Emma Turns 9-3/4's, Harry Potter-style!

About a year ago, we decided that, if the kids were interested, we'd throw them a Harry Potter birthday. We skipped doing a 9th Birthday party for Emma knowing that the magical nine and three-quarters number was approaching (for those of you that are still a bit clueless: 9-3/4 is Platform at King's Cross Station where Hogwarts students catch the Hogwarts Express). Throughout the year, I casually visited Pinterest and other blogs where people had held their own HP parties, but really started to do serious prep work as January became February and the April date began to draw near. The grand majority of these ideas are borrowed from other bloggers and Pinners to whom I am eternally grateful!!

Decorations

So many bloggers had framed pictures of the Harry Potter characters at their parties.
I had no spare space nor did I have frames sitting around, so I made use of artwork that I already had on display.

Bathroom...

This is one of my few original ideas...
I found the picture, added the lettering in Word,
and Mod Podged it onto my handsoap!

I only decorated our main guest bathroom but had a sign on each of our
bathroom doors stating that it was the "Room of Requirement"... seemed
appropriate :)

Kitchen & Entryway:

Follow the Spiders...

Family room (AKA The Great Hall):

The PARTY:

Logistically trying to figure out not only what order the party would go in but also how I would make "magic" happen at a party filled with muggles was harder than I ever could have imagined. That being said, I tried to make things as Harry Potterfied as I could while still making it budget-friendly and achievable.

MUG SHOTS: Upon arriving through the 9-3/4 platform wall (aka Our front door) and listening to Harry Potter music infiltrate the house, we had our guests go to have their Mug(gle) shots taken in our Sirius Black replica photo booth. Due to lighting and space restrictions, we did these upstairs and it allowed for the kids to have some fun while they waited for all of our guests to arrive. Not only were these fun, but the pictures that we took of each individual will be developed and used as a thank you note for coming to our party!

This isn't as glamorous when viewed from the side, so I
added some Wanted posters to it and this allowed me to introduce those
that aren't familiar with HP to the concept I was looking for in doing these pics
(the bottom pic is Sirius Black)

The Sorting Ceremony:

This pic was taken as we experimented the week before the party. What we did was put a picture of the Great Hall as well as a Sorting Hat announcement for each Hogwarts house in a Powerpoint presentation and then we scrolled through as each child
took their turn in the chair, eventually stopping where the Hat determined where they belonged. I had pre-printed slips of
Houses and why they were chosen (based on house qualities) for each House... for the most part, I just mixed these up and picked them, showing my husband the results so that he knew where to stop the screen. (Huge thanks to him for solving my dilemma of how to get things on the screen and my oldest daughter for the idea of using the t.v. to show what the Sorting Hat decided!)

Emma with some of her classmates as they await the last arrivals and their turn with the Sorting Hat...

Each child had their turn in the chair to get sorted. After removing the Sorting Hat, they picked up a tie for their respective house and grabbed a wand from the bookshelf. Each wand stated how many inches long it was as well as what mythical creature contributed to the core and the type of wood.

Honey Dukes Candy Shoppe:

I was disappointed to see after that party that I had failed to take a picture of our Honey Dukes Candy Shoppe...
In addition to chocolate Frogs, we had Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, Licorice Wands, Chocolate Wands, Lemon Drops (went with Lemonheads since they weren't choking hazards like Lemon Drops can be), as well as Butterbeer that was served while the kids did their crafts.

Chocolate wands... these were served at Honey Dukes and the kids got to visit the Candy Shoppe between each activity. To say they were on a bit of a sugar rush was an understatement! I've never seen a party where so few kids are interested in cake and ice cream!

Potions Class with Slytherin Headgirl Michaela:

In Professor Snape's absence, Headgirl Michaela stepped up (British accent and in character) to teach potions class. She was remarkable, even without rehearsal!! Holding this in our garage allowed for the space we desperately needed for this class as well as for the environment that mimicked a dungeon while allowing for the mess that some of the potions made. Despite how the pics look, they weren't crammed in there tightly. They watched 2 demonstration potions (including the one pictured below) and got to be hands-on with 4. They learned about some mythical creatures popular in Harry Potter and got to use ingredients that coincided with the HP theme, even using their wands to elicit certain magic within their potions!

Quidditch Pong:

After Potions class, the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors went into the kitchen to do some crafts while the Ravenclaws and Slytherins went to play Quidditch Pong. I followed the directions for making this that I found on Pinterest. My pyramid of Solo cups are glued to a piece of triangular cardboard to avoid having to keep resetting the cups when the balls were removed. Everyone does their Quidditch Pong game a little different. After reading the rules that different parties had used, I knew that I didn't want an interactive game where kids would be jumping and swatting ping pongs all over the place. The space we had was limited and the risk of injury or anger were high, so I made a simple game of Quidditch... 10 Quaffles (white ping pong balls) and 1 golden snitch (yellow ppb) and they got 10 points for every Quaffle that went through a hoop, 10 points for landing in a cup, and double points for their Golden Snitch. We kept score and at the end the Golden Snitch was awarded to the winner which happened to be my Hufflepuff 9-3/4 birthday girl! I was in the kitchen helping with crafts and making Butterbeer, so I'm not sure any pictures even exist of the kids playing this game :(

Harry Potter Crafts:

Once again, I don't have any pictures of the kids doing their crafts or drinking their Butterbeer. Too many kids doing too many activities with too much fun for this mama to keep up!! I had two crafts for them to make: a fire-breathing dragon with streamers resembling fire that you blew into and pens that you used floral tape on to make a quill pen with a feather. During this time, we had HP playing on two different t.v.'s (one near the front where Quidditch was being played) and one in the back near the crafts... to put it mildly, the kids were glued to the t.v. Even those who'd never been exposed to HP were fascinated by it! After the kids doing the crafts were done, they swapped with the Quidditch kids to get a turn in the other set of activities.

Cake and Gifts and Goody Bags:

This is a cake like the one Hagrid made when he first came to find Harry
to take him to Hogwarts. Emma's cake container said: "To Emma, Love Hagrid"...
She knew right off what it was and LOVED it!!

The Goody Bags had HP glasses, lightning tatoos, a spider ring, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean (in all of the Hogwarts House colors), a chocolate frog, plus their wands, ties, dragons, quill pens, and any Honey Dukes snacks they snagged prior to leaving.