Keeping up with the Manssons: Jillian's 6th Birthday Party

Happy birthday

This year Jillian wanted a Harry Potter Birthday Party. We have started listening to Harry Potter on audio book and she loves the series. Plus, she really wanted Fumble Dum the wizard to come. He was at a birthday party she went to over the summer and she LOVED him. He was an all inclusive show. He does face painting, a magic/comedy show, plus balloon animals. So, I didn't actually do very much for the Party. I made wands, which was way easier than it would seem. I just would have made them a little different because the beads at the ends kept coming off...so more hot glue to keep them on. But they were an quick and easy craft, although I had to paint...which is pretty much the max of my creative prowess. I wrapped them in some tissue paper - quick, cheaper and easier than doing boxes for them. I decided to do this so there were no arguments over who got what wand. The wand chooses the wizard after all. Then I purchased a book on etsy (GASP) for $3 that had all the spells and wand movements. I figured it was worth $3 for me not to have to sit and recreate it. I found a free copy of "The Standard Book of Spells" cover and I made books for the take home and I printed out large copies for the wall. I only did a little bit of decorating otherwise. I did the Happy Birthday Banner, plus I did the floating candles. Which was super cool. Just electric tea light with cream colored paper taped around them and fishing wire. I also filled some jars with colored water for potions. I also decorated the bathrooms like Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I really only did one activity...a Magical Creature Scavenger hunt (if you look at the wand shop page you can see one of the creatures hanging out). I made the field books, which was time consuming...but honestly it was printing it that gave me the most problems. In order to print it without a border, I had to print it on stock paper using photo quality ink. It was so weird, but I finally gave in and just printed them that way. The other thing I did was hang hula hoops from the ceiling and blow up balloons for indoor quiddich. But the weather turned out the be beautiful so the kids spent all the extra time outside. For the goody bags, the kids got to take home the wands and spell and creature books plus some candy. Bertie Botts every flavor bean, a chocolate frog (with a card), a couple of golden snitches and Droobles best blowing gum...which was not perfect because I picked the wrong color of gumball. For the food, we did snacks (so punny things like huffle puffs and raven claws and dragon roasted almonds) along with fruits and veggies. I made butter beer (cream soda, butterscotch, and vanilla ice cream) and a pensive punch. It was blue Hawaiian Punch with a little bit of silver cake dusting powder in it...SO COOL... Plus we had a Harry Potter Face cake, from our friend Debbie, who did a great job. I typed everything that I did and it really seems like a lot...but considering how much I usually do...it was not too much.