Mom Hosts An Extreme Birthday For Her Son - Harry Potter Style

I have created extreme birthdays where I celebrate friends’ birthdays and mine in the most unusual way. We have hopped into a limo, headed to Navy Pier to get tattoos; we have gone to Vegas, camped in Kentucky, gone to Florida in the middle of February just to lie on the beach for a day. My friends and me do wild and fun birthdays for each other. The rules are that the other has no idea where we are going until we get there or the info has to be divulged on our last trip we sat in the wrong section at the airport just to keep my friend guessing.

So if this is how I celebrate adult birthdays, then my decision to create and give my son an extreme party should seem relatively normal for those that know me. Especially since my son felt that it was unfair that he doesn’t get to come along.

This year we did a Harry Potter themed party announced with official Hogwarts acceptance letters folded into envelopes and attached to owls. These invitations were then placed on our guests’ lockers at the school. The venue for the party was disguised, of course, because muggles tend to frequent Sturtevant’s North Park. I chose that location because I used to work for the village and that park has everything I need for the transformation and the perfect amount of shelter and trees to keep the park comfortable regardless of the weather.

As the children arrived, we had them go to Olivanders to find their wands for the day. (I bought dowels and then burned, painted, and glittered the wands).  To find their wand, they simply picked one and then said, “illuminate!” And if the basket lit up, it was their wand. If not, they had to pick again. Then we waited on the platform for the remainder of the partygoes so that Hogwarts Express could leave the station.

The first thing done when they arrived at Platform 9 ¾ was a journey to Hogwarts. Once at the school all the children needed to be sorted. I placed a witches hat on each of children’s head and with the use of a tape recorder got the real sorting hat yelling out the houses to the children. Then we had the students color their school ties, and house crests were pinned to the children’s clothes. We continued the day by having a “care of magical creatures,” potion (where we made a poly juice potion from a wide assortment of ingredients that I named from the books), then we had a transfiguration class  (Where we placed a creature on the kids back and they tried to determine what they are).

And no Potter party could be complete without Quidditch! A new game I am sure the kids will remember. The children were able to enter HoneyDukes and buy candy bertie bots, chocolate wands, chocolate frogs, drubbles, cookie suckers, and fizzy whizzbees. Then we had Butterbeer to wash down all of our sweet snacks. I got glass mugs etched with “Butterbeer” into the mugs for the kids this special drink. We also had water that transformed into punch with a quick flick of the wrist.

As if the party was not grand enough, my son is going to Yellowstone as part of our extreme birthdays and then within 48 hours of returning we are going to Universal Florida to ride the Harry Potter ride.  After all of that, I hope my son experienced what I deem to be an appropriate epic birthday.

Many people will not understand why I would choose to celebrate a birthday in this manner and that is okay. Everyone has a favorite holiday, one in which they go all out. Mine preference is birthdays and since my son and I share a birthday, I find it a great deal of fun to go all out in June!