Category : Eco Kids Party
We all know I’m a Potterhead correct? I’m sure people think I’m a little mad being and adult and being so entranced with the Harry Potter series, but it’s a journey I took with both of my sons last summer (reading the novels) and it’s an adventure I will always treasure. It’s also very cool that so many of the Harry Potter story-lines and characters are very relate-able for kids in their everyday lives. So it was really not surprising when my 8 year old son announced he wanted to host a Harry Potter themed party for his 9th birthday party. I was up for the challenge of bringing some wizard magic to this very special celebration and with the Harry Potter movie franchise coming to an end this summer (Deathly Hallows Part 2) in July, I figure I’m not the only parent on the block having a child requesting this theme for a birthday party. I’ve been so excited to write the 2nd part of this article (Part 1: How To Play Muggle Quidditch) because it was the best party we’ve thrown for my oldest son to date and actually very low cost. The best part with hosting a kid’s party like this – my husband and I got to flex our imaginative muscle which is always fun!
We started the party with having the guest’s parents drop-off their children at a local park with a grass field. Here we played Muggle Quidditch (wizard sport similar to football) and I’ve written about setting up the Quidditch game here.
After Quidditch was finished, we started Part 1 & 3 of the Tri-wizard Tournament. This is a magical contest that takes place in the 4th novel “Goblet of Fire” and there are 3 tasks. The first task of the tournament is for all the ‘champions’ to retrieve a specific golden dragon egg. We included the concept of ‘golden eggs’ into our own tri-wizard task by having a good old-fashioned egg toss. We painted the eggs with gold paint and the boys tossed raw eggs back and forth in the field. It was a fun game, but over pretty quick.
The 2nd task in the tri-wizard tournament is for each of the champions to rescue something valuable that had been taken from them in the Hogwarts lake. Having to breathe underwater for an hour, they rescue people in their life that are very important to them from merpeople. We didn’t incorporate this task into our party, but if you have a pool, pond, or large basin of water, you could get party guests to retrieve items.
The last task (3rd task) of the tri-wizard tournament in Harry Potter is for the champions to navigate through a maze of mystery and danger to find the tri-wizard tournament cup. As luck would have it, next to the field where our party guests played Quidditch, is a creek surrounded by a forest. I took 15 of the wizard looking goblets we’ve used during 7 Halloween parties (for potions) and hid these in the woods. The goblets actually looked very similar to the one in the movie and the kids had a good time running around the forest looking for cups. Once a child found their own cup, they returned it to the field and started helping another child that hadn’t found a goblet yet.
After the Tri-wizard tournament, the kids walked back to our house and we started the first of two games: Pin The Sock On Dobby and Jelly Bean tasting. I can’t take credit for the Dobby game…my friend Bill on Facebook had just hosted a Harry Potter party and shared this great party idea. My dear friend Patti drew a life size Dobby for us to use as a cut-out – see the below picture and the amazing job she did. If you don’t have a poster or person that can draw, you might want to order a life size stand up Dobby that I found on this site. They also have a life size Snape character…older kids might think it’s funny to ‘pin the shampoo bottle’ on this beloved greasy character. You simply cut out some socks, shampoo bottles, etc. from paper and use tacky tape, grab a blindfold, spin the child around and send them towards the cutout. Here is the beautiful Dobby that was hand drawn for our party:
The other indoor game planned for the party was a jelly bean testing contest. In the Harry Potter books, there are wizard jelly beans called Bertie Bott’s Flavor Beans and there are flavors such as vomit, rotton egg, earwax, dirt…you get the picture. Trust me, 9 year old boys love this stuff! We actually found a brand called Bean Boozled and each box contains jelly bean flavors that look alike but taste different from each other. Example is 2 black jelly beans – 1 is skunk spray the other is licorice. You can’t tell which of the flavors you’ve gotten unless you taste them. They are have some of the funny flavors included in the Harry Potter jelly beans so this guessing game went with our theme.
