Harry Potter Day!

On August 31st we had our 5th annual Harry Potter party! We usually celebrate on Sept. 1st because that is when the Hogwarts Express always takes the kids back to Hogwarts for the school year. But this year we did it a day early so we could let Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Gerry join in on the fun. We started out by having our traditional Harry Potter Day dinner of cauldrons with magic potion in them (bread bowls with clam chowder) and we had special drinks. Some of us drank Unfiltered Poison, others chose Dried Feet of Black Crow, Witches Brew, or Eye of Newt flavors.

Garrett and Drake were excited about the party and made us some great letters out of Legos. They did this on their own initiative which I thought was pretty cool.

Then the special Owls delivered them their class schedule for the day and we headed off to Potions class where Zac gave us a great impression of Professor Snape (learned from Studio C) and we made a magic potion. We used basilisk milk (whole milk), different colors of dragon blood (food coloring) and Grindylow snot (Dawn dish soap) When you touch the tip of the Qtip with dish soap....er.....Grindylow snot into the center of the food colors it creates a fun kaleidoscope effect. It only lasts for a few seconds but it's pretty magical the first time you see it!

After that we went to Charms class where we colored Shrinky Dinks and melted them, or rather, used the Reducto spell, to shrink them and made them into necklaces.

Then we went out onto the grounds to attend Care of Magical Creatures class.  Each student brought a magical creature (stuffed animal) to class. The object of the game was to keep your magical creature on the sheet for longer than anyone else. It was a little tricky because everyone kept yanking so hard someone would lose their corner of the sheet and all the animals would go flying. I think maybe we need to practice taking care of our magical creatures!

Next we went to the North Tower and Lexi, I mean, Professor Trelawny came out and read each of us our fortune. She did a marvelous job playing her part. Then each of the kids got to make their own Harry Potter themed fortune tellers with interesting fortunes like "you will get eaten by a dragon," or "You will lose your toad," or "Your mom is going to send you a Howler today!"

We had two more classes after Divination but I didn't get pictures of those. First we went to Transfiguration and practiced transfiguring things....of course. It involved the use of play dough in case you were wondering.  Later that night, after it was dark, we had our Defense Against the Dark Arts class where we played with sparklers and did spells on the lawn.

And of course we had our annual trip to Honeydukes! Every year Honeyduke's seems to have more and more items to choose from! I may or may not have gone a little overboard this year! But in my defense everything was amazing, especially the Cockroach Clusters! And I was so excited about the witches broom pens from Oriental Trading that I personalized to say "Wish I Went to Hogwarts!"

So Happy Harry Potter Day to all! May the next year of school be the best yet, whether you be at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, at Creekview Elementary, at Mont Harmon Middle School, or anywhere else in this magical world!