Highland Games

Food:

• tree stump cake (chocolate cake with raspberry filling and chocolate buttercream) by Laura Cannon
• bear paw cookies
• Scottish buns
• will o' the wisp cotton candy
• fruit and nut cups
• Scottish shortbread
• witch's brew (root beer with dry ice)
• and ice water 

Activities:

• upon entry, guests picked a clan and got Merida hair
• the Crafter Carver had monogrammed burlap drawstring pouches for the girls to string wood beads on necklaces or bracelets and also had rope to learn a Celtic knot
• The Highland Games had 3 parts of the competition: 

1. archery (each girl received a bow and arrow they got to take home)
2. caber toss
3. haggis toss (beanbags through a castle walls with window cutouts)

Music:

• bagpipes

Harry Potter Party

Continuing to back-post...

Unfortunately my network storage is down right now, so I can't access the invitation.  But each child received an acceptance letter signed by Minerva McGonagall herself to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  It gave directions for the party specifically, included a ticket for the Hogwarts express (Phoenix to Hogwarts) and was sealed in a custom envelope with a wax seal.  The invitations took a bit of time, but were one of my favorite aspects of the party.

As our guests arrived, they went through platform 9 and 3/4 with smoke blowing from the train, past Borkin and Burkes at Knockturn Alley and then rounded the corner to go down Diagon Alley.  They got to poke around displays at storefronts such as Slug and Jiggers Apothecary (which continued to be a hit througout the night), Flourish and Blotts, Eeylops Owl Emporium, Potage's Cauldrons, and finally they stopped at Ollivanders.  At Ollivanders, they sorted through completely customized wands till they found the one that fit just right.  Each wand came in its' own padded box, with certificate of authenticity and label (length, core, wood type, rigidity and price).

After Diagon Alley they came to the "Great Hall" complete with house banners and floating candles where they were sorted by Professor Dumbledore.  Then they went to one of four house tables for the start of term feast that began after the birthday boy blew out his candles.  At each place setting was golden serveware, and a chocolate frog with its' own box and trading card that they could exchange throughout the evening.  Along the table (with corresponding colored runners to each house) there were cauldrons of popcorn, buckets of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and fruit for when they watched "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix".  Their drink options were butterbeer, pumpkin juice (mulled apple cider fresh from our trees) and veritaserum (my favorite- water!).

I was silly to think they would all watch the movie from their house tables.  There was a solid core of kids that sat close to the screen and kept telling the others to be quiet.  But most were having duels and experimenting at Slug and Jiggers.  Regardless, I'm pretty sure fun was had by all.

The thank you notes were 4x6 prints that I made that looked like mini marauder's maps that said "mischief managed" and personalized notes were added to in Sharpie marker.

Illuminated Manuscript Invitation

Weird Science

 

Invitation:

~ experiment written out in scientific method steps, delivered in a petri dish

Decor:

~ green and orange color scheme

~ modern science class based decorations as opposed to "mad scientist" scheme

~ "chalkboard" backdrop to buffet table set with different shapes and sizes of flasks with multicolored liquid and dry ice, connected with clear pvc tubing

~ 3 lab tables with activities covered with green tablecloths

Food:

~ fruit molecules (clementines and grapes with toothpick hydrogen bonds)

~ bunsen burner bagel bites

~ orange jell-o agar

~ sprite with food color mixing station served in test tubes(the kids went a little overboard creating their own compounds!)

~ brain cake, which later when dissected, showed to have a white cake interior with orange and green sprinkles

Activities:

~ 2 different slippery slimes

~ microscope viewing

~ make your own snow

~ after gift opening, the grand finale was a diet coke and mentos geyser

Favors:

~ lab coats

~ goggles

~ i.d. badges custom made for each child

~ a  test tube of mentos to take home and do their own coke experiment (or eat!)