How to Harry Potter Your Next Birthday Bash

The Little Lady is already creating Pinterest boards around the theme of her next birthday party.

Her birthday is in August.

This year will be her 10th b-day and I think that this might be it for the big, birthday bashes. That is until she turns 13 and 16 and 18 and 21. . .

Here's a look at how we Harry Potter'd her last b-day celebration at home.

Invites

I certainly wasn't going to be delivering invites via owl, although I briefly considered sending snail mail invites with a red wax seal, until I realized that was legit crazy.

The better option was Paperless Post. They have super cute, high-quality designed invites and they just so happen to have a few that are wizard-themed. The best thing about an online invite is that all the info is easy accessible. I have a recurring anxiety dream where I am late for birthday parties or go on the wrong day. This is an easy way to keep all the scheduling and guests in order, plus they are totally on-theme!

Hogwarts Houses Option

We picked this one for the Little Lady

I also love it when we get invites from Paperless Post. I always know that I find the date and time, save to my calendar and never be late for a party! Plus the internet is kind of magical right? You really can't go wrong with either wizard-themed option, not to mention the hundreds of other invite styles and themes.

Decorations

Once we sent out the invites, we hit Pinterest hard for design and decorating ideas and came up with a few good ideas on our own!

I did want the kids to feel like they were entering the Wizarding World and the first stop was Platform 9 3/4. We covered the front door with Brick Backdrop and printed out a Platform 9 3/4 printable that we found online.

via GIPHY

We also think no event is complete without a candy bar. We printed Harry Potter themed candy names from the book onto vellum paper, cut with craft scissors and attached to containers. I found the Ron, Hermione and Harry print outs online and filled them with Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans.

I bought some small glass containers and printed potion names on vellum, glued them to the bottles and let the kids have a potion slime party. It was a good activity and they got to keep the super cute container. 

Slime, slime and more slime.

Last but not least, I ordered each kid a Harry Potter themed pajama. That, along with the candy from Honeydukes ended up being the party favor. I am a firm believer in party favors you can eat or wear! Check out the super cute  Hermione nightgown the Little Lady is sporting. 

via GIPHY

Or are you more of a Harry Potter fan?

via GIPHY

We also set up a photo booth for all the kids. You'll recognize this from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I just cut out the middle of a poster board and downloaded and printed the text. Yes, I am Sirius it was that easy. Sorry had to Harry Potter pun it.

We had a few more details that I will share in another post. Hope you have a few ideas to get your Harry Potter party started.

Slim Pickings

I am thinking of just filling this blog post with the lyrics to Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" just because I have nothing else to write about and it has been playing in my head on repeat. (And now it will be playing in yours.) So good Kelly Clarkson. So good.

Of course, when that song comes on one can't but help think about "Pitch Perfect" in all its aca-awesomeness.

This is it today people. Slim pickings.

I could talk about the weather. It is cold.

I could talk about my morning battles with the kids--again.

I could talk about how the Little Lady once again found herself in my bed watching Harry Potter last night. I will say she wanted to know why "Malboy" was so mean.

I am convinced she doesn't hear things correctly. On Saturday, while watching Madagascar 3, she insisted that Marty is singing "Acro Circus" and not "Afro Circus." Not familiar with that particular ditty? Here it is for your listening pleasure. She then proceeded to sing the entire thing as "Acro Circus" because there is nothing she likes less than being wrong.

I think I am succumbing to the pressure of having to write these posts every day. Of course, I could drop out and just post occasionally, but there is something to be said for making the effort (as half-assed as today's is) and I am going to try to reach my blogging goal.

So here you are my lovely readers, a sub-par blog on a cold winter's day.

Here is to hoping QT swallows another penny. . .

On Harry, Football, Freckles and Pooping in a Purse

It has been a busy weekend. My brother-in-law is up with his family and I headed to the in-laws with the Ladies on Friday afternoon after ballet. It was great for the Ladies to get together with their Texas cousins and it was nice to spend some time with the family. We headed back home in an attempt to beat the traffic and to get cleaned up because Momma was going out!

