I can’t tell you how long I have been looking forward to our Harry Potter Birthday Party. For years I have been pinning and planning this important event. You may know how much our family loves Harry Potter from past posts. I have been planning on my children celebrating their 11th birthday Harry Potter Style, whether they like the books or not. 
Luckily all my kids are already on board. And what’s not to love? On Harry’s Birthday we make Butterbeer cupcakes and watch movies. By the way, has anyone seen the New Illustrated Edition of Chamber of Secrets? My plan was to start working on party prep after Christmas so I wouldn’t get stressed out and still have time to make all the items I wanted. But life happened and we needed to move. We are so blessed we were able to buy a lovely home. And our new home had a much better layout for the Great Hall, so it’s a win-win. But with packing and unpacking, along with family reunions and weddings I wasn’t able to finish all my ideas I had planned.
As an optimist I like to think I will be able to get everything done. But the morning of the party I realized that not everything was going to happen the way I wanted it to. Some of the items I made were not able to be come to pass as I needed help and Grady was off with his new scout calling. I think it’s okay to be bummed and disappointed. And I still have 3 other Harry Potter Parties to throw. But I decided to work on what was essential and not focus on the rest of my list. Because really this party is about celebrating my son. And my main objective was to throw a party that he would love and have lots of friends for him to foster friendships with. Especially with moving to a new area this was the perfect time for him to become better acquainted with the kids in our neighborhood. And sometimes a cool party can help you get to know someone new. So while I worked on what needed to happen that morning I had a prayer in my heart that my son could strengthen friendships with the kids who came.
And my heart was so full! We had fifteen 11 year olds over that day. They all got there on time, or even earlier. And they were a great group of kids. I loved that we had girls there too. We had kids from our new ward, or church group, and friends from school. We even had a couple of friends from where we use to live. I think the kids were pretty excited with the décor. We had brick on our door and they walked in to find the Platform 9 3/4 next to them. There were wands and a Honeydukes section. I let them hang out and chatter while I snapped some quick pictures.
The kids got to then line up and choose their wand. Or really the wand chooses the wizard. I was really happy with how they turned out. I will be sharing some wand making skills soon. We had all the kids sit in our Great Hall to wait for the sorting. I made a sorting hat (tutorial coming soon) for his party. My thought process is that we would use this hat over and over again. My décor would be an investment for future parties. My hubby found an app that sorted the kids into houses. We opened a drawer in our dresser and place the speaker in there. Then Grady was behind the wall pushing buttons on his phone to get it to yell out the house it chose. I liked how he rehearsed little phrases and not just the name of the houses. Some kids realized there was a phone behind the wall. Some kids seriously thought this hat talked. Later this kid was trying to get The Sorting Hat to work again. He has shaking it and reaching up inside. It was pretty adorable.
Once they were sorted into houses I read off some quotes from the first book. We made it clear no one could mention spoilers because my younger kids were there and they haven’t read all the books. It was fun to read quotes from different characters and have the kids guess who said them. I did about 16 quotes and kinda wish I had more. The kids love competing against the other houses. We had a scoreboard for house points. And it was fun to see which kids really knew Harry Potter. I only did the first book in case the kids hadn’t finished reading all the books. And I made sure to included some of the quotes that made it into the movie for the kids who had just seen those.
My hubby made Quidditch goal posts and we sprayed them silver. We split the 4 houses into two teams. Our invitations told the kids to bring a broom. We had a couple extra. It was fun to watch them play. Really we should have walked down to the park to give them a bigger field and make it a little more challenging but I was trying to keep things simple. We went ahead and only had the quaffle. I loved seeing the team work among the kids. And it was fun to watch them play. My sister, who was in town, offered to run around and have the snitch on a string. I don’t think she liked how they tried to capture it pretty aggressively. It might be best to have another kid volunteer do have that job. And again I think a larger field would have helped with this too. We added the house points to the scoreboard and went in to celebrate the winning team at the 3 Broomsticks.
Not everyone was a fan of the Butterbeer. Some kids really didn’t like the flavor. But I loved it! I seriously can’t wait to go to Harry Potter World! So jealous of all my friends who have gone already. We let the kids shop at Honeydukes and pick out some candy to try. This was the part of the party my son was most excited about. Candy! He went shopping with his dad to pick out what candies he wanted at his party. I was going to design and make candy printables but time just didn’t allow for it. Luckily I found these tags from Over the big Moon. Such a lifesaver! I just printed them off and set things up.
Harry Potter Birthday: Food Ideas
In addition to Honeydukes we also had Pumpkin Pasties and Treacle Tarts. I had know idea Treacle Tarts was a treat that already existed. I thought it was a made up Harry Potter word. Another fun fact: Snogging is a legit word too! Such a weird word. Anyways, we had lots of treats to feast on. And we took time to sing to my son with 11 candles on his Butterbeer cupcake. We pretty much hung out while the kids visited and ate. Some of them wanted another round of quidditch, which was more than welcomed.
I love how my House Banners turned out. But unfortunately I wasn’t able to have them strung with the floating tea light candles I made. We might have to do that for a Halloween dinner party. My son had a great time! He said it was the best party yet. I loved hearing how excited the kids were to try a chocolate frog or Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. I purchased a box of Every Flavored Beans and then mixed them in with normal Jelly Belly jelly beans. It was fun seeing them try really gross flavors. I branched out and tried the pepper flavored one. Not too bad. One kids complained he got a gross flavor, coconut! Hahaha! They were so funny! One of the boys asked the other kids if they dared him to eat the Pepper Imps. I told him I dared him. I think he liked putting a handful of red hot candies in his mouth at once. It’s fun seeing boys act silly. And I was kind enough to help him get something to drink as his eyes were watering.
I think everyone had fun. And they were thrilled to take home their wands and bags of candy. And my son had the best time. That was my favorite part! He loved that he was sorted into Ravenclaw. We love his brain and how he thinks. And he was most excited about getting the book Fantastic Beasts and where to Find them. We had to persuade him not to read during the rest of his party. I was really impressed with the kids who came. It’s crazy to think he will be growing up with these kids. We are so thankful for our new home. The neighbor hood seems to have lots of young kids his age. I’m so excited for him to start making some new friends. It was kind of hard moving from California. I feel strongly that this is where we are suppose to raise our family. And I am thankful for Harry Potter. And the magic of friendship that these books encourage.
Thanks so much for reading this post! I am excited to share tutorials for this party and recipes soon. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss another Harry Potter post. What was your favorite part of the party? I love hearing from you! Post it in the comments below…
Don’t forget to pin your favorite Harry Potter Idea! You can find more fun party ideas here.
Linking up at Friday Finds
Some of these items are affiliated links. You are welcomed to buy from anywhere. But I don’t mind if you buy them from here. I only share items I really like or use. Thanks for your support!
