Max's Party: Part 2 - Hogwarts

After a trip through Diagon Alley, the kids proceeded down the steps where they stopped under the big banner (which was a Japanese Obi that I found at Goodwill that just happened to be Gryffindor colors!). Here they were sorted into their houses. In order to avoid hurt feelings, we left Slytherin out of the mix and only used Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Kids found out their house by choosing a class schedule and looking on the back to reveal a house sticker.



On their class schedules they had 5 classes: Quidditch, Divination, Broom Riding, Potions and Care of Magical Creatures.

For the Quidditch field we were blessed to have found 3 metal hoops when we dug up our yard for our remodel. The bases are old tiki torches that we had in our garage. We gave these items to Jeremy and let him work his magic. As usual, he made something truly amazing.

The Quidditch robe was a score at a thrift store in San Francisco!

For Divination, we filled white balloons with prophecies, stuck them in our black fire pit and let each child choose one to pop.

For Broom Riding we held a relay race. We sorted the kids into two groups and had them race to put on wizard cloaks, scarves, glasses and hats and then race across the yard on broomsticks.

Potions class gave the kids a chance to mix baking soda and vinegar for the chemical reaction and then add all kinds of items to their pots. They were then filtered into bottles so the kids could bring them home.

Mane of Thestral (corn silk) and Forbidden Forest Herbs (herbes de provence) were two of the ingredients.

Crystalized Fairy Breath (sea salt) and food coloring were also added:

Corn husks made great Dragon Scales:

Care of Magical Creatures class was where the kids had the opportunity to paint their owls. Some chose to leave them white since Harry's owl, Hedwig, is white, while others went wild with the colors