos on Xbox they are playing it via make-believe. So for Savannah's 8th birthday party what better theme to do, then Hogwarts. After months of planning and weeks of prepping this is what we came up with. Sorry, this is will probably be the worlds LONGEST post, and oodles of pictures. But we wanted to document this party well, as we all had SO much fun.

The Invite

I didn't think finding legal sized parchment paper would be a problem, but boy was I wrong. I did however find some on Amazon. 

Each kiddo had their envelop addressed to Mister or Miss - Cupboard under the Stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. One of my favorite parts was dripping the wax and stamping the envelop.

The letter lets them know they have been accepted into Hogwarts for a special 'Mid-Spring' session. I think the kids had fun with the letter. I think Minerva needed to practice her signature a few more times before signing though. 

The Decor

I had so much fun with the decoration. With a lot of help from many friends in creating and also lending me so many props I think it turned out pretty good. 

The entrance at 'Kings Cross Station'. There was a slit in the wall so you could get onto the platform.

Amazing sign my sister Stephanie painted for Savannah as a birthday present. She free-handed the crest. The latin in the crest means "Never tickle a sleeping dragon." Very fun.

This is the sign that was on the door when you came through the wall.

 The Main Hall

I had a lot of fun making the floating candles, although the large jelly bean sized blister I got from touching hot glue on my finger might say otherwise. I had 17 of them hanging. Plus the Main Hall wouldn't  be complete without the House Banners hanging. 

  My sister made the banners and ironed on each house crest but it didn't work out as she had planned. But I had found these crests online to print posters so it worked out. Funny thing with the posters, when I originally sent them over to Staples the resolution of the file was not big enough to make it a clear pic (11x14). So I went to the site and messaged the gal to see if she had it on file in a higher resolution. She emailed and said no, I was fine with them being a bit blurry (they're eight they won't care). She then emailed back and asked what Savannah's name was. Not only did she sent me them in pdf files at higher res but also made a sign for Savannah. There truly are still kind people in the world.

Potions Class Decor

I collected all the bottles and jars from Goodwills 50% days and garage sales. I meant to put some labels on of the ingredients but I ran outta time. 

The picture above the mantle is the one the gal with the house crests made. It has Hogwarts castle in the background and the whamping willow up front.

Our potion ingredients

Chad gave each of the kids one of these before we went outside for the 2nd part of potions class. He told them someone had escaped from Azkaban so there were dementors surrounding Hogwarts and you can't be too careful. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HoneyDukes

A big thank you to all my friends who lent me all these amazing jars. I couldn't have done HoneyDukes without you. When the kids came in, I had this all covered with a black table clothe so they couldn't see it. 

So I really do suck at cakes. My sister printed the Hogwarts crest with edible ink on sugar paper. The kids were impressed, and it tasted good so that's all that mattered right?

My version of Trecle Tarts

Cockroach Clusters

The Wands

HUGE thank you to Tony and Lacey for letting is use your tools and overtake your garage for a few days. They did turn out pretty neat. I realized that the only picture I got of them all together was on my phone, so its not the best of pictures. I did take one of the extra and Savannah and Charlottes after the party. Who knew a simple dowel from Home Depot could turn into these.

Close up of most of the wand handles.

All the wands.

  The Charms, Spells and Potion Book

Now when I originally planned to make these I thought they would be fairly simple. Just get some legal parchment and legal black cardstock. WRONG. I could not find legal black cardstock so I had to buy huge large sheets then cut it down myself. Plus finding the legal parchment was a chore but Amazon pulled through. I'm glad I added the tassels so each house had its own color.  The biggest pain was typing out all the charms/potions/spells, then setting it up so the right pages were on the same pages, then to print double sided. It took forever, but was totally worth it. They turned out really good.After each section I had a page for notes so they could write down their own spells, charms & potions.

The Spell Books

I used these as their 'book bags'. Then they could carry around their book and wand. Each bag had the crest of whichever house they were placed in.

Front Cover

Potter Baby

I couldn't resist putting in my little Potter baby in the decor section. Thatcher was really in tune with the party in his little 'Muggle Born' onsie I made for him. Adding his little Potter glasses and he was super cute. He slept through most of the party, but he was still styling. 

Thatcher and the Birthday Girl.

So in order not to make this the world's LONGEST post. I will stop now. I will do another post with all the fun stuff we did and pictures of the party. Hopefully you are not all on picture overload and congrats if you actually made it to the end of this post.