Old Man Reed

Just because he's a goof...

Enjoying Hogwarts

The kids all really enjoyed Millie's Harry Potter party. I heard one of the girls say to herself while enjoying the feast in the Great Hall "This is the best party ever." And as I was laying down with the girls when they were getting in their sleeping bags, another girl so sweetly said "I have just loved everything. The decorations, the classes, the food...It was all so wonderful." It just made my heart happy.

Her Expression When My Mom Dropped Her Off

It Was Super Hot, Joe Must Have Been Melting

Tickets Ready

Quidditch?!?  Are We Going To Play?  How Will That Work?

All Aboard The Hogwarts Express

Charms Class - Group Work Was Allowed

She Loved The Butter Beer

Potions Class

Reed Was Amazed

Reed Was A Natural Quidditch Player

Millie Was The First Seeker For Her Team - She Got The Snitch

Happy 8th Birthday Millie! I hope you had a wonderful experience and I was so happy to do this for you. You deserved it!

Happy Harry Potter Birthday - The Planning

Boy. This was a huge undertaking. Millie loves Harry Potter. She read all the books last year in second grade. If you don't know these books, they are very good and very big! Most kids probably can't tackle these books until about middle school. I think she read for about 4 months straight until she finished. Then she wanted to read them all again. So what other kind of party would she have for her 8th birthday than a Harry Potter party? This was the first time I feel like I've really put much effort into my kid's parties. We have moved the past 2 years so there were never any school friends to invite to the parties. This year since she had friends, she wanted to have her first ever sleepover. Yikes! So on top of a very themed party, I was preparing for five 8 year old girls to take over my house for the weekend. No worries. I did LOTS of online research and pinterest pinning to come up with way too many ideas. The problem here was not a lack of information and ideas but it was too much information and ideas. I wanted to do it all, it was so fun. But I had to cut out lots of fun ideas and stick to the basics, which was still pretty great.

The invitation had to get the girls in the mindset for all things Harry Potter so it was a 3 page acceptance letter to Hogwarts complete with course material required and schedule of events. Here is Millie opening hers. She had no idea and was very excited. I kept all details of the party a secret from her so she would enjoy it more and be even more amazed.

Here are a bunch of signs and books I made to add to the feel of the party.

An important concept was having the platform at Kings Cross station. The best way to get to Hogwarts is to take the Hogwarts Express which leaves from Platform 9 3/4 via walking through a brick wall.

My mom decorated her buggy to be the Hogwarts Express.

Outside we also had Hagrid's Hut complete with Hagird, of course. My Brother-in-Law, Joe, is great and also made the brick wall for the train platform.

We also had the Forbidden Forest the train rode through complete with 3 dementors (Aunt Mary Jude, cousin JJ and friend Jeff). Such good sports!

And Millie's most favorite part of all the Harry Potter books are the Quidditch Matches. She loves Quidditch. For you muggles (non-wizards), Quidditch is a popular sport they play in the wizard world. My fantastic husband spent all last Saturday morning welding 6 rings so we could play an actual version of Quidditch. We knew this is the part of the party that Millie would be most excited about. Thanks Rick!

Once the kids busted through the platform and rode the Hogwarts Express to Hogwarts they had to visit Diagon Alley to get their gold out of their vault at Gringotts...

...to visit Ollivanders to get their wand...

...then to Flourish and Blotts for their course books.

After they get their school supplies, they get to visit Honeydukes Candy Shop to get a few sweet treats before taking a break in the Common Rooms downstairs to begin their busy school day.

The Great Hall was set up for a wonderful feast we would all have that night. House banners were on the wall and fried chicken and biscuits were on the menu along with a fantastic cake and Butterbeer, of course. Each child had a special mug with their name on it for their butterbeer.

Potions Class was set up and ready to go.

So that's it for the set up and the master plan. None of these ideas were mine alone. I spent hours looking for different ways to do all of these things but I don't think I copied very many things exactly. I'd download an image or file I liked but then bring it into photoshop and edit it to fit my needs. Probably 80% of my time spent on this party was photoshop work and teaching myself photoshop so I could get it to do what I wanted. I have saved all of my files so I have them if any of my friends ever want to do their own party. My next post will show the kids actually enjoying all the fun!