Birthday Season
Sep. 21st, 2009 12:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomikritzerFriday was Kiera's birthday. Today was Molly's birthday. Last week, we took Kiera and two friends over to Como Town Amusement Park; today, Molly had a party. A Harry Potter themed party.
It went really well. Ed and I borrowed my parents'wizard academic robes to use as costumes. We had everyone make a wand using a wood dowel, pipe cleaners, and beads, sorted everyone into houses, and then played "name the Bertie Botts flavor" with Jelly Bellies. (It was fascinating how much incorrect consensus there was, like when almost everyone thought the coconut was vanilla, and when almost everyone thought the caramel corn was coffee. We had them close their eyes before eating the blueberry ones, so they didn't see the color, and only two kids got that they were blueberry; Kiera thought strawberry and Molly thought lime. Molly was particularly terrible at this game; she got only one flavor out of eleven correct, probably in part because she so rarely gets to eat this sort of candy.)
The high point was probably "Potions Class." I bought a whole bunch of drink mixes -- three varieties of Kool-Aid (none red, of course), a green tea mix, a spiced cider mix, and Tang. We also had blue Pop Rocks. And both plain and carbonated water. I left some of the Kool-Aid as a powder (mixed with sugar) and mixed up some with just a little water to make sort of a Kool-Aid concentrate. I gave everything a whimsical label (like "snail shell powder" for the Tang).
The kids got an eyedropper (because eyedroppers are fun!), a plastic martini glass to mix things in (because it was a neat shape, and because the clear plastic was a nice showcase for the bizarre colors), and spoons. And were told they were supposed to make a "strengthening solution."
And they absolutely got into the spirit of things, mixing up horrifying looking concoctions and then sampling their friends' horrifying looking concoctions ("EW this is disGUSTing. Here, try some"). This was a great activity and FWIW would work just as well at a Mad Scientist themed party as at a wizard themed one.
Then they whacked a piñata and had cake and ice cream and Molly opened presents. It was a good day. I can't believe my oldest daughter is nine, and my baby is six.
It went really well. Ed and I borrowed my parents'
The high point was probably "Potions Class." I bought a whole bunch of drink mixes -- three varieties of Kool-Aid (none red, of course), a green tea mix, a spiced cider mix, and Tang. We also had blue Pop Rocks. And both plain and carbonated water. I left some of the Kool-Aid as a powder (mixed with sugar) and mixed up some with just a little water to make sort of a Kool-Aid concentrate. I gave everything a whimsical label (like "snail shell powder" for the Tang).
The kids got an eyedropper (because eyedroppers are fun!), a plastic martini glass to mix things in (because it was a neat shape, and because the clear plastic was a nice showcase for the bizarre colors), and spoons. And were told they were supposed to make a "strengthening solution."
And they absolutely got into the spirit of things, mixing up horrifying looking concoctions and then sampling their friends' horrifying looking concoctions ("EW this is disGUSTing. Here, try some"). This was a great activity and FWIW would work just as well at a Mad Scientist themed party as at a wizard themed one.
Then they whacked a piñata and had cake and ice cream and Molly opened presents. It was a good day. I can't believe my oldest daughter is nine, and my baby is six.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 05:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 07:25 am (UTC)HAHAHAHAHA :-) I *love* this behavior pattern in humans! I have no idea why it exists or persists (shouldn't it have poisoned itself out of the gene pool?) but the moment you describe it I can instantly visualize a bunch of friends standing around intensely focused on saying things like that to each other. "Hey, try the blue cheese and strawberry fondant cream, it's absolutely wretched."
no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 01:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 11:59 am (UTC)Happy birthdays!
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Date: 2009-09-21 01:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 08:51 pm (UTC)best party evAR
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Date: 2009-10-03 10:04 pm (UTC)(Pseudo)
no subject
Date: 2009-10-03 10:23 pm (UTC)A couple of additional notes for actual implementation:
1. Jelly Bellies are available for individual purchase in some very wacky flavors at the local SuperTarget. (The grocery store had a more limited variety.)
2. I bought individually wrapped plastic eyedroppers at a local surplus store called the Ax-Man, but a pharmacy might have them and give you a handful if you asked nicely. They're an optional accessory but the kids found them very entertaining to play with. The pop-rocks are a MUST.
3. If you want a HP themed cake and are a decorating loser like me, order one of those cake decorating sets early. I wound up having to beg SuperTarget to sell me one; they usually won't sell them separately, and no one else had them. (I couldn't just order one from Target because of the red dye issue.)
4. You can buy a Hogwarts banner for about $10 and it's an awesome decoration for the party that can then be hung in the kid's room.
5. I bought the dowels for the wand craft at Menards, sawed them into foot-long segments, and sanded the ends. This would be less work if I'd owned proper woodworking tools. I like having a craft for kids to do as everyone's arriving, and this was specifically structured to be a craft that Molly's blind friend could participate in. (Actually, all the activities were planned with an eye toward being accessible to the party guest who can't see, but the craft was especially so. I got fuzzy chenille stems and pony-type beads that came in different shapes to make it as tactile as possible.)
no subject
Date: 2009-10-04 02:58 pm (UTC)I'm also thinking of making school robes out of black trash bags. Don't know if that's too hot or even feasible.
I hate planning parties but Ian hasn't had one in a couple of years and I am getting all excited about these ideas.
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Date: 2009-10-06 01:19 am (UTC)We did sort into four houses. I printed out house badges (which would've been cooler if we owned a color printer, but we don't) and then hovered our Sorting Hat over each kid (I didn't put it ON each kid because of the risk of spreading cooties if anyone had them) and talked to each kid to figure out where to Sort them. I started by saying, "Sooooooo, which House should I put you in?" to see if they had a specific thought on the matter, and then if they didn't, I'd say, "Are you more a smart kid, or more a brave kid, or more a hard-working kid, or are you one of the BAD GUYS?" which cracked them up. And if they still didn't help me out, I sorted them into Ravenclaw. It was mostly Gryffindors and Ravenclaws with a couple of Hufflepuffs. No one volunteered to be in Slytherin. (I had printed badges, though, because you never know.)
Then we didn't do anything by houses, it was just for the entertainment factor of sorting people.
I love your idea of volleyball quidditch. I wish I'd thought of that.
Better use the extra-heavy-duty trash bags if you want to use them as robes. I remember improvised raincoats from trash bags back in the 1980s and they'd generally fall apart really fast.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-06 12:25 pm (UTC)If you click through there you'll see the trash bag robes. Even if they don't last the whole party it would be fun to come in and have them make wands, get school robes, and maybe a cauldron in "Diagon Alley."
I saw another idea for Quidditch where you throw balls through hula hoops hung up in the air and then at some random point toss a tennis ball in for the Snitch. I am no PE teacher so I don't know if I can run some complex sport! LOL
I was thinking of doing a Charms class where they'd have to memorize 5 spells in a minute and then try to earn points by repeating them perfectly. I would have rocked at that as a kid!
When you have a moment, can you tell me exactly how you ran the jelly bean game? How did you divide up the beans and pass them out, etc.
Basically I have enough ideas for three days, which is not a bad thing! Now I just have to figure out which day won't conflict with everything else in the world.