July is a busy month -- our family has 3 birthdays and an anniversary all within days of each other. I am finally getting a minute to breathe and as fun as it was to put together these birthday parties, I am so relieved to have this week over with and time to relax and enjoy summer where the livin' is easy again!
Griffin turned 7 this week and we celebrated with a big Harry Potter birthday party. I had so much fun with all of the birthday preparations for this party (I’ll list all of the details in this post for those looking for HP birthday party ideas) and thought it was kind of funny when I would find a new idea online. “Hadley, are there chocolate frogs in any of the Harry Potter movies?” It probably would have been easier to come up with some of my own ideas for the party if I had ever seen any of the Harry Potter movies. Luckily there are blogs with lots of great ideas and I just copied the stuff that looked like fun and something I could easily put together in a few days. I knew right when Griffin said he wanted a Harry Potter birthday that it would be fun to have a magician for the birthday entertainment. Griffin was excited about the magician so we booked the exact same magician that came to Ryan’s Harry Potter birthday party 9 years ago (Highly recommend him if you are local. He’s great entertainment for the adults and the kids).
Griffin was so excited for his birthday and started counting down the days about a month ago. And got really excited when the number of days left were finally in the single digits. Reminding me each day how many days were left until his Birthday, “only 3 more days until it’s my birthday, Mom!”.
Party Details
Harry Potter Wands I bought wooden dowels, hot glue and craft paint at Michael’s and followed this tutorial.
Harry Potter Cake
Owl Cupcakes made with oreos, chocolate drops and candy corns
Chocolate Frogs I used this kit from Amazon and chocolate melts from Michaels. And printed out this template on cardstock to make the boxes for the frogs. Surprisingly the boxes took the most time with the cutting and pasting that it took to put them together.
Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans I bought the big container of jelly beans from Costco and filled spice jars with jelly beans and put labels on them that I printed out on full sheet shipping label paper.
Butter Beer drinks I bought IBC cream soda and added Butterbeer labels for the kids to take home in their party bags and bought 2 liter Shasta cream soda with Butterbeer labels to use during the party.
Golden Snitches made with Ferrero Rocher chocolates and yellow feathers hot glued on the sides.
Black Capes I ran out of time to order capes but bought black, plastic tablecloths at Zurchers and cut each cape about 3 ft long and 2 1/2 ft wide. I got 4 capes out of each rectangular tablecloth. I then stapled 2 pleats on the top part (so it wouldn’t be such a big gap around the back) then safety pinned the capes on the kids shirts.
Harry Potter Signs for table display
My favorite birthday party helpers--Gavin, Ryan and Hadley! Ryan baked the cake (and may have forgotten to set the timer on the oven). Gavin decorated the cake and did this awesome Harry Potter design. Ryan helped the party guests choose their wand from Olivander’s Wand shop. Hadley was in charge of Madam Malkin’s Robes and glasses. She helped each guest get fitted into their robe and glasses.
The wands were by far the biggest hit of the party! I almost didn’t make them since I was running out of time to get everything done but so glad I didn’t skip them. If you decide to only do one thing for your Harry Potter party, this is it! The kids were so excited to pick one out and find out they got to take the wand home with them. I used this easy online tutorial and wooden dowels, hot glue and paints. And VOILA . . . awesome Harry Potter wands that your kids will love using to cast all of their spells.
After the party guests were all dressed up in their robes, HP glasses and matched with their magical wand, it was time for pictures in front of Platform 9 3/4. Train departing for Griffindor Tower.
And seriously, Mia made the cutest Hermoine
All of the party guests
Griffin loved being the main assistant in the magician’s show. He got to hold rabbits, a dove, balloon animals and have quarters fall out of his nose and ears. He was a little silly and didn’t have the best manners. I remember Ryan acting the same way at his party. It must have something to do with being a 7 year old and standing up in front of all of your friends and trying to act like it’s not a big deal. Or my kids just have really bad manners.
THE BIRTHDAY BOY!
After the party I saw that the magician was doing a free show at our local library which is about 10 houses away. I wish I would have known that when I was planning his party! I could have saved some money and taken the kids to the free magic show at the library. Griffin, Hadley and Mia were excited to go watch the show again before dinner. Griffin got to choose anywhere he wanted to go for his birthday dinner. Of course, he chose Chick-Fil-A and enjoyed some more birthday ice cream.
In honor of his 7th birthday. . . 7 things we love about Griffin!
1. He just started playing soccer and basketball this past year and is loving it. His favorite position in soccer is defense. I think his team had one victory last season. He’s got the best backwards hop on the basketball court and is so much fun to watch.
2. He is a great reader and was on the top reading level in his first grade class. Now if we could just get him to sit down and enjoy reading.
3. He LOVES his electronic devices and is the first one to have all of his morning jobs done so he can play on the iPad right when he wakes up. And he does a great job with making his bed and keeping his bedroom picked up.
4. He still gets upset easily when he doesn’t get his way but has made progress this past year. His outbursts when something doesn’t go his way is something that we are still working on. Trying to help him understand that sometimes accidents happen, that he may have been the one to misplace something, etc.
5. He loves for me to cuddle with him at night. It doesn’t have to be long but just a few minutes to talk about his day and have a little one on one time together. And he says he likes Mom to lay by him better than Dad because Mom falls asleep faster.
6. His favorite food is McDonald’s Happy Meal with chicken nuggets and sweet and sour sauce.
7. He is my biggest helper. He does his morning jobs without complaining and usually without me asking. He offers to take the trash out to the big garbage cans when he sees me getting ready to do it.
Happy 7th Birthday Griffin!
1 comment:
What another amazing party! I love that even though I couldn't be at his party, all of your pictures help to know how wonderful it was. Griffin is growing into quite the big boy and is also a very good swimmer!
I love cuddling with him too and each time I get to spend some one on one time with him, love to hear him say, "I love you Grandma!" I love him too!
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