Harry Potter-inspired Birthday Party (Part 5, birthday cake and party bags!)

Here we are at the final Harry Potter party post! If you are a fan, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our party 🙂

Obviously, I’ve left the most important bits until last…

The cake: Well, it wasn’t a huge success decoration-wise. But it still tasted pretty good 😉 There are lots of cake ideas on Pinterest….but they are mostly very complicated. So we put on our thinking caps to come up with our own idea:

I started with a chocolate cake cooked in a square tin.

For the decoration, I followed a tutorial I found at Moey’s Heart and Hearth. I used this technique a couple of years ago, and I have a few tips for you if you want to try this.

Tip 1 – Practice before the ‘big day’. The more you practice, the better you will get. That’s just common sense! As you can see, I thought I had learnt enough doing it once a couple of years ago. I had not!

Tip 2 – Moey does stress that the top of your cake must be flat. So make sure the top of your cake is flat! That was one lesson I learnt from last time, and I did better this year.

Tip 3 – Try and get your icing to go on smoothly. It’s very hard to see if you have any air bubbles, as you can see in mine.

Tip 4 – Place the decoration very carefully on top of your cake, as you can’t move it once it has been placed. Then peel off the paper as quickly and carefully as you can.

I had iced the cake roughly to represent brickwork. As you can see, I put the sign on the wrong way, and the ‘bricks’ go vertically instead of horizontally 😦 And I didn’t put it on straight.

The sign had been in the freezer while I iced the top of the cake, for at least 15 minutes as Moey suggests. I think to be safe, it should be in the freezer for a lot longer than you expect. As I peeled off the backing paper, the icing started to thaw and stuck to the paper. Thank goodness it was the top of the design where there was not much detail. I would have cried for real if it had been the bottom of the design that stuck.

So, I think the technique is fairly straightforward and certainly effective. But you do need to practice it!

To go with the birthday cake, I served Butterbeer. Apparently, Butterbeer tastes “a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch”. We had tested a couple of variations prior to the party, but the ‘recipe’ we liked best was caramel sauce, lemonade, and whipped cream.  I couldn’t find any butterscotch sauce, so went with caramel. We used squirty cream in a can since we were in a park and it was much more convenient than dealing with fresh whipped cream. The boys didn’t leave any behind, so I’m thinking they enjoyed it!

Can you spy Hedwig peeking over the top of the cups? Pardon the blurry photo, it was taken quickly on my phone.

As the party ended and the guests left, they received their party bags. I was sure I had taken a photo of the actual bag, but it seems not. Here are the contents:

The bags contained:

A wand and water bottle

The mythical creatures they found from one of the games.

Quidditch word search

Bookmark

Chocolate coins from Gringotts Bank (label made on PicMonkey)

Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans (label made on PicMonkey)

Golden Snitch (Ferrero Rocher chocolate with wings cut from paper) See another photo of them on my Instagram.

They also got to take home an Invisibility Cloak

It was very important that we included some of Bertie Bott’s beans. My research showed that you can buy them (they are made by Jelly Belly), but they are not cheap. Even ordinary Jelly Bellys are not cheap. I was very lucky to come across Belly Flops at the Reject Shop. They are irregular Jelly Belly beans. This bag cost me $6, and was perfect for what we wanted!

The actual party bags were simply brown paper bags. On the back I printed ‘Thank you for celebrating Luke’s 10th birthday’. On the front I wanted to put a fun Harry Potter quote. The birthday boy chose:

Study like Granger

Protect like Weasley

Live like Potter

Party like Holder!

See what he did there?? He loves this personalised quote!

