Four Years Old

Happy Birthday Little.

You make everyday so much fun. We find ourselves in 

constant laughter and awe of your cuteness.

You are super affectionate and kind.

You have the funniest facial expressions.

This last year you experienced:

The arrival of a new baby brother.

Swimming lessons.

Camping.

Starting preschool.

Developing a lazy eye.

Getting glasses.

Rocking said glasses.

We are blessed to have you in our lives, and can't imagine a day without

you in it. We wait for your small and genuine "I love you" every day, never

disappointed you say it happily.

For at least a month you have been thanking Heavenly Father

that your birthday is almost here. 

I hope your birthday answers your sweet little prayer and we showed you

how special you are to all of us.

A Harry Potter Birthday

Thought I would repost THE Harry Potter Party

that I shared over at Blue Cricket Design.

Hope you enjoy it...we sure did.

banner tutorial here

Nothing is more magical than a Harry Potter party. This party theme is perfect for your older Witch or Wizard. I had a lot of fun throwing our 8 year-old this Wizarding themed birthday party. It was by far the most fun party I have thrown.

The decorations were burgundy and gold for the Gryffindor House, with a little bit of black thrown in. There was definitely magic in the air between spells class, magical creatures class, potions class, broom-flying instruction and then a trip to Honeyduke's.

Of course the whole thing started off with this very special invite.

tutorial here and here 

On party day we had everything set up to welcome our Wizards.

Once they had their robes and wands, it was time for spell class. Each wizard got his very own spell book and a magical creatures book. They learned some important spells. Then we went through the magical creatures book in order to prepare for a magical creatures hunt.

 spell/magical creatures books tutorial here

One of the funnest parts of the party was potions class.

Just looking and smelling the bottles of disgusting ingredients was a hit. Labels were downloaded from HERE. I ended up doing a bit of my own interpretation of the different ingredients. My motto-think outside the box and use your imagination!

In potions class we had three different potions that we whipped up.

The blue fuzzy potion was a mixture of Unicorn Tears, Bone Dust, Worm Juice, and a little water. AKA vinegar, baking soda, and dish detergent. This was probably the most popular potion made.

After a good time in potions class we headed to Honeyduke's for some famous Harry Potter treats.

A midst all the goodies were chocolate frogs, acid pops, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Jelly Beans, chocolate covered  cockroaches...AND

there were even Cauldron Cakes.

This little cupcake was my answer to a birthday cake. Individual and fabulously unique cupcakes are almost as good as a huge elaborate cake...plus there is less left over!

recipe here 

After getting all of their wizard training, each guest was officially ready to be a wizard. They left armed with books and wands in tow and belly's full of magical treats, flying home on their very own Firebolt broom.

broom tutorial here

If you have a Harry Potter enthusiast in your midst, a magical wizard party will definitely be a hit. Hope you enjoy all the fun I had in creating this party and that it gives you some inspiration!

Happy Birthday Littlest

Littlest, you bring your family such pure joy. You are by far the most affectionate boy we know. You are infectious and delightful in almost everything you do. The expressions you make and the phrases you say are so awesome. We actually wish there was a way to constantly be recording you just to have those memories forever.

We love you so much. Happy birthday!

Party Style Contributing at BCD

Have you been waiting for the Harry Potter party post?

Well I finally got my act together and put a post together for my Party Styling gig over at Blue Cricket Design.

So if you want to see some of the fun we had at our wizarding party head on over and take a peak.

Harry Potter Firebolt Tutorial

Another Harry Potter Party installment today.

One of the classes we had at Hogwarts was our flying class. Of course to be a legit Wizard or Witch one must have a broom and know how to fly that broom.

So I made up a broom for each party guest. They were really easy to make and fairly inexpensive. I was glad I made them when I saw seven excited wizards flying excitedly around my house.

So do you want to make your own?

Easy peasy.

Here is what you need to gather up-

5/8" dowels (found mine at The Mart)
brown spray paint
packing brown paper or brown paper bags
heavy duty tape...either duct or packing tape
yellow felt
hot glue

I had originally planned on using brown paper bags, which are free at a lot of grocery stores. Then I remembered we had tons of this brown packing paper left over from moving so I used that instead.

I gathered my dowels and spray painted them. You will have to do it in shifts in order to get each side of the dowel and also complete coverage.

I cut strips out of the brown paper.

Since I used the packing paper I had really long strips, so I cut them into shorter strips about 12-14".

I started about 3-4" up from the bottom of my broom. Then I layered several strips all the way around the stick twice. I taped the top of the strips securely in place.

Then I went up just a little and repeated the layering paper process all over again until it was full enough. Then I taped that layer in place. Make sure all the strips are completely secure. It can be hard to catch all the strips.

Repeat with all the brooms.

Plug in your hot glue gun and git 'er warmin' up.

Then cut out strips of yellow felt 2" wide and however long. It won't really matter because you will wrap and cut as you go.

Wrap and glue the felt in place making sure to cover the tape.

Repeat with all the brooms.

There ya have it. You have a firebolt for each of your guests.

Get ready for some flying and wizarding fun!

Have a great Tuesday Friends!!

Harry Potter Cauldron Cakes

Instead of a cake for Oldest's Harry Potter party, I decided to make these Cauldron Cakes made famous at Honeyduke's (you know the sweets store that the Hogwart students take trips to).

