Diagon Alley

Originally I planned to close the door to my son's bedroom which is off the main living area but as I started thinking things through I realized how great it would be to have the kids come in and go straight to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. This was really fun but a total pain to pull off because all his things had to be boxed up in order for the room to really look like a shop.

 He already had shelving so we removed the toys that were on them and put up the potion jars that each child would receive. I used his dresser to hold the wands and spellbooks (also party favors). To fill up the shelves we added stuffed cats, owls, toads and rats. It turned out some kids wanted to borrow. So that worked out great.

I got a Hedwig from Alivan's http://www.alivans.com/?gclid=CIiEq_vcmZkCFRk_awodHQw-DQ for $6.50 that I put in a bird cage we already had. We hung a bat from the ceiling. Janet had brought some brooms so we hung one from the ceiling using fishing line with a Nimbus 2000 sign. She also brought cauldrons which helped make it look like a real witch and wizard store.

My sister lent us a really cool brass coat rack. I picked up wire hangers from the dry cleaner that I hung the robes my friend Janet had lent us on. Kids that didn't bring their own robes were able to borrow and all kids were "in costume". Using the coat rack was perfect because it left enough floor space to squeeze all the kids in the room.

Each child received a black Hogwarts bag to put their things in. I made these by printing the Hogwarts crest (from the internet) onto full sheet stickers I got from Office Depot and cut with a paper cutter. The labels were then attached to the black paper bags I'd purchased from a paper store.

Warning: Don't bother trying to make this Nimbus 2000 sign unless you happen to have a graphic design background like my husband.

The Wands

The party favors: Wands and Spellbooks

Steve had made the kids some wands out of bamboo earlier in the year. Then at Halloween he made some more and we discovered that even the small Bamboo is sometimes hollow in the center, making it not always ideal for wands. The bamboo wands were pretty quick and easy to make but we were concerned that bamboo might break.

So in the end we opted to buy oak dowels from the lumber store.

Steve then made a lathe out of his drill and carved each of the 16 wands individually by hand so each was a little different. WARNING: THIS IS DANGEROUS. They were then stained using wood stains we already had. And clear coated with Rustoleum clear spray paint so the stain wouldn't rub off on the kids' hands.

I'd read on one of the party sites that a woman had put the wands in a light up cup so I thought I'd give that a try. We used a cup from The Rainforest Cafe (I got a 24 oz electric lemonade out of the deal.) and I covered the logo with an Ollivander's label I made by using a picture I found on the internet. The button is on the bottom of the cup. I had each child select a wand but if the magic cup did not light up it was "not the wand for them" and they had to select another. It was fun.

Sometimes they'd get the right one the first time sometimes it seemed like they had to try every wand in the cup. It's hard to see in the pictures but it was a cool effect and the kids loved it. Of course they eventually caught on but were still good sports as they selected their wands.