So, there you have it – a Harry Potter birthday party for our 10 year old son. If there is anything I haven’t mentioned, please comment below and I will answer 🙂

Linking up with:

Average But Inspired – DIY Collective, 21 Rosemary Lane – Share Your Style, Posed Perfection – Creative Ways, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs Olson – Share Your Cup, Lamberts Lately – Create it Thursday, Domesblissity – Thriving on Thursdays, Wondermom Wannabe – This is How we Roll, Mainly Homemade – The Mommy Club, Twin Dragonfly Designs – The Handmade Hangout, Architecture of a Mom – A Little Bird Told Me, Love Bakes Good Cakes – Freedom Fridays, The Pin Junkie, Life With Lorelei – Home Matters, Shoestring Elegance – What to do Weekends, A Tray of Bliss – Five Star Frou Frou, Tatertots and Jello – Link Party Palooza, Raising Fairies and Knights – Bloggers Spotlight, Oh My Heartsie Girl – Friday Features, 24 Cottonwood Lane – Best of the Weekend, My Suburban Kitchen – Pinworthy Projects, Strawberry Butterscotch – Saturday Shuffle, The Pinterested Parent – Sunday’s Best, The Interior Frugalista – DIY Sunday Showcase, Nifty Thrifty Things, Love of Home – Sundays at Home, My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies – Snickerdoodle Sunday, That Recipe – Happiness is Homemade, Plucky’s Second Thought – Cooking and Crafting with J&J, My Pinterventures – Merry Monday, Claire Justine – Creative Mondays, Create With Joy – Inspire Me Monday, I Should be Mopping the Floor – Inspiration Monday, Yesterday on Tuesday – Project Inspired, Pastels and Macarons – The Creative Corner, Lou Lou Girls, Kathe With an E – You’re Gonna Love it,  Our Home Away From Home – Tuesdays at Our Home, Cozy Little House – Tweak it Tuesday, Ramblings of a (Bad) Domestic Goddess – Turn it up Tuesdays, The Dedicated House – Make it Pretty, Cedar Hill Farmhouse – The Scoop, The DIY Dreamer – From Dream to Reality, Oh My Heartsie Girl – Wonderful Wednesday, Savvy Southern Style – Wow us Wednesdays, Simply Made Fun – The Wednesday Roundup,

Harry Potter-inspired Birthday Party (Part 4, Quidditch)

I thought I could package all the party games together in one post but we all know that Quidditch deserves a post all to itself ;)…..

You can google rules for Quidditch, and there are plenty of people who shared how they played at their childrens’ parties – you can find some I’ve pinned on my Harry Potter Party Pinterest board. So the birthday boy and I set about creating some rules that would fit with our party.

How we played:

All players must stay on their broomsticks. Since they were actual sticks, they must all be careful with how they moved around.

But first they had to learn how to fly their broomsticks. So we had a quick broomstick flying lesson!

Everyone stood with their broom to their right. “Up!” they all said. Nothing happened. “Up!” they said again. Again, nothing happened. Then the ‘professor’ saw something in the distance and told everyone to “Look over there!” When they looked back, his broomstick had magically flown up to his hand! Amazing!

The students were ready to move on to playing…

The two teams as decided from the previous game lined up at either end of our games area. The Quaffle (a largish, light ball) and two Bludgers (handballs) were thrown into the middle of the pitch. Each team ran to get the balls. The Quaffle was passed between team-mates with the aim of throwing it through the appropriate goal. Bludgers were thrown at whoever had the Quaffle (not too hard, they weren’t playing brandings!) and if that person was hit, they must immediately pass the ball and stand still for 3 seconds.

We didn’t bother with a Snitch at all, and by the end of the game the Bludgers had been completely forgotten!

We did need to re-negotiate the rules (ie add some new ones!) – no goalies to guard the goal, and you must be 5 metres from the goal to shoot.

Here are the broomsticks that we made:

They were made from sticks we collected from a Gum Tree in our back yard. Clean straw that would normally be used for our bunny was tied on with twine. I think the party boys were impressed with these!

The goals were made from hula hoops. I used the tutorial from Jonesing2create which was quite straightforward. Unfortunately our goals didn’t cost under $2.50 to make since the hoops cost $4 each. The connectors cost just over $1 each, and we had the stakes already. But we can easily dismantle the goals and turn them back into hoops, and they will be used again.