For party decorations I reused Francesco’s cloth name banner that we’ve used every year from Green Planet Parties. The camouflage fabric of his reusable banner fit nicely with the subtle Deathly Hallows theme of the party. I would now like to talk about the loot bags. I’m very proud of myself with these bags and their contents because I actually helped created a bit of magic with my own little hands!! I originally thought the kids would decorate t-shirts at the party with the Deathly Hallows symbol, but after brush stroking this symbol to personalize the cloth goodie bags, I realized this just wasn’t a good idea for energetic 9 year old boys. I’m so happy with this decision. So instead I painted the sign of the Deathly Hallows onto the outside of the goodie bag and included a matching cotton t-shirt inside each bag as the main give-away. I thought they turned out pretty well but I learned it’s harder to paint a triangle onto cotton than I thought:
And what do you say are those AMAZING dark mark’s attached to the rolled up tees in the front of the above photo? Those would be dark mark tattoos and I could not wait to see the reaction for guests and my sons when they arrived for the party. I included one in each child’s loot bag, but I’m sure kids would have loved to have them applied when they first arrived at the party. When I opened the package that contained these tattoos I was literally screeching with joy. I immediately put one on myself and each of my boys and loved the result. Here is how it looked on Francesco’s arm. Even Ronald Weasley would say these are “wicked”! You can purchase these at a shop called Electrik Pink Pirate and the shop owner is awesome to work with!
I also included wooden wizard wands and organic jelly beans in addition to the t-shirts and dark mark tattoos in the goodie bags. I think any fellow Potterhead would approve! I was completely inspired by this party because it was so much fun to plan and enjoy. I created a new category on the Green Planet Parties site called Wizard Theme Party. I hope it helps to inspire parents with planning a wonderful wizard themed party that has the guests believing that magic and our childhood is always around us.
Related Posts:
How To Play Muggle Quidditch
I’ve been so excited to write this article since my son’s recent birthday party because we successfully hosted a very fun and low-cost Harry Potter themed birthday party. And the best part? We setup a Quidditch match for the party guests and it was amazing!! The game of Quidditch was probably the highlight for everyone that attended the party so I’m writing this article in two parts: How To Play Muggle Quidditch and How To Host A Harry Potter Wizard Party. The sport of Muggle Quidditch is not only reserved for Harry Potter themed birthday parties, I discovered that two Canadian Universities actually have Quidditch teams and have organized it as sport. I contacted the administrator of the UBC Quidditch Team via their Facebook Group and Verena was super helpful with answering questions (thank you Verena!!). It learned from Verena that improvising is the way to go with a budget and setting up Quidditch at low cost. The UBC team hangs hoops in trees to act as goals and both universities (UBC and McGill) use a person as the golden snitch, rather than a ball. This was the key with our Quidditch success, but let me backup and list the items I needed to purchase and collect to get the party setup.
~ Via Evite to party guests I created two teams and asked kids to wear red shirts or blue shirts to the party (one team was Gryffindor and the other was Ravenclaw).
~ Started off thinking I’d build 6 Quidditch goals that looked like this…
…and I was seriously on my way to building them. But I’m SO glad my brother-in-law offered his advice saving me a lot of expense and work. He pointed out that the kids will not actually be flying so there wasn’t a point to building the goals like they appear in the Harry Potter movies. I would have hung hula hoops from trees, but the park field I used for the party didn’t have overhanging trees. So I came up with an inexpensive alternative from my local hardware store. I purchased thick metal wires that could bend. I was originally thinking of cutting hula hoops in half and sticking them into the grass, but since you need 6 goals in Quidditch I didn’t see the point in buying plastic, in order to cut it up. The steel rods worked perfectly and they stuck firmly into the ground (bonus) so I didn’t have to worry about them being knocked over when a rambunctious 9 year old took aim at the goal. The bendable wires looked like this:
You need six of these goals – 3 per side for each ‘Keeper’ to guard. Each steel rod cost approx. $3 each. I contemplated painting the rods with gold paint so that they were easy to see against the grass on the field, but as you can tell from the picture, the kids didn’t have a problem finding them as targets.
