Harry Potter Birthday Dinner

As the follow up to my post on mother's guilt, here is the Harry Potter dinner that came together following the guilt I felt over a rushed birthday morning.  I'm so happy with how everything turned out.  It was certainly never intended to be a Pinterest-worthy masterpiece, but it was cute, fun, cheap, and I threw it together in a day!  A little construction paper and some creativity go a long way.  Isabella opted for a trip to the American Girl store in Chicago instead of having any kind of party, but I still wanted to make sure her birthday dinner felt special and unique.  Here's what I came up with:

Platform 9 3/4!  Her imagination is always impressive - she loaded one of her doctor's carts with books and a stuffed animal on the top to travel through the magic "brick" wall.  

The main table included the sorting hat as well as letters to Harry Potter hanging from the light fixture above the table.  If I had more planning time, I would have used fishing line so that they looked more like they were floating, but hey!

Isabella thought the bathroom was hilarious, and even joked if her dad would really believe the Ministry of Magic was in the toilet.  I just used some red lipstick on the mirror to announce that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened.

Once I had the decorations down, it was time to move on to the food.  Isabella chose a variety of food for the evening.  We had turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, buttered noodles, scalloped potatoes, and green beans.  I came up with clever names for the items.  Her favorite name was Gryffindor Guts.  

For her card, I made a Howler.  If you aren't familiar with Harry Potter, it's a card that looks like a mouth and magically talks the message.  I couldn't manage the talking part, but the card certainly looked the part.  It was a big hit!

The last activity of the night was our photo booth.  I made a wanted poster like the one found in The Prisoner of Azkaban.  The kids had a lot of fun looking like dark wizards.  Our dog Rudy even got in on the fun!

Isabella had a magical birthday dinner, and I had a lot of fun putting the details together.  She was so sweet in noticing all of the little touches that only a true Harry Potter fan could appreciate.  I can't believe my baby girl is already 8!