The Harry Potter Party

This year my precious girl turned 10...Yes, double digits for her and officially old for me! In all seriousness, how did she get so big?!? I know everyone says that kids grow up so quick and some days feel looonnnggg when you are in them. Some stages were just terrible, some were so amazingly awesome, but the rate at which this is happening is really hitting me!

This weekend we said goodbye to Barbies and baby dolls and traded them for IPods and legos.

For her presents she wanted and I quote, "Gift cards and clothes with no words on them." Who is this child of mine?

The obsession with Harry Potter continued from Halloween, right into her 10th birthday party, for my grown up girl.

This was not a small feat, for Harry Potter party supplies simply do not exist. This was truly the party that Pinterest made!
                                                             

                                                                          The decor...

That's right to get into Hogwarts you need a password and to get into our house you needed one too!

Floating candles...

This was a labor of love, let me tell you. Weeks of collecting toilet paper rolls from my family, and lots of  hot glue, spray paint, fishing line and flicker candles later and, ta-da!

This thrift store find became these fancy candelabras after a little bit of gold spray paint!

Very Hogwarts of us!

A foam board photo booth just like in the movie!

This Hogwarts banner we found on Amazon for like $15, was money well spent! I was just going to hang it on the wall, but Brien took it to the next level and teetered on a ladder to hang it from the ceiling!

The Whomping Willow was all Callie! Just a little bit of brown paper, some thumb tacks and some twisting! She was very proud of her creation!

The food was SO fun and super easy to throw together!

Cheetos and Doritos... what kid doesn't love fake orange cheese?! I know I do!

Sour gummy worms made great jelly slugs

Some chocolate coins were a great pass for Gringotts wizard money!

Jelly Bellies look just like Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Bean without the disgusting surprises!

Lindt Carmel Truffles look surprisingly like gold snitches and Sprees Chews are exactly how I'd imagine Fizzing Wizzbees!

Reese's and a pretzel=broom sticks!

My mom found these super awesome gum eyeballs during Halloween, pretty awesome find mom!

The Entertainment!

Pin the scar on Harry Potter was Callies' creation, she did such a great job and it was super fun to spin those crazy kids and grown ups around and see where the scars ended up!

Our very own Quidditch Pitch! Brien made these out of some 1x2's from Lowes, a couple of clamps and some hula hoops that he ripped the sparkly paper off of!

If only we had our Nimbus 2000's!

And last but not least...Potions class! We made a bubbly mess from the same recipe we used this summer!

I think this birthday was probably one of my favorites as far as planning and hosting, even though it was a LOT of work, but totally worth it to shower my sweet girl with some Harry Potter love!

Thank you awesome family for being there and sharing her special day!!

Happy 10th, baby girl!!

Potions Master

This week on a ridiculously hot day we held Harry Potter potions class right here in the Wood kitchen.  Kellen was taking a nap and Callie and I had some time to kill and with her obsession with all things HP, this was a great way to fill an afternoon!

So here are the materials:

Wolf's Bane: Hydrogen peroxide

Crushed dragon bones: Baking soda

Basilisk Venom: Vinegar

Worm guts: dish soap

Dragon's blood: red food coloring

Gillyweed:  dried spices

Unicorn horn powder: glitter

Mandrake root: pretzels

Dream fluid: yeast

Eyeball of a bind cat: blueberries

Just by the way, these are NOT for eating and they smell awful!

First up we tried our hand at Veritserum (truth potion)...

You need:

2 pieces of mandrake root (pretzels)

1 cup of basilisk venom (vinegar)

2 drops of dragon blood (food coloring)

a pinch of gillyweed (spices)

Blind cat eyes (blueberries--the number of Harry Potter books you have read, we added 4)

1 squirt of worm guts (dish soap)
2 shakes of unicorn horn powder (glitter)

3 scoops of crushed dragon's bones (baking powder)

Combine in a large bowl and stir, stir, stir!

The more we stirred, the bigger the reaction! It was super cool! The potion actually dissolved our pretzels. Oops, I mean mandrake root.

The next potion was polyjuice potion (you know, for transforming into another person for an hour)

Clean your cauldron and add:

1/2 cup of wolfsbane (hydrogen peroxide)

1 squirt of worm guts (dish soap)

4 drops of dragon blood (food coloring)

3 tablespoons of dream fluid (yeast, we could only scrounge up 2 tablespoons and the reaction worked just fine)

Stir some more...

The reaction was super similar: foamy mess. But this potion smelled TERRIBLE!

So overall potions class was a ragin' success! I wish there were more recipes out there. I might have to do some additional research! I however cannot take ANY credit for the recipes. I actually found them among the geniuses on Pinterest! 

Butter Beer and good old Harry Potter

We have been taken over by the wizarding world at the Wood house! Callie started reading the Harry Potter series at the beginning of the school year and she has just fallen in love with these books.

Last week we finished off the third book, The Prisoner of Azkaban, which is my favorite book! So we decided to celebrate this Saturday, by watching the movie and trying to make Butter Beer.

It is quite a process let me tell you!
You need
1 cup of brown sugar
2 tbsp of water
6 tbsp of butter
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup of heavy cream
2 liter of cream soda

First in a sauce pan mix the sugar and water together and heat up over medium.

Bring the mixture to a boil and let it get good and caramel-y. One recipe I found said to heat it to 240 using a candy thermometer, but I didn't have one so I just let it boil for about 3 minutes until it was smooth and not grainy.

Removed from heat and stir in the butter, salt, cider and 1/4 cup of the heavy cream until it is smooth. Next let the mixture cool back down to room temperature. This was the longest part, waiting.

After it has cooled down, whip 2 tbsp of the brown sugar mixture with the remaining heavy cream using egg beaters. The recipe suggested about 3 minutes of whipping, you want it creamy but not totally whipped cream texture, if that makes sense.

Finally the good part... Spoon the brown sugar mixture into a cup. We used Brien's beer mugs, a big scoop for both!

 Then, pour on the cream soda, we filled the glass about 3/4 full. Stir the mixture.

Last top off with the cream! 

So the verdict is...Butter Beer is weird. It's a little like a super sweet, warm, root beer float. Callie LOVED it, I thought it was okay and Brien was NOT a fan. So maybe not for everyone, but it was worth a try! 

And by the by, the book is SO much better than the movie!