I might as well talk about the Quaffle we used (one of the balls in wizard Quidditch and the only one used in our match of Muggle Quidditch) because you can see the scruffy ball we found in the above picture. You want a ball size that the kids can easily hold in one hand. We also wanted the ball to be soft so that nobody would get hurt – you know how 9 year old boys get. Unlike wizard Quidditch, we opted to only have 4 different types of players on the field: 1) Keeper – one person per team and it’s their responsibility to guard the 3 goals and attempt to stop the Chasers from scoring. 2) Snitch – this involves only 1 person for both teams 3) Seeker – each team has a seeker. This is the position Harry Potter plays on Gryffindor’s Quidditch team in the Harry Potter books. The job of the seekers is to pay attention to when the Snitch runs onto the field and try to ‘capture’ the snitch. It’s a very exciting position because the game cannot end until the snitch has been captured. Once the snitch is captured, the team receives 150 points, usually ending the game. 4) Chaser – we had more than 3 per side in our Quidditch match, and these players control the Quaffle and try to put it through the hoops. Each goal from the chasers are 10 points. We didn’t have beaters or bludgers because this would involve hitting balls with bats and that’s not a great idea for high spirited 9 year old boys.
When I first started planning the Quidditch match I assumed I’d be hiding the snitch in the grass for the Seeker to find. (I was going to paint a golf ball with gold paint)….BUT there is a way easier and fun way to incorporate a snitch into Muggle Quidditch. You dress a person in gold clothes and have them intermittently run into the match as the snitch. My niece volunteered to be the snitch during our Quidditch match and she was brilliant. It’s better to have a fast, older child be the snitch because you don’t want the game to end quickly. I went to a thrift store and paid $5 for a bright golden shirt and pair of pants for my niece to wear. Then we hung a long sock out of her pant’s back waistband and put a tennis ball inside the sock. We rotated the Seekers every 10 minutes so that everyone had a turn being a Seeker and every few minutes during the match we would send my niece (the golden snitch) into the match to run around. The child playing the Seeker tried to grab the sock and this was how the snitch would be captured. It was so exciting when we’d yell “snitch in!” and everyone would stop to watch the seekers chase the snitch..just like in the movie. Our snitch was able to run out of bounds to be ‘safe’ and rest up. My son, the birthday boy was the Seeker that ended the game after an hour by capturing the snitch and I’ll never forget the look of pure joy on his face…it was just awesome!
Another important aspect of our Muggle Quidditch match is we incorporated freeze tag so the boys wouldn’t be tackling each other for the Quaffle (ball). The game got really competitive and having the kids have to freeze and pass the ball as soon as they were tagged was great. I had two adults that refereed the game and that was very helpful too. When a Chaser was tagged holding the Quaffle, they had to freeze, then pass the ball instantly to someone on their team. This kept the game moving quickly and prevented any of the kids getting hurt. We also decided not to have the children run around with brooms (while we’re on the topic of injuries). You know your audience and I think the brooms would have interfered with the boys running around and would have ended up possibly spearing each other by accident. I’m glad we decided no brooms because it kept the game moving quickly.
As a huge fan of Harry Potter myself, it was complete joy and magic for me to sit and keep score while watching my kids & their guests play Muggle Quidditch. Every time the Quaffle went through a hoop I recorded 10 points for the team. At the end of the game when the snitch was caught, the winning team was awarded 150 points and the match ended. It was by-far the highlight of the Harry Potter party and even children that weren’t familiar with Quidditch, Harry Potter, etc. had fun and didn’t feel left out of the game. That is one of the secrets to hosting a themed party – making the games fun enough that even guests without the knowledge still enjoy themselves.
