A Magical Party

Saturday was Savannah's long-awaited Harry Potter party! I must give warning that because of the tremendous fun we had, this blog post contains an exorbitant amount of pictures.
The first years arrived at "Hogwarts" via Platform 9 3/4.

Their first stop was Ollivander's Wand Shop to receive their own personal wand.

Savannah tried out a few wands before receiving her own special wand, the Hermoine Granger special. She had already picked out one of the wands I had made so she was getting a little frustrated when Ollivander kept telling her that that one wasn't the right wand for her. When he handed her the Hermoine Granger wand, Savannah was more than thrilled.


All the first years with their wands.

Following Professor McGonagall into the Great Hall for the Sorting Hat Ceremony.

I had to throw in this picture of the House banners - I worked dang hard on them and was extremely pleased with how they turned out.

Our sorting hat had a nifty little pocket on the inside where we placed a cell phone with the speaker phone on - David was upstairs on his phone and became the Sorting Hat voice. It was fabulous! He said a little something about each girl's personality and then announced which house they would be in.


As for my kids, Savannah ended up in Gryffindor,

Xander in Slytherin (no surprise there),

and Noah in Hufflepuff.

After everyone was arranged into their house, we listened to a welcoming speech by the Headmaster Albus Dumbledore

and was introduced to the staff...

Mad-Eyed Moody,

Professor Snape,

Professor Trelawney,

Professor McGonagall, and Albus Dumbledore.

The rest of the party consisted of six classes, the first being Divination up in the tower taught by Professor Trelawney. All I can say is that my sister Heidi embodied the very essence of this quirky teacher - she was amazing!

She taught them palm-reading

and then each girl read her own personal prophecy after popping open her orb.

Next was Defense Against the Dark Arts. The girls practiced the spell "Immobulus" with Professor Moody.

We then played Freeze Dance where, when the music stopped, each girl shouted Immobulus and had to freeze someone else. The girl who was the fastest with the spell won.

Everyone then drew a picture of their personal patronus

and then had to face a dementor to see how well their patronus charm held up.

Professor Snape taught the third class of the day - Potions. There were four different potions the girls had to complete and they did a pretty good job. When Snape asked the Slytherin house how they were doing on a particular potion that they had struggled with, one of the girls replied, "We have failed you, my Master." Pretty funny!






Following potions we had Care of Magical Creatures. Each house received a stuffed animal as well as a bag filled with pipe cleaners, feathers, and pom poms and had to create a magical creature with these supplies. They also had to answer questions like what is your creatures name? Where can they be found? What magical abilities do they have? The girls were very creative and each house shared their special creature with the rest of us.


Next was Spells and Charms. One charm was to illuminate an invisible message by saying the word "Aparecium" while waving the wand a certain way. Here are some first years writing their secret messages

and then saying the spell. And yes, that's a whole lot of Butterbeer on top of the oven!

Practicing another spell.


The girls enjoyed their Transfiguration class taught by Professor McGonagall. Each girl would "transform" another girl into an animal and the rest of the girls had to guess which animal she had been turned into. Muggles might refer to this as "Charades".



When all the classes were done, we headed outside for broom races. Headmaster Dumbledore reminded the girls that since they were only first years they had to keep their brooms to a low flying level, only a couple inches off the ground.

They did pretty well following that rule.

It was finally time for cake and ice cream! Look at the absolutely fabulous cake my friend Megan made for Savannah's party. It actually pained me to cut it!



As we waited for parents to arrive, the girls participated in a wizard's duel.


Some final shots of the party: Savannah and Hedwig;

Savannah and her grandpa the Headmaster;

me and the cutest girl around.

Although the party was a lot of work, it was well worth it - we had a blast! I am so grateful to my family for driving long distances to help me...this party would not have been the success it was without them!