Harry Potter New Years Eve

We had originally planned on being home for New Years, but when our friends the Palmers invited us to a Hogwarts Party in honor of Ollie we decided to stay and have a little fun. 

I had spent the day with Stacy and some of our other friends getting some things together and making some plans. Really Stacy had collected all of the stuff. Amy and I were kind of like House Elves just helping to pull all the last minute stuff together :0)

It was so much fun. The kids loved every minute of it.  Here is how it went!

(Disclamer-Stacy typed this all out on her blog, so I am totally stealing some of it because it was described so well)

The Harry Potter Party

(as you read the description, it is stacy talking. just so you don't get confused)

The Sorting Ceremony:

Each child would sit on a stool and we'd place the sorting hat on their head and the hat would actually tell them, in a pre-recorded voice, what house they were in. Then they would receive a matching scarf to symbolize their house and the next child would come up. Oliver was first and I placed the hat on his head while Ed helped him lean forward. Of course he was placed in Gryffindor and so I put his scarf around him and he laid back down. Everyone clapped and cheered and he had a big smile on his face. It was so fun to see the kids reactions to what house they were placed in. Too funny! The hat would say one of these three things.

"Plenty of courage I see, not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh yes, and a thirst to prove yourself, but where to put you??? Mmmmm... difficult, very difficult... GRYFFINDOR!!!"

"I know... HUFFLEPUFF!!"

"SLYTHERIN"

Gryffindor - Oliver, Meghan (not me), Kaden, Kael
Slytherin - Jaren, Briea, Cullan
Hufflepuff - Eden
Ravenclaw - Phineas, Ayla (ages 2 & 1)

 THE FEAST
After the sorting ceremony we had a buffet set up of all sorts of finger foods. Drum sticks, a relish tray, chips and dip, little smokies, cheese and crackers and of course, Butterbeer. Amy made it with cream soda, Redi-whip, and butter flavoring. It was so good! Some of the little kids couldn't even lift up the mugs because they were so big! Ginormous... as Ollie would say. I wanted to make pumpkin juice, pumpkin pasties and rock cakes, but just didn't have the time. I'm sure we'll do it this week as I have all the ingredients.

Butter Beer

THE TRI WIZARD TOURNAMENT

After we cleared off the food, we set up the potions class on the table where Ollie could see it as well. We had lots of old glass bottles filled with some potion ingredients. For example, white vinegar and baking soda which of course had cooler names like 'goblin pee' and 'crushed dragon bones'. The kids would take turns coming up and helping us add the ingredients. Briea, who will be 3 in March, gasped in amazement when one of the potions started bubbling and foaming up. So funny! Oliver even got to make his own potion.

*The First Task - Successfully brew your own potion. The kids were having a hay day with this! They used their wands, chopsticks, to stir their concoctions together.

*The Second Task - Create and draw your own crest. I printed off a downloadable coloring page off of the internet so they could fill it in themselves. They were excited about it and Eden ended up making two of them.

*The Third Task - Find the Golden Snitch. Since I knew Ollie wouldn't be able to participate in the hunt, I asked him where I should hide it and he pointed to a wall sconce with a candle inside of it. I perched it on the glass that covered the candle. We then told the kids that someone had stolen the golden snitch and Harry needed it for his next Quidditch match so we had to find it fast! They looked around the dining room and living room until Eden finally found it! It was fun watching the kids using their wands to look for it. Meghan had hers out and was using it to peek under Oliver's blanket trying to locate it. "Accio, snitch" didn't seem to work.

After each task I would give them Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts from Gringott's bank (chocolate gold coins) to spend later on. They were each awarded with their very own Tri Wizard Cup, a tiny gold trophy I got from the party favor section of the Dollar Tree. I wrote each name on the front along with the year. They loved it! I heard "I'm a REAL wizard now!" from the kids when they received them!

  HONEYDUKES Candy Shop & ZONKOS Joke Shop

We set up a small area in the kitchen for the kids to go shopping and spend their wizards money. Dollar Tree had tons of candy and fun jokes and gag gifts to make it fun for the kids. We got large glasses, magic tricks, fake spilled ketchup and nail polish bottles, fake snakes and cockroaches and all sorts of fun tricks and gags. They could each pick out one thing they wanted from Zonkos and then off to Honeydukes where we had Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans (Jelly Belly jelly beans), chocolate frogs and broomsticks, Licorice Wands, Cockroach Clusters (Hersey's crunch bar clusters), lemon drops, pop rocks and all sorts of other goodies to choose from. They filled their bags and their tummies!

Since Ollie couldn't make it out to the kitchen, I grabbed his bedside table and filled it up with all sorts of goodies, like the candy cart on the train that Harry Potter loves so much. I wheeled it over to him, but he still wasn't feeling well, so I just put some things in a baggy for him if he felt up to something sweet.

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Ok. it's me again. 

see, such a fun night. 

here are a few of some of my favorite pictures form the night.

Ayla loving on Ollie. She is usually kind of shy, but she was kissing and loving him up!

 this little guys name is Kaden. He was making me laugh. When it was his turn to put on the "sorting hat", he had his eyes closed so tightly and was whispering "please Gryffindor, PLEASE!"

 Everyone Congratulating Ollie on making it into Gryffindor!

 is this me or Professor Trelawney??

 My little Harry.

The Tri-Witch Champs!

I just love these ladies. 

They are so fun <3

While this New Years Eve was definitely bittersweet for us, we had a fun time. We knew that this would probably be the last time that we got to see Oliver and so goodbye this time was much harder than others. I cried the whole way back out to my in laws. I have know Oliver since he was still in Stacy's tummy. So to watch from beginning to end is more painful than i have imagined.

I say that knowing that knowing only how I feel as a friend. Please pray for this sweet family. I know that this new year will more than likely hold heart ache for them and that is heart breaking for me.

if you want to read olivers story you can.

wwww.oliverpalmer.blogspot.com

thanks so much friends for including us on this very special new years eve. 

it will definitely be one we will never forget!

i took so many pictures that night that there is no way i could post them all. 

so i decided to put them in an album if you want to see them.