Need some Harry Potter creativity

[mcbowersox]

I have a Pinterest board full of Harry Potter ideas. We were going to have a party, but now we're not so I won't get to use all the great ideas. But I think our hunt will be fun and I know the girls will be thrilled about the trip!!!

[Margie]

They sure will! It all sounds fun!

[Elisabeth]

Originally Posted by mcbowersox

No problems there!! I will take tons of photos!! I hope I can keep my camera with me in the park without too much trouble on the rides. I could use my cell phone camera, but it sucks. I want real pictures!!

We're staying at a property that allows us early access to the park, so we'll get to the Wizarding World an hour early each day. First stop, Ollivanders!! Then we have breakfast reservations at the Three Broomsticks. I can't wait!!

As if Tina even LOOKED at my photos when I sent them to her and put them on facebook! She didn't!

Plan to take someone with you in the queues that is NOT getting on the ride. You WILL want your camera with you in all the queues. You can have it in the wand choosing and in all the shops. But the rides are coasters. The castle ride (the most amazing ride I've ever been on) has lockers to put your stuff in. If you have a safe pocket that's deep or has a zipper you can take your phone with you - but my phone didn't take near as good photos as my camera did in that queue. So have someone go through with you who will move out to the waiting area (parent swap) and take the cameras. When you get off the ride the other parent gets to go without having to wait in line again. It's supposedly so they can wait with kids who won't ride, but since you will have kids with you, just ask or go there. You won't want to miss those photo ops in that queue - it's DD's office, Lupin's stuff, mirror of Erised, the talking portraits, the sorting hat, gosh, tons of stuff.

At the hippogryph coaster I want to say I took my camera through once. I'd have to look at my pics to see. I must have left it with the staff or put it in the netting at my feet. Buckbeak is on that ride but you can't even use your phone camera that fast to get a good shot cause you don't have time to stuff it back into your pocket plus if they see you holding it they tell you to put it away. You can capture him from the queue through the fence, but not very well. The best shot of him is standing on the platform waiting to get ON the coaster. Run up to the front car and look to the right out across the tracks.

The queue for the dragon coasters has the car outside. Inside are the dungeons, the tri-wizard cup, and I can't remember what else. I will have to look at my pics and tell you if I took my big camera through the line. If so, I must have had someplace to stash it. Cause I have photos of all that stuff. Some might be phone only though.

There are four actual movie props in the park. Hermione's ball dress, Harry's tux, one of the brooms over the three broomsticks, and the car. The rest has been duplicated. Although - I was there in September. I wonder if they had to send those items to London for the grand opening of that museum? I hope not.

I'll check my photos and see if I have big girl camera photos of the items in those other coaster rides.

Edit: I didn't - all my coaster queue photos are phone pics. You can go back to Hagrid's hut and the car of course, anytime, and take pics with your good camera. I did that. But inside the buildings I bet it will be hard to get in and take pics without being in the queue. Depending on how long the wait is, it might be worth it to get in line and skip the ride. There was a very short wait if any for the two coasters when I was there, so I don't know why I didn't go through with my camera and come right back out. My daughter loved the hippogryph one and we had to go on it six times in a row! She won't ride the big ones so my family just held onto my camera for me to run do those. I rode both by getting right back in line but they are so much the same if you've ridden one you've ridden both.

Again depending on the wait try to get into Ollivander's more than once, and look to see if there are other kids in the queue around you. Within each group ushered in, one child is chosen to be a part of the little show, as you probably know. So if you go in there with all adults or a bunch of younger kids, it's more likely that one of your kids will be chosen. Especially if one looks eleven! My nine year old looked seven, so they chose an adult instead of her (other kids were toddlers) and the other time they chose another nine year old who was a head taller than my daughter and looked eleven. Once the line was really long and once it was short. That's a hot line to stand in; have sunscreen and/or a hat if you go later in the day. I'm glad you get in there early for that one, the shop is the most crowded one cause it has the wands, the clothing, the chess stuff, and is also the post office. Too much in too cramped a space. The other one to hit asap is Forbidden Journey. The first time I rode that one I had to wait a long time because we all waited together. After that I went single rider every time (no one else would get on it again!) and it was a lot faster - they weave the single riders in as they can around other people riding together so that queue moves quicker. I might have had to wait ten minutes and during that time I was walking through DD's office, etc. Hey - that's an idea - you can go through the single rider line with your camera and get out. Well, check the wait time. I bet it will be a lot longer in the summer.