We had parents drop party guests off at a park with a grass field down the street from our house. This is where the Quidditch match took place and we pretty much used the entire grass field to play. I was meaning to make a goal crease in front of each of the 3 hoops for the Keeper, but didn’t have time. I would say this step isn’t required. Have party guests wear different colored shirts to the party so it’s clear who is on each team or borrow pinnies for the kids to wear. I also told parents on the Evite to dress the kids in clothes that were weather appropriate. The kids got muddy, but nobody cared when it started to sprinkle with rain – we were having too much fun!
The party fun didn’t end with Muggle Quidditch, but the other party activities will be described in my next article ‘How To Host A Harry Potter Wizard Party’. Ideas for wizard themed loot bags and decorations located below. Also to watch a video of Muggle Quidditch in action, here are some reference links:
Quidditch Soaring On Campus – Members of the McGill Quidditch Team talk about ‘Quidditch fever’ on campus
Green Planet Parties – Wizard Themed Party Supplies
It’s no secret I love fairies. I dressed up as Peter Pan last Halloween and I relate to this classic character in so many ways. Being the owner and having a creative outlet like Green Planet Parties has been a gift – the ability to reach a large audience of parents looking to make better environmental choices at their children’s birthday parties is wonderful. I’d like to share the planning and results of my twin daughters greener birthday party and the hope was to capture the magic of a fairy walk, through our nearby woods and test our woodland creativity. I’m writing about this party because when I was researching forest walk party ideas on the internet…I started to feel nervous because the elaborate and beautiful examples I was reading through were out of my budget and amount of time I had to make some magic happen. The results from our fairy party were amazing and although many of the Green Planet Parties fairy products were integrated into the forest walk and eye-spy – I also used my imagination and borrowed items from friends which is attainable for anyone planning a fairy themed or woodland party. A very talented photographer lent her eye and captured some great pictures and her name is Tamsen Ogden. You can view the all the pictures on the updated Gallery page of Green Planet Parties located here.
The forest setup and eye-spy was the best part of my day. I had my sons to help me and it was so much fun climbing trees to string felt garland to mark the entrance way into the forest and the end of the walk. My boys loved helping attach the fairy window and fairy chimney to one of the trees in the forest. These were the first items to spot when the girls would enter the forest. They are such cute items….with the fairies having a window box with flowers and fireplace to enjoy inside the tree.
We collected and setup ‘gifts’ that the fairies might have left in the forest to show they are happy living in the trees and to also work as an eye-spy game to keep the young guests engaged. The length of the trail or forest walk would depend on ages and time-frame…our walk lasted about 10 minutes for each guest which was perfect for 4 and 5 year olds. Every 10 feet there would be a gift left by the fairies. There was a tea-set in an abandoned tree house built into the forest, felt acorn capped ornaments hanging from branches, a beautiful fairy house borrowed from a friend, wooden bird houses hanging in branches, a bucket of wooden wands that each little girl enjoyed keeping, and my favorite – the outdoor fairy door. These outdoor fairy doors have such huge W-o-W factor because they open, are a really big size (11″ high), are handcrafted with amazing quality, and treated so they are can be used in the garden after the party as a year-round decoration. Here are some pictures of these special fairy treasures.
Once the forest was setup, we led party guests to the entrance of the trail. The girls went into the forest in sets of two and were told to look for signs or gifts from the fairies. They had to remember these items and tell the helper at the end of the trail all the things they remembered. My niece helping wrote down the items that they remembered. I loved watching the reactions of party guests finding a hidden treasure in the forest and knocking softly on the fairy door. A few eco-friendly tips for setting up the fairy walk and helped keep things on budget was picking up a new paint can from a local paint store and painting the outside of it to hold the wooden wands. I loved the effect and thought that pinning fabric around the can would be beautiful too. I also wanted an earth friendly glitter to sprinkle and lead guests to magical forest items. Earth friendly glitter doesn’t exist because traditional glitter is produced from plastic and I didn’t want to be putting that on a forest floor so I hoe-punched seed paper. I loved the effect of having something contrasting with the soil that caught their eye (pictured in the fairy door photo). I didn’t have to worry about leaving any of this material behind once the party was finished because the paper is compostable and embedded with wild flower seeds.
