Potter Party Part III: The Activities

Hey Potter Friends,

It's been a while!! Unfortunately sometimes life gets busy! This will be the last post regarding the recent Harry Potter party I threw and it's going to be all about the activities. I had a few different ones planned because although the majority of the people at the party were anywhere from their early 20s to 30s, there were a few in the form of nieces and nephews that ranged anywhere from 2 to 10 so we had to keep everyone entertained!!

One of the activities we played was "find the horcruxes." We hid all seven of the horcruxes in random places throughout the house and let people have at it! We made sure not to hide them in too difficult of places simply because we didn't want people having to tear apart the house to find them. We used a stuffed animal in the form of a snake for Nagini and a dollar store crown with blue jewels for the diadem. I don't have pictures of these ones but pics of all the others are below. I've been collecting prop replicas from thenoblecollection.com for quite a long time so I was lucky to have the majority of the horcruxes already. I did use the party as an excuse to purchase the Hufflepuff cup though :)

The kids really loved this activity and the adults really enjoyed "helping" the kids find them, though I'm pretty sure that was just their excuse for getting into it. All horcruxes were found which means, WE DEFEATED LORD VOLDEMORT!!! I meant to offer the framed quotes (pictured in the decorations post) as a prize for those who found horcruxes, but I completely SPACED!!

We also played a "Guess What Character" game. As people came in the door we put small pieces of paper on their backs, each of which had a different character from the books printed on it. You had to go around and ask "yes" or "no" questions to try and figure out who you were. This was a game that everyone enjoyed and it's a good way for people to mingle. We made sure to give the more difficult ones to the more...dedicated Harry Potter fan. They would eventually be able to get "Peeves" for example, but someone who may have only seen the movies once would probably need a name like "Harry Potter." 

The best activity by far was wand making. I don't think you're ever too old to make wands. I got the idea from this tutorial on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pin/112871534381963827/  It's really easy and the wonderful thing about it is that as you're doing it, you look at your stick with hot glue and beads and think it looks so strange but then once you paint it, it all comes together and they almost always look amazing. I've only ever seen one that didn't turn out well. 

In the tutorial they used chopsticks for the wands but I couldn't find any sturdy chopsticks. They were all the really thin ones that come in a package and then break apart, so instead I bought doweling in a couple different diameters and cut them with a chop saw. You can usually get two or three wands out of a piece of doweling, depending on the length. They were then sanded on a belt sander to give them that slight taper that wands have. Other than that the idea is the same as the tutorial on Pinterest, and if you don't have saws or sanders readily at your use, you can probably find nicer chopsticks if you look harder than I did. I gave up pretty easy. A couple other tips or facts-It can take awhile to paint them. Hot glue is rather glossy so it takes a few coats to cover it thoroughly and if you use beads, it can take a few coats to get in all the holes and little spaces. I would also finish with a clear coat of acrylic sealer as pictured below. It will protect the paint and make it feel nicer in your hand, without it it can feel rather chalky. 

In the picture below you can see the difference between the ones that were sprayed with a sealant and those that weren't. The grey one in middle HAS NOT been sprayed (it still needed a couple more coats of paint) and the ones next to it HAVE. You can probably tell just from the picture how much nicer the sealed one would feel in your hand.

We also had a bunch of board games and video games set up for all the other downtime. We had Harry Potter for the XBOX Kinect, Lego Harry Potter for the Wii, Harry Potter Scene It, Harry Potter Clue and a Quidditch board game. Between all the activities and all the food, everyone was well entertained, well fed and very fulfilled in all things magical. It was wonderful. I hope you get to have your own Harry Potter party soon and you don't even need a reason to have one. Just do it because you love Harry Potter!! 

Thanks for reading!

"When I'm 80 years old and sitting in my rocking chair, I'll be reading Harry Potter. And my family will say to me, ' After all this time?' And I will say, 'Always.' -- Alan Rickman

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