I made the mistake of getting a locker at the front of the park - but since you will be there early you can get a locker back at the Potter World section and it will be so much more convenient! There are some by the train but not many. I'm sure people will keep them all day. The ones in the castle are limited ride only use.

Sorry - didn't mean to make this a book but hope it gives you some good information!

[just-pjz]

sounds great Christy!!
i think the idea for the diary is perfect.

I'm stealing Tina's idea (sorta) too! I'm using owls (idea from pinterest: white helium-filled balloons with the owl face/feathers drawn on) weighted down around the yard. The kids have to find the one with their name and unroll the attached letter from Hagrid asking them for their help in finding a bunch of items lost on the grounds. Each kid will have a pictured list so that they find the right items: rubber snakes and spiders, dragon eggs (tie dye plastic eggs I picked up at Easter), galleons, harry's glasses, remembral (super bounce balls that have glittery liquid inside), sorcerer's stone (spray painted rocks), dobby's socks, pygmy puffs (haven't found these yet but I think I'm just gonna use koosh balls with eyes), bowtruckles, golden snitches (I think I'm gonna make these out of yo-yos). I'm having a "trolley cart" of candy and things: U No Poo (dark chocolate & mint MMs), Cornish Pixie dust (Pixie Stix), Bertie Botts, Chocolate Frogs, Droobles (blue gum balls), Fizzing Whizbees (Pop Rocks), Unicorn Horns (spiral lollipops), lemon drops, gummy worms, rock candy suckers, Acid Pops, pretzel wands.
I made and sent out the invites the other day. I typed them out on parchment paper using Harry's letter as a guide. I think they turned out cute and Zachary really liked them. I'm making shirts, wands, and glow jars and I'm making a Platform 9 3/4 spot for photos. I think I'm much more excited than Zachary is!

[mcbowersox]

Elizabeth - Thank you so much!! I will print all of this out and take it with me. So glad for the info!

Paula - Your party sounds so awesome!! I love the owl idea, and your hunt sounds so fun! I want to come to your party! I can't wait to see the pictures! When is it?

[Elisabeth]

Oh Christy - one other thing - check the schedule for the Hogwarts choir and the Beaubatons'/Durmstrangs' performances when you can get the information for your day. They alternate (except in rain) and I kept missing one and seeing the other all day long both days! I finally got to see almost the whole performance of the champions (it's short) but I wasn't waiting right up front, just happened to see it as I went by and ran over. So pics not as good as I wanted. To catch them all and get a good camera spot, know the schedule of times. Once I waited for them and the staff member I had asked for the schedule saw me, and came over to tell me they had cancelled the last performance of the day cause it had rained and the concrete was wet. They do have a meet and greet after the little performance and you can get good pics of that every time; they pose with each kid or whoever.

Here are my pics on fb:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...6783871&type=1

[hlmbugle]

This sounds like so much fun. Someday I hope I can plan something like this for me and my little guys. I hate to say it, but I think we'd have more fun just taking one of the kids with me than going with the whole family. I'll have to think how I can break it to the rest of them if I plan something like this... Have a fantastic time!

[Tina]

Ok, I just thought of this, how did it go, Christy?

And Paula? Was your party yet?

Mine is still to come in July and I'm doing my idea of a Horcrux hunt too

I made AWESOME (if I do say so myself) wands from a Tutorial on Deviant and they turned out SO cool. Everyone will get one! (I only have 2 made so far, lol).

