A Very Harry Potter July!

 Hi friends!
It has been quite a while, hasn't it?  Life is busy, but a good kind of busy.  I thought about not sharing this post because it's just so incomplete...My pictures aren't great, and I don't have any great step by step pictures to share. That's the reality of life though isn't it?  Life isn't perfect, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth documenting or sharing.  There's some really fun, good stuff here...I hope you'll agree with me!

Lu's been obsessed with Harry Potter lately.  We took a trip to Universal Studios in Los Angeles a couple of months ago, and then this summer she decided what she wanted most for her birthday was to bring Harry Potter alive.  There's no shortage of  wonderful Harry Potter ideas online, and we tried several of them! 

We made shirts.  All except Gryffindor, because those shirts I was able to pick up at Target.   I love how these turned out!!  We used iron on vinyl and my cutting machine. 

We loved bringing Honey Dukes alive. So many of these templates we found on Pinterest.  Let's just say lots and lots of cutting happened for this project.

 Lu made these adorable Pigmy puffs. Some craft foam, googly eyes (left over from Valentine's day), and a garland from the dollar store came together so cute! 

Potions though stole my heart.  Did you know that if you boil red cabbage that the purple water remaining is a fabulous PH indicator?  Let me just tell you this...Follow the recipe below and I promise you won't be disappointed.  Add the following to about a 1/4 cup boiled cabbage juice.  Make sure to add them in order.  (Dried dragon eggs=baking soda, troll snot=milk, mushroom juice=lemon juice, and frog pee equals vinegar. ) 

For dessert, Lu opted to have the kids make Mandrakes with pudding, oreos, caramels, and mint leaves instead of cake. 

 

We made wands, with little magnets at the end, so that they were magnetic!  This was really fun for relay races, where the kids had to keep a balloon (with a paper clip attached to the end) from falling and hitting the grass.  I wish I'd gotten better pictures of this set up, but we made olivander's shop with the makey makey, similar to what was done here.

I'll be honest, this party was a ton of work (and not just for Lu...for Mom too.) But it ended up being a really fun party, and Lu was super excited.

Totally worth all the hard work...and definitely worth documenting, despite the imperfections!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

XOXO,

Jill