Here are a few photos from the game:

The boys worked out that having to hold onto their broomstick with one hand was a bit tricky, so they mostly gripped the broomstick with their legs and waddled about! They looked pretty funny! But they had two free hands to throw and catch the Quaffle.

We didn’t keep score for any of the games we played, and no prizes were handed out. I like to think the fun they all had playing unusual games was ‘prize’ enough. And no-one has ever complained about not winning a prize!

Next post – the birthday cake…

Linking up with:

Domesblissity – Thriving on Thursdays, Average But Inspired – The DIY Collective, Milk and Cuddles – The Mommy Club, 21 Rosemary lane – Share Your Style, Posed Perfection – Creative Ways, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs Olson – Share Your Cup, Lamberts lately – Create it Thursday, Wondermom Wannabe – This is How We Roll, Sincerely, Paula – No Rules Weekend Bloghop, Love Bakes Good Cakes – Freedom Fridays, The Pin Junkie, Life With Lorelei – Home Matters, Shoestring Elegance – What to do Weekend, Raising Fairies and Knights – Blogger Spotlight, Too Much Time on my Hands – The Handmade Hangout, Tatertots and Jello – Link Party Palooza, Oh My Heartsie Girl – Friday Features, Strawberry Butterscotch – Saturday Shuffle, 24 Cottonwood Lane – Best of the Weekend, The Interior Frugalista – DIY Sunday Showcase, Nifty Thrifty Things, Thoughts From Alice – Sundays at Home, My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies – Snickerdoodle Sunday, That Recipe – Happiness is Homemade, Plucky’s Second Thought – Cooking and Crafting With J&J, My Pinterventures – Merry Monday, Claire Justine, Create With Joy – Inspire Me Monday, I Should be Mopping the Floor – Inspiration Monday, Pastels and Macarons – Creative Corner, The Foley Fam – Dream. Create. Inspire, Yesterday on Tuesday – Project Inspired, Lou Lou Girls, Kathe With an E – You’re Gonna Love it, Our Home Away From Home – Tuesdays at Our Home, Cozy Little House – Tweak it Tuesday, Ramblings of a (Bad) Domestic Goddess – Turn it Up Tuesdays, The Dedicated House – Make it Pretty, Cedar Hill Farmhouse – The Scoop, The DIY Dreamer – From Dream to Reality, Oh My Heartsie Girl – Wonderful Wednesday, Savvy Southern Style – Wow us Wednesday,

Harry Potter-inspired Birthday Party (Part 3, including games and refreshments)

Following on from my two previous posts on our recent Harry Potter themed party, today I will share what we ate and drank, and the games we played. But you’ll have to read the next post to find out how we played Quidditch!

Our party was held mid-afternoon in a park. So a main meal was not required, nor could we provide steaming hot food. I stumbled across this site where all food and drinks mentioned in the Harry Potter books is listed . A great help!

So ham sandwiches it was 😉 Along with the usual chips, dip, biscuits…and jelly. Always have to have jelly!

As I do every year, each boy received a personalized water bottle – this year I made an easy label saying ‘Aquavena Cooling Potion’ 🙂 I used PicMonkey to make the graphic, then printed it up on A4 paper which is the perfect width to fit around the bottle.

There was also juice and soft drink, but they mostly just drank water. And of course there was birthday cake and Butterbeer…but you’ll have to wait for the next post to see that!

On to the games…

I started by having them choose a wand, or rather, having the wand choose them. I simply had each boy shut his eyes, then feel the wands to see which one fitted nicely in his hand.

Scavenger hunt: I asked the boys to search for some escaped magical creatures. I took inspiration from this idea, but didn’t have a letter to read out. I didn’t think the boys would stay still long enough to read it out and explain what they needed to do! Also, I knew some boys didn’t know the Harry Potter stories, so it wouldn’t have meant much to them.