My girls wore silk wings that are so incredibly earthy and they loved how the wings floated behind them when they ran through the forest. After the walk they seemed pretty happy with what the fairies created. After we arrived home the fairies were busy with more surprises. The tabletop was set with more earthy fun, starting with compostable heart shaped palm leaf plates, borrowed tea cups for lemonade and ice-tea, cloth tablecloth with acorn appliques, and two toadstool cakes that were made by a local bakery and decorated with wooden toys by the birthday girls. The only party decorations really needed inside were the name banners that are such high impact for adding a festive feel to a room. Both girls picked out their own fabrics and they loved the result – Green Planet Parties banners are a wonderful keepsake and heirloom decoration that will last for many birthday celebrations.
The goodie bags were really well received from parents and party guests. It’s always so refreshing for parents to receive loot bags that don’t contain plastic and dollar store items that tend to break right away. For the girls party I integrated the outdoor fairy vibe by using Toadstool cloth goodie bags containing organic sweets, butterfly kerchiefs, twig inspired pencils, and earth friendly notepads (made from 100% post consumer recycled material). It was wonderful to spend a few hours outside and although parties hosted at home are always lots of work, there is a big sense of pride when they are over. Parties hosted at home are probably a little darker shade of green that most parties because you’re able to utilize your own dishes, tablecloths, etc. I’m hopeful that this party is one my girls will always remember because just like them – it was unique, full of surprises, and a joy to be with!
While the party is still fresh in my mind and I’ve embraced the fact another year has passed (all too quickly) for another one of my children, I wanted to write an article about hosting a greener party for older kids. I have to say the planning, execution, and green factor (being high!) from this party was very easy this year. Yes, it’s our 3rd year of hosting green parties for our children, including asking for donations in lieu of gifts, but there was no big meltdown (on my part) this year so I wanted to make some realistic recommendations to help parents trying to plan greener parties or celebrations.
When I think or say ‘greener birthday party’ or ‘eco-friendly birthday party’ a vision of children sitting around dying play dough with vegetables as the craft, eating raw/organics and picking up garbage as the activity often comes to mind. This is a lovely concept, but more realistic for younger children. The older kids get, they are picky and want to enforce their opinions on details and activities for their party..this is why things can often get expensive. This past weekend we hosted Angelo’s 7th birthday party at a local rec centre (no I wasn’t up to the task of having 15 hyper boys in my house with only me to entertain them) and they had a teen room that is reserved during weeknights as a teen centre. The room is equipped with a Ping Pong & Pool Table, Foosball, Air Hockey, Basketball dual game, and a Wii system. There was also a party host that took them to the gym for an hour to play floor hockey and soccer. The key…these boy party guests stayed active, active, active! The kids left the party having exercised and played with lots of different partners in the party room with the fun activities.
So the venue rocked and was very easy for my husband and I. A few other things I found easy:
Sent the annual Evite to save on paper invitations and hurt feelings from any children that weren’t invited to the party when paper invitations are passed around a classroom.
Used Angelo’s name banner for the 2nd year…best decoration for a child’s room and birthday party from my company Green Planet Parties. Besides for the tablecloth, this is the only decoration needed in this party room – everyone loved it.
My boys are crazy for Harry Potter so rather than host a Harry Potter themed party – we used understated wizard magic with the loot bags. They were cloth camouflage bags that contained organic candy, wooden wizard wands, and grey felt beards (so everyone can be like Dumbledore) once they are home. I have to say, the last guest to leave had the best reaction ever to the loot bags. He opened the bag and took out the wand and screamed “really? You got me my very own wand?” It was just awesome….anyone that believes boys need plastic, battery operated toys to be happy is frankly mistaken.
