Sylvia's 13 birthday; Harry Potter party

  This spring, our family watched all 8 of the Harry Potter movies, one a week.  It reminded us of what a fun world JK Rowling created!  Yes, some of the characters can be annoying, and the movies certainly don't do the books justice, but it is a really fun world to imagine living in.  So, why not recreate a bit of it?

      Sylvia's birthday is this week, and today her friends could all get together to celebrate it with her.  We decided to do a Harry Potter themed party.  As she is turning into a teenager, I'm not sure how many more years I have to do "themed" parties.

   We spent Sunday afternoon prepping supplies. Sean and  Sylvia were in charge of cutting out and gluing boxes for "chocolate frogs and wizard cards".  Ephraim and I made chocolate covered wands and frogs.

   Monday found Sylvia baking some cupcakes ("cauldron cakes") and Ephraim and I duct taping 6 hula hoops to stakes for quidditch posts.

    Finally, we were ready for Tuesday.

       Thunderstorms delayed our Quidditch plans by a couple of hours.  The kids enjoyed playing a couple of games while we waited out the storm.  "Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle", and "Beanboozled".

    It was fun listening to them play, and hearing things like  "Would you rather take a ride on Hagrid's motorcycle or drive the Night Bus?"  or "Would you rather live in the village of Hogsmead or the center of Diagon Alley?"  as they bravely tried various flavored beans in a box containing flavors like  "spoiled milk"   and "dogfood".

   Once the storms passed, we went down to the park, hammered in some hula hoops, and sorted out teams.  I thought it was great that the older kids let the younger ones participate as well.

    The first game ended quickly, the second game went on longer.. and it got hotter, and the quidditch players were about to die. They soldiered on, watching the "golden snitch"  taunt the seekers, wandering back and forth across the playing field.

Finally, either the snitch actually got tired, or he let the smaller kids dogpile on top of him out of kindness, but he was "caught".  Ephraim felt very victorious, as the seeker who finally ended the game.

Here's the most awesome quidditch team in town.  

And here is some fun post game posing for action shots of snitch capturing...

After quidditch we came back to our house for some ice-cold butter beers and air conditioning. The kids watched "Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone" while I set out party food.  It was a fun day.  Good food and good friends. A good start to the teenage years.