I was able to get a sitter for Friday night and my husband and I joined my brother and sister-in-law for a little bit of Harry Potter. Considering that the last time I went to the movies was when the last Harry Potter movie came out, I was grateful just to leave the house. The movie turned out to be pretty good and I guess the next time I step into a theatre will be for the final Harry film.

Saturday was going to be either a really good day or a really bad day. It depended on two things: 1. How cold it got outside and 2. if the Irish could actually win a football game. As it turns out, Saturday was a lot of fun. I was excited to see a football game in Yankee Stadium, but was worried about being freezing. We dropped the Ladies off at my parents, layered up and took the train into the Bronx. We met up with friends and family and the temperature didn't drop too low. Granted, I was wearing running tights over jeans that were tucked into Uggs and sporting a puffer hoody jacket that made me feel more Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man than casual football fan, but it worked out. And even though I waited on quite possibly the longest line in the Stadium for a $4 hot chocolate it turned into a good evening.

The next morning we had to head back into the City for a play with the Lady. Her grandmother invited her, her cousin and my sister-in-law and I to see an adaptation of Julianne Moore's children's book "Freckleface Strawberry." The Lady got new sparkle shoes and sparkle tights. I wasn't sure how she was enjoying the play, considering she sat there stone faced during the entire performance, much like her Disney Princess experience, but in the end she told me she loved it, she got some strawberry lip balm and had a great time.

The Lady and her Cousin. Will post photo of sparkle shoes soon.



Oh, I forgot, I am pretty sure some of you were curious about the "Pooping in a Purse" portion of this blog title.

Anyway, as I was sitting in the left-field bleachers at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night, I saw that I had a missed call from my sister. Since the game hadn't started yet, I called her back. I could barely understand what she was saying, partially because the stadium was so loud, but also because she was laughing so hard. When I finally was able to decipher what she said, simply "The Wild Man pooped in the purse you gave me for your wedding," I was in tears. Apparently, the Wild Man and his sister were playing when I guess nature came calling. Rather than attempt a run to the toilet he just used what was handy. Luckily it was empty, unluckily, he gave the purse to his little sister who brought it into the kitchen to give to her parents. Oh, Wild Man you never cease to entertain me.

A Quick List

So here is a quick recap of a few of the other things that we have been up to since the beginning of July.

The Lady and I are making a very conscious effort to get to more of the Mom's Club play dates and to become more involved. I still only know 5 women by name and sight but it is better than none.

After 6 years of living in CT and after 5 summers of seeing the Shakespeare on the Sound signs around town, my husband and I finally picked a night, got a babysitter and headed down to the sound for a showing of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Of course when we got there, the show was cancelled because a storm had blown in earlier in the day and all the electricity was out to only that one little area of town where the performance was to take place. This wouldn't have been so bad, had this actually not been the second time that this had happened to me in my attempt to view some outdoor Shakespearean theatre. However, since we had the babysitting in place we decided to take in a movie and hit up the local multi-plex for a showing of "The Hangover," which was super funny and only the third movie I have seen in the theatre at that point in almost two years. We finally made it to the last showing of the summer along with my brother and my sister in law the following week!

LI Play date: The Lady and I headed out to LI to meet up with the CNY girls and a couple of really cute kids from Brooklyn. The Lady is really into the big girls and they were so great with her, however, she only took a 25 minute nap, so things got a little hairy towards the end of the night with her. Here is a pic of the kids in their pjs.



Harry Potter: Since my little sister hates Harry Potter we left her at home to babysit and took her boyfriend to the movies along with my brother and SIL. Ah Harry, the teenage angst and budding love. The movie was pretty good and I was actually amazed to have seen two movies in the course of two weeks. I am assuming I won't be back in an actual theatre until at least 2011.

In between we have met up with other friends and family and I have made a real effort to spend some time with the Lady before her life (and mine) gets turned a bit upside down by this next kid, which I am eagerly anticipating and hoping arrives sooner rather than later!