[just-pjz]

Yes, yes, we had our party!
I didn't get everything made and made how I would have liked though. I had started the invites to go out to have Zachary's party on May 20th but before I could get them finished and in the mail, we received an invite for my great-niece's first birthday party for that same day! So I was left with either Memorial Day weekend which was the weekend before our vacation, or May 6th. May 6th was the best bet but left me with very little time.
-The invites were fashioned after Harry's Hogwarts letter and I think turned out really cool!
-I made tshirts for the kiddos. I wanted to use the freezer paper/paint method I saw on pinterest but had to settle for iron-on transfers because i forgot to get paint at the craft store and our local Walmart didn't have any. The transfers worked ok but the paint would have been better....
My son's shirt said "Hogwarts Class of 2019"; others had "Mischief Managed", "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" or "Hogwarts"
-I made wands but they are quite pathetic compared to the cool ones you are making Tina--saw your pin on pinterest. Those are awesome and will be a big hit! I cut dowel rods to link, spray painted them brown, sanded them up a bit, and yarn-wrapped the handle ends, added a touch of gold glittery paint at the tips.
-I served "regular" food and had themed goodies sitting out---Cornish Pixie Dust (pixie stix), U No Poo (Dark Chocolate Mint M&Ms which are shades of green and incredibly delicious!) small hershey bars with "Dispel that Dementor Chill" wrappers, Bertie Botts, Lemon Drops, Droobles, Gummy Crawlers
-My son is a picky dessert eater and normally we have brownies for birthdays but this year he said he wanted either the cake they had at school (which was a sheet cake) or the cookies that have a parties....I bought a sheet cake with plain white icing and made "cupcake" toppers out of cardstock. They had things like "9 3/4", "Hogwarts Express", "Stupefy", etc.
-The kids got owl post--white balloons with an owl drawn on them--with a letter from Hagrid while they were eating. It talked of not being able to make the party because Dumbledore had him on official school business. He told them that some sneaky Slytherins had taken and hidden things they shouldn't have and he needed their help to find them. Since we had little kids too, I included pictures of each exact item they had to find, as some were different colors and such. Hagrid also gave each kid a clue for a different starting place. They had to find dragon eggs, pygmy puffs, serpents, tiara, remembrals, crystal ball, acromantulas and they all seemed to have fun with it.

The possibilities are really endless when it comes to HP parties and there is so much I would have liked to have done, but in the end, Zachary loved it, so much so that he got back up out of bed that night and told me he wanted to give me some of his birthday money for all my hard work on his party! awwww....

I'll try to post some pics in the next day or two.

[Elisabeth]

Aww...some of his birthday money - what a sweetie! Sounds awesome, Paula! Wish I'd been a kid with an invite, lol!

[Tina]

Sounds like a great party, Paula!!

I've got lots of Honeydukes things planned, but I love the pixie stix idea for sure!

For the cake I'm making a Snitch cake. I bought the Wilton ball pan to make it, so it will actually be a spherical cake.

I'm STILL gathering items for our Horcrux hunt. I'm looking for a decent locket & a diadem. I want something that looks decent, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on it. LOL. Our hunt will only be 1 set of Horcruxes with everyone hunting them. Whoever comes back with the most will get house points for their house.

OH, yes, I'm having house points. I bought hourglass(ish) shaped vases and have the flat marble gems (kwim?) for points. They will earn them all night, but mostly with the trivia game.

We are also doing Quidditch! I have 6 hula hoops that I will stake up with tobacco sticks (um, they are like 4' stakes if that you stick through tobacco when you are hanging it to dry if anyone here is not/was never a tobacco farmer, lol). I won't have 14 players though, so it might be 5 vs 5 or so.

We are doing Wizard Dueling, which is a staring contest. haha.

... and...? There's more, just can't think of it! LOL!

[Tina]

how did the surprise go, Christy? Did you do the hunt?