I don't have a post about painting today because I've been totally immersed in planning (and recovering from) Peanut's Harry Potter birthday party. We finally settled on a date the Friday before Thanksgiving, which was the following Wednesday. That left only 5 days to plan and prepare - Yikes!
The family really came together in making this event amazing! The Oldest had 4 costume / character changes and Dear Husband even wore paper goblin ears (which looked awesome!) to play a goblin at Gringotts. Middle Child was fabulous as Ollivander, Professor Binns and Dumbledore. We left Peanut out of the planning and numerous run-throughs of the characters, plot, and behind the scenes changes, which left her plenty of time to fret over which house she would be put into.
I'm getting ahead of myself... Today I'm only posting about Diagon Alley. If you're not into Harry Potter or birthday parties, you can skip all my babbling and just take a peek at the pictures.
Our version of Diagon Alley - complete with a dementor!
The line-up of wands that we made for Ollivander's Wand Shop. I'm particularly proud of these!
A few days before the party, an "owl" dropped letters onto everyone's porch saying that they had been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and to meet at Madam Malkin's in Diagon Alley at 4:00 the following Wednesday, rather than platform 9 3/4. That way the kiddos could shop for their school supplies together before boarding the train.
The stops the party guests made were:
Madam Malkins - Our coat closet was cleared and filled with any robes, capes, hats or gloves we could find. Madam Malkin (The Oldest), measured each girl and helped her find a robe or cape to wear. Because they hadn't visited Gringotts yet, she told them they could borrow the clothes for the day.
Gringotts - The next stop was Gringotts (aka the study), which the girls LOVED! As I said, Dear Husband wore paper goblin ears, plus a sport coat and glasses at the end of his nose. One at a time the girls approached the goblin and he gave them a hard time about why they were there, a lack of identification (an ID or a wand), and not knowing their account number. Eventually, he dug into his desk drawer and pulled out a fabric bag filled with wizard money (poker chips).
Flourish and Blotts - Once they had their wizarding money, the girls proceeded to buy their school supplies. First on their list was a notebook and a quill, which they could purchase for 5 sickles at Flourish and Blotts. The quills were made using cheap pens, ribbon and craft feathers and the notebooks were ones I had around the house that I covered with scrapbook paper.
Ollivander's Wand Shop - Of course no wizard is complete without a wand, and for 7 galleons (or 7 blue poker chips) they each purchased one. We made the wands shown above by sanding down the tip of a wooden dowel, adding handles and designs with hot glue, and painting them with acrylic paint. The Oldest and I got better at making them as we went along, eventually adding more elaborate designs like vines or a snake twisting around the wand. Of course we had to go further and add tags with the wands' specifics - birch, veela hair core, 12 ", slightly bendy. They were so fun to make! The girls were told by Ollivander (Middle Child) that the wand chooses the wizard, so each girl put on a blindfold and approached the table of wands and let the wand choose them.
Eeylop's Owl Emporium - The last purchase was to choose a pet from Eeylop's. We had unicorns, dragons, owls, and cats. We purchased Beenie Boos - a favorite of Peanut and her friends - which the girls could purchase for 5 galleons. The dragons were particularly popular!
With their armfuls of supplies and a few extra knuts, the girls were ready to board the train to Hogwarts. They were so excited when they realized that they could keep what they had just "purchased"!
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