It started with the invitation.
Some people mocked my Golden Snitch doughnut, but I like it.
Now for the rest of the decorations. My goal was to do as much as I could for as little money as possible. 95% of the stuff I used I found around the house. I bought the flickering tea lights and one can of spray paint and that's it. Awesomesauce.
I decided to add a little Harry Potterness to our family pictures up above our piano. I'm not sure how many people noticed these, but I got a kick out of them. (And that's all that matters, right?)
I like the zombie hand in the lake the best.
Spencer... the boy who lived.
I love Hogwarts in the background.
I'm not saying Cole conjured the Dark Mark in the background. For all we know he just got rid of the wizard who did. But I'm also not saying he didn't conjure that Dark Mark...
A little advanced potions and time turning for Tess.
The family pics originally in these frames were pretty old but I just didn't feel like hunting down and printing new ones. But hunting down and printing Harry Potter pictures? Yes.
Here's my favorite decoration: Harry Potter envelopes flying out of the fire place!
Practically free (I had everything on hand already) and easy to install and totally cool looking!
How long do you think I can get away with keeping this up here? Because I love it.
I made this pillow with my Cricut. And I love it.
I made 40+ of these floating candles during conference. It was so fun! The picture really doesn't do it justice - they looked so cool!)
Our porch was the entrance to platform 9 3/4.
As well as where you could get sorted into one of the Hogwarts' houses.
And I put up these signs in each of the bathrooms.
Because Potter potty humor? BIG with the kid set.
I did lots of games this year. I think I'll cut back again - it was just a bit much. Fun, but crazy.
Of course we had a quiz. And of course it was hard. Because a Madsen party quiz weeds out the weak from the strong!
The prize for the quiz. I actually had two winners and they had to split the spoils. Next year I need to have a couple of sudden death questions.
And what's a Potter party without a potions quiz?
It was fun to scavenge around the house for glassware and potions ingredients. Notice the one in the bag? I put clearance priced ($.78!) sardines in there. And they smelled even in the jar, so they had to be contained. Oops.
Salamander Blood (molasses with red food coloring)
Gillyweed (red leaf lettuce)
Ground Moonstone (white grits)
Dragon Heartstring (hot dogs)
Chipped Roonspoor Root (taro root)
Acromantula Venom (water with blue food coloring)
Dragon Spleen (canned chilis)
Flobberworms (ramen in colored wated)
(I forgot to take a picture of 9, the sardines. But they were supposed to be Hippogriff Gizzards. And they were gross)
Blood Worms (spaghetti with a little red sauce and water - hooray for leftovers!)
Dried Boomslang Skin (spring roll wrappers)
Puffer Fish Eyes (black eyed peas)
The potions master won a jar of stretchy body parts and candy. Yum.
We did transfiguration, which was a combo of charades and the punchboard, where they got their clues. (Because why have a punchboard if you're not going to use it?!) It was a little crazy. But all the participants got a cool wand and the winner got some straws and candy.
I had grand plans for the Tri-Wizard tournament, but they went a little awry. ALL the kids wanted to do it but I could only use 4, of course.
It says 3, but, just as in the book, I drew four names.
Here's where they could enter. I think my goblet of fire is clever - an old vase spray painted gold and filled with "fire" tissue paper.
The participants were supposed to do 3 games: a dragon egg race, eating doughnuts off of strings, and a wizard duel. But during the egg race Cole's egg (yes, Cole's name was drawn) broke and he fell apart and ran away. So Josh had to come in and take his place.
And for the doughnut eating off of a string? Well, by then ALL of the doughnuts were gone! (I had made 3 big batches - 33 cups of flour used!) Our guests had eaten every one and Lance had forgotten to save 4 for me. Oops.
And by the last one it was pandemonium. I thought the wizard's duel was clever, a combo of spells and the game of war (higher number wins). It was a tournament and Josh ended up winning. Which is good, I guess, but I feel weird about inviting all of these people over to our house and then having one of my kids taking the grand prize. Oh well.
I made a bunch of wands for these games and they were SO COOL. (If I do say so myself!) I took cheap wooden dowels and hot glued glass beads onto them and covered them in different designs with the hot glue. Then I spray painted them brown, highlighted sections with gold acrylic paint, and then covered them all in Mod Podge. They were cool. But I forgot to take pictures of them! I found a few around the house, but these weren't my faves. *sigh*
Here's the Tri-Wizard Cup Josh won. True story: this was a cheapo King Julian cup from Wendy's that my good friend Deidra left in my cupboard when she stayed in our house for a few days while we were in Utah. I was going to toss it but then had this brilliant idea. A little gold spray paint and voila! Fit for a wizard. It's even full of gold coins. (I was really quite pleased with myself over this.)
The actual party? Very few pictures. As per usual. (Every year, Maren. EVERY YEAR!) But I did get a few. Like Miss Tess enjoying a chocolate glazed right from the fryer. Oh man. The doughnuts were good this year, if I do say so myself!
Guests trying to figure out the potions ingredients.
We had LOTS of kids at the party. The walls and banisters in the stairwell were absolutely covered in glaze that I have been scrubbing at various times all weekend. (You think you get it all and then find even more that you missed...)
Dallin and his cute baby brother, Dobby the House Elf. (A.K.A. Bennett, who does not like me. Still. But I'm working on changing that.)
These boys were SURE they had every single quiz answer right.
They did not. Welcome to the Madsen Quiz, boys!
The evening was a great success. I got to talk to lots of people, get to know new members in our ward, give a wand to a missionary (an AVID Harry Potter fan), and just have a fun time. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it because I enjoy doing it so much. Big kudos to Lance for keeping the eye rolling to a minimum with all of my crazy ideas and for being such a great fry cook.
Now, time to get start planning for next year. (My good buddy Dallin is already helping me!)