There were a couple of recipes out there. I stumbled on the one I used when I was looking for other Harry Potter recipes. I thought they were the cutest ones I had seen for sure. They also sounded the yummiest.

So they immediately went on my list.

I simplified the recipe by using a cake mix for the cupcakes instead of making them from scratch. They were still completely delightful.

PLUS they were AH-dorable.

So if you have a Harry Potter party in your future, or you just want to make some yummy cupcakes, here is a recipe for you.

Harry Potter Cauldron Cakes
adapted from The Pastry Affair

12 devils food cupcakes made from mix
1 recipe of Chocolate Glaze (recipe follows)
1 recipe of Marshmallow Filling (recipe follows)
about 1/2 cup chocolate chips
edible glitter or glitter cake gel *optional


Chocolate Glaze

6 ounces (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 tablespoons butter

In a double boiler, melt together the chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. The glaze will be relatively thick. Remove from heat and let sit 5 minutes before use. If chocolate thickens too much, return to heat and stir until smooth and melted once more.

Marshmallow Filling

1 cup Marshmallow Fluff (or prepared marshmallow cream)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup powdered
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, beat together the marshmallow fluff, shortening, sugar, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.

Assemble Cauldron Cupcakes

Using a sharp knife, cut out a cavity in the bottom of the cupcake. That is right, the bottom, flip the sucker over. Run the knife in a circular motion around the cupcake, while always pointing the knife towards the center (this will make the cavity cone shaped).

Now dip the top of the cupcake into the chocolate glaze. Flip the cupcakes right side up and let rest until the chocolate sets, about 30 minutes. You can speed up the process by placing them in the refrigerator.

To make the cauldron feet on the bottom of the cauldron (the top of the cupcake), take 3 chocolate chips and form a small triangle, placing each chocolate chip roughly an inch from the others. Place the top of a cupcake onto the chocolate chips and push down ever so slightly so the chocolate chips will stick into the chocolate glaze. Repeat for the rest of the cupcakes.

Place remaining chocolate glaze into a piping bag and pipe a chocolate rim around the edge of the opening to the cauldron. If you do not have a piping bag, you can put the chocolate in a baggie and cut the tip. If chocolate is too thick to pipe, heat chocolate glaze up until warm. If chocolate glaze is too runny to pipe, wait a few minutes until the glaze thickens to a pipe-able consistency. 

Fill a pastry bag (or again another baggie) with marshmallow filling and pipe into the cavity of the cupcakes. Garnish the top with edible gold glitter.

To make cauldron handle, melt the remaining chocolate chips, stir until smooth, and place into a pastry bag...or again a baggie with a cut tip. On a non-stick mat or wax paper, pipe out the handles (feel free to use any pattern you'd like). It is not a bad idea to measure the cupcakes with a ruler to determine how wide you need to make the handles before piping. Let the chocolate set until hardened, approximately 30 minutes, before very carefully peeling off of the non-stick surface and placing into the top of each cupcake.

Then display your lovely Cauldron Cakes and enjoy a treat at Honeyduke's.

Come back and see how to make your own Firebolt broomstick.

Have a marvelous day!

Harry Potter Spell and Creature Books Tutorial

Link to the SPELL BOOK download is FINALLY fixed!

Print away!!!

Oldest's Harry Potter party required of course some actual school books. I got the idea for the spell book originally from A Lemon Squeezy Home. I loved the idea of making a book of spells. The spell pages were formatted to go into a simple photo book. I did  not want to spend that much per party guest so I thought up a way to make them look like leather bound books.

I also decided to add in a Mythical Creature Book...which yes I now realize should have been Magical Creatures, but by the time my mistake was brought to my attention the suckers were already all printed out and assembled. The kids didn't even notice, so whew! I made this book to go with a Creature hunt. We used our books to review all the creatures and then they had to go around the house and "catch" them. If they were dangerous the kids had to cast a spell yelling "Stupify" in order safely gather them.

So when all was said and done each guest had two different school books to use while at Hogwarts.

I did a quick little how-to on how I assembled these guys.

Harry Potter Spell and Creature Books


What you will need:

felt cut into 10"x7" rectangles, enough pieces for how many books
felt cut into 1"x10" strips for book ribbons
pages formatted for book, click below to get book pages
    -SPELL PAGES
    -CREATURE PAGES
thread

First cut out felt pieces. I chose different colors for each different book.

Then cut out book ribbons.

Print off pages for both books and make sure they are in the right order.

Place the ribbon on the inside of the felt.

Make sure they will be hidden by the pages.

Remove pages and then sew in the ribbon. This is how it will look on the inside.

This is how it will look on the outside.

Next place the pages back over the ribbon and sew the pages to the felt "binding" of the "book".

The pages will be secure.

Place the ribbon in the book.

Fold the books in half and press closed so they they stay closed.

Then you have all of your school books.

Have wand and you are ready to open your spell book and cast some spells. The favorite spell around here was "Stupify" and "Bombardo".

The Mythical Creature Book helped prepare the guests to go on a Creature hunt. Once they reviewed their book they were able to gather all the creatures.

The books were one of the highlights of the party. My boys still have theirs and for days after the party Middle was "blowing up" everything by yelling, "Bombardo".

It was a fun project with great results!