Mischief Managed!

On July 15, Caroline's 9th birthday, we celebrated with a Harry Potter Party!  It was a right jolly good time, indeed! Here's the invitation:

And here's the party:

chocolate frogs!  

party favors

No, it's not THAT kind of spin the bottle!

Here we are at the wand choosing ceremony.  The wand chooses the wizard, not the other way around, so we used Ollivander's Magical Wand Divining Bottle to match wand to wizard.  The wands were roots from my holly tree which were unearthed when we shored up the chicken coop (from rats!) by digging around the perimeter; they were knobby and perfect!  I held up each wand and told the group where it came from and what was in its core, i.e., 'This wand is from the Whomping Willow tree and has a unicorn tail hair in its core.' Then Caroline spun the bottle and the wand went to whomever it pointed.  

 The next step was for the wizards and witches to glitter the tips of their wands!

birthday girl!

It's impossible to use too much glitter!!!!

Party snacks:  Flobberworms (gummy worms), Gillyweed (seaweed), Bowtruckles (pretzel sticks), and fruit wands (strawberries, grapes and blueberries on skewers).  The Gillyweed was especially popular.  Too bad we didn't go swimming!  (Gillyweed enables you to breathe under water!)

After they ran around casting spells with their glittery wands--the best one was a chicken coop rat banishing spell, Ratbegonigus!, it was time for Divination class.  They drank their tea and paired up to read each other's tea leaves.  In the center of the table is the crystal ball (a snow globe), the Sorcerer's Stone (an agate) and a Remberall to help me remember what comes next during the party (a wine aerator).

 They stared into their partner's cup to look for pictures and symbols.

Kelsey gazes into Lola's cup where she sees a butterfly, signifying that Lola is growing and changing. Lola sees a monkey in Kelsey's cup, signifying Kelsey's athleticism and playful spirit.  The kids really got into this!  Then Bridget dressed as Professor Trelawney and told crystal ball fortunes.

 After the fortune telling, we set off for the forbidden forest!

The Forbidden Forest is down in a ravine with a creek, just next to the park near our house.  Here the witches stand in front of a GIANT mossy rock at the edge of the creek.  Then we played Werewolf Attack.  Gino volunteered to be the werewolf, and everyone else hid.  Then he stalked them and when found and tagged, they became infected and turned into werewolves, too.  Then they hunted together until everyone was a werewolf.  This was a very fun game and we played it twice!

Then they had fun playing in the creek and especially collecting bits of clay from the creek bed.

Does Angelina see a unicorn?  Or maybe Buckbeak the hippogriff?

Peter and Gino with their clay.  We could have stayed in the Forbidden Forest all day.  Luckily, we did not run into Aragog or any of his GIANT SPIDER descendants!

Back home, it was time for Professor Sprout's (Hogwarts Herbology instructor) famous Rose Cake.

The birthday witch opens her presents!

Gino swigging his Butterbeer 

This was so fun for me to plan, as I love Harry Potter so so much and luckily, so does Caroline! Later that evening, Caroline, Bridget, Peter and I went to Ixtapa for dinner:

Happpppy Birthdayyyy, Ponchita!

Happy Birthday to you!