The Kid turns 6 on Wednesday, February 8th. We are planning to have a party for him in one week from today. He, of course, wants a Harry Potter party, which is great. If I'm going to have to spend money on corporate branded party hats, plates, napkins, balloons, etc, I would rather have a portion of that money go to the brilliance that is JK Rowling, rather than one of the focus-group created craptastic cartoons that litter our television stations. He's having a party whose theme is derived from a BOOK, yo. I must say that I am pleased with that.
Okay, that said, could it be any freaking HARDER to come up with games associated with Harry Potter? The books, for those of you living under rocks, are about MAGIC. Magic that happens in a magical land. And we don't live there, and we can't do magic. So, The Kid and my neice keep coming up with party games that would somehow require levitation, dissappearing objects, etc. I keep trying to think of traditional party games that I can somehow "transfigure" into a Harry Potter-type activity. So, I sit around thinking of words to substitute for Duck and Goose: "Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Slytherin!" or Red Rover: "Dumbledore, Dumbledore, send Timmy on o'er!"
What we have accomplished: We took a fantastic trip to the natural history museum last weekend (it was fun, yo. We made up a game of having to find something that started w/ each letter in the alphabet.), and purchased one of those ubiquitous-at-museums bags of shiny rocks to give out to each kid as a prize (a sorcerers stone). I originally wanted to make them find them, as a scavenger-hunt kind of thing, where they have to acheive little goals to get to the point that they find the sorcerers stone, kind of like the first book, but I'm having a hard time with that, as we are having the party at my mom's house and what if it's cold, and that's just a lot to plan!!!
Also, we do have a pinata. It's a wizard's hat. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.
So, I guess the point of this post is that I need your help, yo. I need to figure this crap out this weekend. What could the "tasks" be for our scavenger hunt? The problem with 6 is that most of our invitees will not yet be reading. This makes it hard. I've hit a creative party planning slump.
Please! Help Me!
9 comments:
I say we put some whiskey in their sippy cups and watch what happens.
How about a kind of concentration/matching hide-and-seek scavenger hunt with cards with pictures of things from the books? You could have the cards be two sided with one side clearly the clue and the other side clearly the next thing to be sought (color? or folded down?). I like mr. lady's idea too, though. Wish I could be there.
Also, what about pin the tail on Fluffy or Cruikshanks?
And sitting on balloons never gets old.
True dat, beans.
I think we've decided on some kind of balloon race with sitting on the balloons at the end. This is because nothing cracks me up more than watching 10 kids trying to pop balloons with their butts.
We also bought some Bertie Botts every flavor beans which we are going to mix with normal jelly bellies and make them eat, but we'll make it more fun, like a fear factor type thing.
After I wrote this post, I called my mom and she was like, why are you making this so hard? They're little kids. We'll give them pizza and cake. They will be happy.
So, if big sisters alwasy make things easier, mom's are always right.
this will be a long comment...you caught me with some free time! here's just a few thougths more related to Sorcerer's Stone.
...the different tests that they pass all have to do with Ron, Hermione & Harry's strengths. Also they are workiing as a team. The first task is to get past Fluffy. What if you had a modified version of this... i.e. don't wake up the puppy...I'm envisioning a small dog (3-heads would be great, but you know they don't make so many of those!) on top of a jenga tower, and they all draw numbers to see who goes first and they must all remove one jenga block without knocking it down. Then they can move on to the next task...
The Devil's Snare. Hermione solves this one in the book with her clever mind and skill with a wand, but what if instead you have the kids get all jumbled up in that horrible girlscout chain thing where they have to untangle themselves without letting go of their hands?
Next we have Professor Flitwick's puzzle with the flying keys solved by Harry's physical prowess. So for this one, maybe a relay race of some sort. Perhaps they have to balance a great big styrofoam key on their heads as they walk around memaw's kitchen island. You could cut one out of that posterboard with the styrofoam in the middle...
Next task is to get past Professor McGonagall's chess set. Ron wins this partly through his great talent for chess, but also for sacrificing himself. Hmmm... a learning opportunity at a birthday party? What if you make a chessboard and put the kids on one side and then have them draw 3 cards... One with a task (question, riddle or stunt) one with the name of one of the kids at the party and the other with a chesspiece. Then if they successfully fulfill the card then the kid whose name they drew gets to move like whichever chesspiece they drew. Once all the kids get to the other side they're on to the next task. Unlike poor Ron, I wouldn't leave anyone behind!
Since Harry & Hermione don't have to deal with Quirrell's troll, maybe you can skip this one, but wouldn't this be a great time to eat some troll boogers (green jello) or something? GRRRR!
Okay, Snapes potions....Hmmm. Just time for some punch & cake? Or perhaps someone will have a surprise at the bottom of their cup? A sticker at the bottom which gives them an extra prize or maybe a chance to answer a trivia question or something... You could have 2 colors of punch and then figure out some sort of game based on which color punch they pick. Lemonade & Strawberry kool-aid for gryffindor, perhaps?
And then the mirror of Erised. Harry wins this one for his good heart. Hmmm. The only thing I can think of is some sort of observation game. Or mirror images? Maybe one of those deals where you have two pictures of the same thing which are slightly different, and when they find the differences, they get their stone?
Just some food for thought. Of course this might be way too many tasks...
Love, Beans
you called YOUR mom? I thought she was MY mom!
LOL, After your mom-inspired simplicity post, I thought up all sorts of complications. Maybe big sisters don't actually make things easier...
:-P
Still wish I could be there!
B
I wish you could be here too, beandog...
Happy birthday, Plank!
Wow! Hi Unckie Troy! All sorts of people from my past are popping up on the internet!!!
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