By Melissa Moyles

This party was legend-waitforit-HARRY! Legendharry!

My oldest daughter turned 9 this year and I was determined to throw a Harry Potter themed extravaganza. I planted the seed earlier this year with family readings of the first 2 books and multiple movie viewing. No other themes stood a chance.
From the food and dessert to the games and decor, we were all in! Let me walk you through it all.

Harry Potter inspired Food and Drinks

I didn’t want anything too fussy or would require too much day of prep. Also most importantly it needed to be on theme. Pizza is a must for any pool party so a quick label made them “Gryffindor Tomato Pies”

Cheese puffs made for perfect Hufflepuffs and Bugles were easy Ravenclaws.

Wanting something healthy available, Professor Sprouts veggie garden was as easy as opening a veggie tray from Walmart

For any HP party, butterbeer is a must. Again leaning on easy, I found a 3 ingredient recipe on Pinterest and ran with it. All you need is cream soda, butterscotch syrup, and whip cream. I put the butterscotch syrup in these squeeze bottles which made them super easy to make to order. I topped them off with these adorable straws I found on Amazon.

I couldn’t forget the moms. Don’t forget how to pronounce it – it’s MimOsa, not MimosA!

Harry Potter Inspired Desserts

Desserts start and end at Honeydukes so I had to make a display. This included golden snitches made with ferrero rocher and Amazon wings, gummy worms slytherin snakes, Bertie bott jelly beans, and chocolate dipped chocolate olivanders magic wands.

With all this candy, cake was interactive with cupcake decorating. That was a huge hit with the 9 year old set.

These cake pops technically were for the 3rd grade the next day, but are too cute not to share. I gave a local baker in town, the cake fairie, freedom to make anything Harry Potter-ish and she really delivered!

Harry Potter Inspired House Games

While the main entertainment was a pool (October but still Florida), my daughter was set on having team games. Before we could start, we needed to sort all the guests into Houses.

This required wearing the sorting hat and grabbing a colored ping pong ball from a velvet satchel. All was found on Amazon. Which would you want to be: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin?

Once sorted, the games could begin! We had 3 games: Broom races, Pin the Scar on Harry, and Quidditch.

For Broom races, I found pool noodles at Dollar Tree and taped a plastic table cloth to the bottom. a few scissor cuts and I had a perfect $1.50/ 5minute water broom. The girls split up on sides of the pool and ran a relay with the winning team going to Gryffindor! My 9 year old however was the true winner in this adorable HP swimsuit.

Quidditch was a little more involved. Sets online were super expensive and I figured I could make it myself. It would double as decor when not in use. Butterfly nets, beer bottles, gold spray paint, and ping pong balls were all it took. The winning team was Hufflepuff!

Pin the Scar on Harry was probably the easiest game as all I had to do was add to cart on Amazon. To note, with 20 girls it was difficult to choose a winner so all the houses tied.

I will also include cupcake decorating into the games category as it was so much fun. The girls sat in team houses which basically was just dollar tree tablecloths and these awesome house banners also found on amazon.

Harry Potter Favors and Decor

It felt like I was collecting items for months so was definitely fun to finally open the collection of amazon boxes in my office. As soon as guests hit the front door, they had to knock 3 times for entrance to hogwarts.

Many of the guests came fully decked out in Hogwarts gear. My 9 year old wanted to be Hermione Granger for Halloween so it was an easy costume to use. I was also festive in my “I solemnly swear I’m up to no good” Ravenclaw T-shirt.

To access the pool, guests had to step through the brick on platform 9 3/4. I found this on amazon and the quality was pretty great. I will definitely keep for future parties.

I started decorating the mantle early and kept it up all October long as Halloween decorations. It included floating keys, spiders, glasses and wands, the Mirror of Erised, Hogwarts acceptance letters, the sorting hat, and quidditch hoops.

For favors, Harry Potter-like glasses, wands, and themed tattoos were a huge hit.

I also made a couple Hedwig owls using white balloons and sharpies like I saw on this Pinterest post.

When the party was over and we were snuggling on the couch that night, my daughter said it was the best party ever! My heart melted and it was all worthwhile.

Let me know in the comments if you try any of these recipes or decor. Tag me on instagram @3daughtersdiy.

Best,

Melissa and Girls