Once everyone arrived and they changed into robes and selected a wand, we moved into Defense Against the Dark Arts class, where the kids decorated their treat boxes. We used paper gabled boxes and decorated them to look like luggage trunks. The had to glue on the Harry Potter stickers, use washi tape for the straps, and with some help, used brass fasteners for the finishing touch. (It was funny to see that many of the kids had not used the brass fasteners before and didn’t know they had to ‘open’ the backs of them to make them stay in place.) They tied a luggage tag to their trunk, so they could fill their box with goodies, and take them home at the end of the party.
We then moved outside for potions. I had three tables, set up in a U-shape. I put four kids on each side, with two helpers in the middle. I was at the head table.
We started by ‘hatching’ dragon eggs. I made the eggs in advance by forming balls of baking soda, water, and food coloring around plastic dragons, into an egg shape. I popped them into the freezer until party time.
We made glow in the dark slime. Mixing Elmers clear glue with a slime ‘reactor’, and then adding in the glow in the dark powder. The kids mixed everything up in black paper cups with tongue depressors, and once they had slime, they put it in a plastic jar with a lid to take home. I had printed labels for the jars, with everyone’s name on them, so they didn’t get mixed up.
We made popcorn to demonstrate another chemical reaction. I used an outside ‘camping’ stove with a clear glass lid, so the kids could watch the popcorn popping. They were suitably impressed, and enjoyed munching on the popcorn.
We next put vinegar into a plastic ziplock back, and then tossed in a tissue filled with baking soda, zipped the bag and tossed it out into the driveway. They kids got a kick out of watching the bags expand and then explode!
We made root beer floats. The American kids were like “ROOT BEER FLOATS – YEAH!!!” The other kids were like “don’t drink that!!! It tastes like medicine!”
We (attempted to) put mentos in Coke. Everyone had a bottle of Coke, and a stack of 6 mentos that I glued together, so that they would all go in at once. Well, the birthday boy put mentos into his Coke. I could only get my hands on seven 250ml bottles of Coke…the teeny tiny ones. I had to use one 350ml bottle, so the larger bottle went to the birthday boy. It turns out the cute little bottles were too small – and the mentos would not fit! The kids didn’t care. They shook their bottles and sprayed the foam, without the mentos. All in the name of science, of course!
I had one more activity up my sleeve, but I was nervous about it. I need industrial grade peroxide. The type you would get from Sally Beauty Supply. Unfortunately, there is no Sally here, so I ordered peroxide. Instead of getting 15% peroxide, I got 50%. Eek! As we were running out of time, we skipped this activity. The idea was to make ‘Hagrid’s toothpaste’, and mix the peroxide with baking soda, add some plastic spiders and watch it all explode from the recycled jam jars that I had collected from my neighbors. Oh well. Maybe next time!
After potions class, we headed to the Great Hall for cake and ice cream. The party was between meal times, so we had lots of healthy snacks out: cucumbers, tomatoes, hummus, cheese, almonds, etc.
We had lemonade and water to drink, and then a three-layered birthday cake, made to look just like the one Hagrid brought to Harry on his 11th birthday. Pink frosting, with green lettering: Happee Birthdae, Jackson. With two layers of vanilla cake and a strawberry layer in between there was something for everyone, and the birthday boy was on cloud 9! We also had a choice of vanilla or strawberry ice cream.
Once everyone had finished eating, they headed to the trolley to fill their treat boxes with popcorn, chocolate frogs (that I made from Ghirardelli chocolate and plastic frog molds), jelly beans (Bertie Botts and the ‘nice’ Jelly Bellies), and gold coins. They also took home the dragons they hatched, the slime they made, and their robes and wands. It truly was a magical birthday!