We had a tub of dragons which were hidden around the Forbidden Forest where our party was sited. I wanted the boys to look carefully for specific creatures, not just the first ones they found. So I put two dabs of coloured nail polish on the base of each wand, and they had to find a dragon of each colour.

They got to take home their magical creatures if they wanted to (and if they could remember where they put them!)

Wingardium Leviosa balloon relay: For this game I needed to divide the boys up into two teams. Rather than using a sorting hat to sort them into houses, I had them randomly choose a red or blue streamer which they tied around their wrist…or their heads! This way no-one could get upset over which team they were on.

We had marked out a games area, and set the two teams up so they could do a relay. Each team had a balloon, and they used their wands and the levitating spell Wingardium Leviosa to complete the relay. They seemed to enjoy this more than I expected! And they obviously had good control of their wands and balloons as they didn’t let the balloons pop until the game was over!

Pin the Snitch on the Wings: I thought we might be over the ‘pin the…’ game, but the birthday boy was keen to have it. I wasn’t in the mood to paint a great picture (like I did last year and the year before), so I came up Pin the Snitch on the Wings. It didn’t take too long to draw and paint. And it reflected the Snitch they would get in their party bags.

Dementor Tag: If you know how to play Bullrush, you know how to play Dementor Tag 🙂 Using the area we marked out before the party started, one boy was chosen to be the first Dementor. He stood in the middle of the playing area, while the rest of the boys lined up at one end. When told to run, they all tried to make it to the other end without being tagged/tipped by the Dementor. Anyone who was tagged also became a Dementor and tried to catch more boys. They played several rounds of this game, with a new Dementor starting each time. I was fairly sure this game would be popular, and look at the smiles on the faces!

They all needed something to eat and drink after that! (Of course, they were able to stop for refreshment at any time.)

To finish the party, we played Quidditch. But I think that deserves a post of its own…

Linking up with:

Domesblissity – Thriving on Thursdays, Average But Inspired – The DIY Collective, Milk and Cuddles – The Mommy Club, 21 Rosemary lane – Share Your Style, Posed Perfection – Creative Ways, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs Olson – Share Your Cup, Lamberts Lately – Create it Thursday, Wondermom Wannabe – This is How We Roll, Sincerely, Paula – No Rules Weekend Bloghop, Love Bakes Good Cakes – Freedom Fridays, The Pin Junkie, Life With Lorelei – Home Matters, Shoestring Elegance – What to do Weekends, Raising Fairies and Knights – Blogger Spotlight, Too Much Time on my Hands – The Handmade Hangout, Tatertots and Jello – Link Party Palooza, Oh My Heartsie Girl – Friday Features, Strawberry Butterscotch – Saturday Shuffle, 24 Cottonwood Lane – Best of the Weekend, The Interior Frugalista – DIY Sunday Showcase, Nifty Thrifty Things, Thoughts From Alice – Sundays at Home, My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies – Snickerdoodle Sunday, That Recipe – Happiness is Homemade, Plucky’s Second Thought – Cooking and Crafting With J&J, My Pinterventures – Merry Monday, Claire Justine, Create With Joy – Inspire Me Monday, I Should be Mopping the Floor – Inspiration Monday, Pastels and Macarons – Creative Corner, The Foley Fam – Dream. Create. Inspire, Yesterday on Tuesday – Project Inspired, Lou Lou Girls, Kathe With an E – You’re Gonna Love it, Our Home Away From Home – Tuesdays at our Home, Cozy Little House – Tweak it Tuesday, Ramblings of a (Bad) Domestic Goddess – Turn it Up Tuesday, The Dedicated House – Make it Pretty, Cedar Hill Farmhouse – The Scoop, The DIY Dreamer -From Dream to Reality, Oh My Heartsie Girl – Wonderful Wednesday, Savvy Southern Style – Wow us Wednesday,