H stands for...

Harry, Hermione, Hagrid, Hedwig, Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, and Happy Birthday.

"Mom?  Can you put a little R next to it for Ron?"

Levi had his party last week.  Clearly, it was Harry Potter themed.  He adores Harry Potter.  His favorite character is Ron.  I'm not really sure why, since Ron is kind of a dork.  He's a lovable dork, though. :^)

First, each guest had to be sorted.  This was a way to make them wear nametags.  About half the kids were from church, and half from school, and there's not a lot of overlap between the groups.  And, I didn't know some of the school kids.  So, it helped us, too.  The sorting hat was the same hat I used for my snowmen as a kid.  It's nice and well-worn.

The next task was to make/decorate a wand.  We bought little dowels and had them use markers, crayons and stickers.  Then we added some metallic pearl crinkle (fancy Easter grass) to make it look like a spell was coming out the end.  One little boy (whose dad is a professional magician) decided he wanted to make his wand black.  He spent nearly 30 minutes painstakingly coloring it perfectly black.

Following the pizza (yay, pizza!) they went outside for quidditch practice.  They worked on throwing three quaffles through the hoops.

Then, they used our foam bat as beaters hitting the bludger away.

Since it's hard to keep your glasses on while flying around on a broom, they played "Pin the Glasses on Harry" when they came back in.  Some of the kids were cheaters and looked out from under their blindfold.  Others felt the glasses already on the poster.  Some were happy with wherever they put it. 

After putting the glasses back on, it was time for Potions Class.  We picked up several pop rocks kits that included test tubes and a sour ingredient.  We provided the tall vase of elixir, and the powdered dragon's egg, crystallized unicorn tears, crushed lizard teeth, and dried mandrake root.  When these were mixed properly, it fizzed and foamed, and then would make the drinker invisible.  The kids took this very seriously, and were very careful with the ingredients.

The foaming was impressive...

but the taste, not so much.

The cake and ice cream turned out to be the most dangerous part of the party.  One little guy fell off his chair and banged his mouth on the table. :(  He quickly recovered, though, and finished his cake.

It was a really fun party, but 12 kindergarteners in the house at once was a little crazy.  I didn't mind seeing them go.