Bowden Party 365: Harry Potter 8th Birthday Party

Kenny finally got his Harry Potter birthday party for his 8th birthday this year. With Kenny being so excited about the opening of the new Harry Potter world at Universal studios, it was an obvious choice. Kenny and Ellie are always playing Harry Potter games with each other, setting up Olivander's wand shop in Kenny's room and casting spells on each other with their wands. It was a fun challenge to try and bring the magic of Harry Potter alive for the birthday boy. We tried to keep it simple this year so we only let Kenny invite 5 kids...which turned into 9 plus some siblings. It was really nice having a smaller, more controlled party group this year. It was also glad Kenny chose a theme that was a little more fun for me to get into (ahem...see his Ninjago party last year *wink*)

The main cake table greeting the kids as the kids walked in.

This has to be my favorite picture from the whole party as everyone started singing happy birthday to Kenny. The look on his face as he was dancing along says it all.

Ellie as Hermione and Kenny as Harry Potter were so excited to have Bruce as Hedwig at the party with them. My amazing mom made this adorable little owl cape just for him. (Owl hat from HERE)

We transformed the front room into the Great Hall for the welcome feast. Luckily my mom and Joey hung all the stone wall for me so i didn't have to stay up all night trying to do it.
(Stone wall backdrop from Amazon as well as the house banners. THESE are the candles I used for the floating candle effect)

One of the highlights for the kids was potions class where they brewed apple juice with dry ice

Group shot. Joey was a wizard wearing the sorting hat, Bruce: Hedwig (Harry's owl), Kenny: Harry Potter, Ellie: Hermione, Me: just a witchy look, Grandma Patty: Professor Mcgonagal with baby powder in her hair to complete the look.

The golden snitch cake pops I made (Inspiration here)

It wouldn't be a true Harry potter party without a Honeydukes sweet shop featuring chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts every flavor beans! This was actually kind of a last minute addition as you can see I quickly drew and colored the HoneyDukes sign by hand on butcher paper the morning of the party. Luckily we keep a very well stocked supply of candy on hand.
Buy Bertie Bott's every flavour beans here
FREE Chocolate frog packaging HERE
FREE Bertie Bott's every flavour beans packaging here

Ellie packaging up some goodys in her Honeydukes bag. I grabbed some extra Honeydukes sweets bags last time we were up at Universal Studios. They were perfect goody bags for the kids to fill.

Candy is just so photogenic

Loving on their little baby Hedwig.

The invitations were Hogwarts Express tickets that Joey somehow from another one he found online (if I find the link I will post it). We wrapped each one in parchment paper and sealed it with the Hogwarts crest wax stamp.
Find Hogwarts crest wax seal stamp here

This cake was kinda fun to make. I was a bit surprised the sorting hat on top actually turned out exactly as I had hoped. I'm not sure what the original source for this cake design is...it's all over the internet. I had a lady I found on Etsy print out the Hogwarts crest and the train ticket on edible paper for me as accents on the cake (This is her Etsy shop) // Kenny practicing some Harry Potter music a bit before his guests arrived

A golden snitch cakepop caught flying through our backyard

I made individual house cookies and layed them out at each place setting of the Great Hall table. I purchased the house crests on edible paper from this Etsy shop here. She also printed the Hogwarts crest and train ticket for the cake.

Playing spin the bottle for the wand selection ceremony. I was going to make the wands myself, but then found these super cute ones on Etsy that were exactly what I wanted for about the same price it would have cost me to make them. Win win.

I hung a collage of lenticular Halloween photos to give the impression of moving photos like in the movies. The kids were so impressed by them, but also thought they were a bit scary...which they kind of were. (I found them at Michael's and Party City during Halloween...they are just the cheap flimsy plastic ones)// Kenny SOOO excited for the sorting hat ceremony. Of course he was placed into....GRYFFINDOR!!! (I bought the sorting hat on Amazon here)

I think the sorting hat ceremony was the kids very favorite part of the party. There was a little pocket inside the hat we placed an iPhone in on speaker phone. Joey sat in the back room on the other end of the speaker phone and watched through our cameras we have hanging on the walls to see which child was wearing the hat. Then he would hum and haw about as he talked to each child through the hat before announcing their assigned house. The kids genuinely believed we had the real life magical sorting hat. If you have never heard Joey do his movie voices for the kids, you are missing out. He sounded exactly like the sorting hat voice from the movie. He should be nominated for an Emmy (or is it a golden globe?) for his performance because everything about it was just perfect and really made the whole party complete. The kids were so anxious with anticipation as each child was assigned a house. Every time a house was announced they would cheer and cheer just like in the move. It was adorable.

Ellie's turn with the sorting hat....GRYFFINDOR (The tutorial for the spooky crystal balls HERE)

It was SOOO fun watching the kids get so into this. Seriously just the cutest thing ever.

Some cake details (The box the cake is sitting on is actually the box the hard cover Harry Potter series comes in) // Kenny talking to the sorting hat

Kenny and David sampling some cockroach clusters

Close up on the Berttie Bott's Every Flavour Beans

Golden snitch balls (cake pops), cockroach clusters (recipe), golden cookies, and pumpkin pasties (mini pumpkin pies from Trader Joes // Couldn't do it all without this lady

House cookies and chocolate frog boxes

Another pre party family shot

My good friend, Ada, was so nice to come help out with the party. She captured this fun angle of the Honeydukes shop for us and lots of the other great pictures.

Per Kenny's request, the Great Hall dinner menu consisted of drumsticks and corn on the cob

This cape! My mama is super talented // Kenny had a blast sitting at the head of the table surrounded by his friends.

Little miss Ellie having a great time

We called this the golden snitch challenge...each participant had to eat their donut off the string without touching with their hands. Once that task was complete they could begin to search for the the golden snitch hidden somewhere in the yard. The first person to find it would win the challenge for their House.