Harry Potter NYE Party

Hello, hello!

I know, it's super weird I disappeared for a couple months and just show up out of the blue. And with a themed party that is three weeks late. But I'm just going to jump right back into it! I finally miss blogging. It took awhile. But there is SO much happening this year and I am excited to document it all! 

And I am dying to get into wedding recaps, so look out for those soon.

Without further ado, our Harry Potter NYE party!

So Tom and I are really, really into themed parties, and we have loved hosting parties at our new house. We came up with this theme two weeks before our party and really went all out. We wanted to do something that would split people into teams, and thought the sorting hat would do a good job. The pictures are a little blurry and all over at times, which I think is testament to how much fun we were having.

First up, my golden snitches. These were just Ferrero Rocher candies with wax paper wings taped to them. I thought they turned out really cute!

Then there were the wands. This project was Tom's baby. He took wooden rods, sanded the ends to look a bit more wand-like, put hot glue on them in different designs, and spray-painted them however he wanted. Everyone at the party got to take one home. These turned out WAY better than anticipated, in my opinion.

 I was ridiculously proud of this one because it was my own idea...haha. An hour or so before midnight we did the "Goblet of Fire" shot round!

We kept our Christmas garlands and wreaths up and just put my extensive owl collection in them to be on-theme. Luckily I have a very excessive amount of owls.

Here is where we kept the ties we printed out for everyone, along with our score-keeping system: jars with beads in them.

On to the activities!

There was Diagon Alley, where the wands and chocolate coins were handed out:

 Next up was Charms Class. We had to say "wingardium leviosa" and keep our owl balloons in the air:

 Yes, we did turn our Christmas tree into a wizard.

 We also hid some snitches, also known as ping pong balls spray painted gold, and hid them around for extra points. I wrote that poem myself. #somuchtalent

 

Next up was wand dueling. We got these giant Nerf darts, put them on the ends of the wands, and had to try to shoot them at each other. 

 Here is RavenPAW's only member, Winnie.

 The Bertie Bott's challenge to see who could handle the disgustingness. No joke, our basement smelled like rotten eggs, garbage and moldy cheese for awhile. The beans were so gross that one party-goes had to leave from nausea. If you decide to incorporate Bertie Bott's beans at your party, proceed with caution!

 Beer pong quidditch! We made the center rings out of spray painted paper plates and wooden rods rooted in a big piece of styrofoam. You can also see the floating candles I made out of toilet paper rolls and LED tea lights. They looked awesome when the lights were off!

 Activities not pictured: Our flying owls (paper airplanes) and the sorting hat process. We also had champagne combined with food coloring for each house at midnight!

FYI, Slytherin won. We later learned they cheated, as to be expected.

Here's the group after it was all said and done!