My daughter turned seven and there was no questioning what kind of birthday party she would want, only a Harry Potter party would do. Thankfully, Pinterest is packed full of incredible ideas, and I knew it wasn't going to be a big party. We invited her year group, of which there are nine of them including her, and my son was also here, so ten children in total. I wanted to ensure that they had a completely magical time, in terms of food, but also the games that we played too.
First up I made Fererro Rocher snitches. These were incredibly simple to make. I bought a pack of sixteen Fererro Rocher and printed out these snitch wings. I just had to cut out the wings and then stick them onto the chocolates using the Ferrero Rocher sticker which comes on the top of the chocolate. I think they look awesome, for something which only takes minutes to create!
The birthday cake was relatively simple too. I made two chocolate sponges, as my daughter had requested a chocolate cake. Then my mum iced it with Royal Icing. She also made the two books, and I made the wand, Hedwig and scarf from icing sugar. I cheated a little and used coloured icing, rather than using food colouring to make my won colours. Hedwig was made in around about five minutes, and not to the best standard, but I ran out of time! I followed a YouTube tutorial to make it (which I now can't find, but will update as soon as I do). I also made witches broomsticks out of marshmallows, chocolate and sprinkles. I contemplated using actual Bertie Botts every flavour beans, but I thought that for a party of seven year olds, it possibly wasn't the best plan. Instead, I bought a couple of packs of cheap jelly beans and put them in the most decorative jar that I could find. They looked great and there were no huge taste surprises for the children either. Check out this video below for Harry Potter party food inspiration.
One of the things I really felt was important was that the children all went home with a magic wand. These were also incredibly simple to make. I ordered these chopsticks on Amazon. I thought they would be best because they were different coloured wood, so it would be easier for me to make them look different. Then I used a glue gun to create a handle and also the detailing on the wands. Once the glue had dried, I painted the glue parts with an antique gold.
The end result was brilliant and I was really impressed with them. I printed out these labels and attached to them to each wand. When the children had all arrived at the party, they took it in turns for the wand to choose them. In order to do this, they shut their eyes and picked one. The video below shows you just how simple these were to make!
The most entertaining part of the party was the potions lesson. I have to admit that the children got far more involved than I could have hoped for, and it ended up taking well over half an hour of the party, which was wonderful for us. The first thing I did to prepare for the potions lesson was to collect up various bottles and receptacles. I printed off these labels, which I then cut out and attached to the bottles.
I then typed out three different potions, as I didn't want the children all thinking they were doing the same potion. They had dancing potion, laughter potion and flying potion to make. The main ingredients I used are malt vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, washing up liquid and some food colouring. Again, I only added the food colouring to differentiate the potions, and I popped it in with the malt vinegar to change the colour before the rest of the mixtures were added.
When you write the potions, just make sure that you have the right order of things to add, especially as the names on the bottles will be different. First mix the vinegar and washing up liquid, then get the children to pour some of the bicarbonate of soda solution in. At this point, one child mixed and the other cast a spell with their new wand! The potions are incredibly good fun, and the reactions from the children are brilliant.
We had such a lot of fun, and the children who came to the party still talk about it, which is a win in my book! Below is a tutorial on how to make the potions.
I really hope you've enjoyed this blog post and the videos too, and that you found them all useful. I wouldn't hesitate to do another Harry Potter party, and there is so much inspiration on Pinterest and you can have a look at my birthday party board on Pinterest if you would like to see some of the amazing pins I found.