Brought in earth friendly tableware. I used palm leaf plates, corn cups and put all party guests names on them so they only used one throughout the party, used wooden cutlery, and recycled napkins. The facility where we hosted the party doesn’t have curb-side pickup for food waste so we packed up all the food waste and compostable tableware and brought it home with us to compost. It was very easy.
For the third year Angelo hosted a donation party and asked his friends to bring a donation rather than a gift. He is a very green little guy and sees the value in helping a charity and knows that the amount of packaging that will be saved from toys and gift wrap is important. It really helps cut down on unrecyclable plastic when you ask children not to bring gifts to a party. We left the party with just envelopes because most of the kids made their own cards. In previous years, Angelo has helped Endangered Animals because it’s a concept younger children love – helping animals. This year, Angelo decided to give 1/2 of his party donations to Cancer Research because our family lost my father-in-law last year to a courageous battle to cancer so it’s a new cause that is close to their hearts. Donation parties really help empower children because they are making decisions (sometimes for the first time) with where their money is going – it gives them confidence and makes them proud.
For the first time in a long time, I simply just enjoyed the party. I wasn’t running around like a crazy person…I had support and help and got to enjoy the 3 hours, taking pictures and playing games with the kids.
I may be the owner of Green Planet Parties, but I’m not perfect and have a few areas to improve next year. I love the convenience of supermarket cakes…I really don’t enjoy baking and know I’m not capable of pulling off a Harry Potter cake on my own, but knowing the icing is made from loads of artificial colors and the toys on top of the cake are made with PVC, doesn’t make me feel great. The convenience is wonderful…but I’d love to find another solution. There are lots of smaller cupcake, cookie, cake pop bakers in every community that are making these items from scratch and are probably more healthy than the supermarket. One person I’ve become friends with on Twitter is Event Envy. Not only is this mompreneur witty and friendly on social media, but her cakes and cake pops are incredible! My new favorite from her site is the Ruffle Cake!
Besides for the cake ‘fail’ I also brought juice boxes to the party. We did use water pitchers with the corn cups instead of plastic water bottles, but didn’t have enough containers to serve juice. The centre had recycling facilities and took care of the juice boxes but I would eliminate these for next time.
Ohhh just remembered I used beeswax candles on the birthday cake rather than petroleum based. Maybe I just earned a point back? <smile>
I wanted to write a post that anyone can follow regarding hosting greener birthday parties for children of any age. It’s still very possible (easy in fact) and doesn’t need to be this incredibly stressful occasion for parents. It should be enjoyable and fun….it is a party after-all! Hmmmm next party is for my 4 year old twin daughters so everything might change trying to balance the ‘princess’ wishes they’ve been talking about. That’s okay…I have a few ideas of my own how to keep their party green, fun, and girlie! Wish me luck.
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In my quest to steer my 4 year old twin daughters away from highly plastic and commercialized products – I aways find my way back to Beccijo. She is the shop owner and artist behind The Enchanted Cupboard and I’ve been a big fan of her magical wooden hand-painted toys for years. I’ve hosted her beautiful banner linking to her store for a few months, so please be so kind and click on the top of my site and check out this magical world of a truly different way to produce toys.
This post is supposed to be about fairy tale characters and mermaids, but I’m finding myself already sidetracked. Check out this beautiful new listing that makes me ache for Fall to arrive. It is gorgeous and how I picture Autumn trees:
LOVE it! And in my imagination – this is what I would find when looking out my front door this time of year in my dream home. And as I write this, I realize that this is the magic of The Enchanted Cupboard. The toys from this shop ignite the imagination…which is what toys are supposed to do. Plus the fact they are safe and sustainable with how they are hand crafted, painted, and loved.
My girls received their mermaid toy set from Beccijo in August, but I’ve held off writing about it hoping to give parents a magical idea for early Christmas shopping this year. There are always a few gifts for our children that take time to coordinate and creating a custom listing with Beccijo would be a wonderful gift for under the tree. I was drawn to the mermaids from The Enchanted Cupboard because not only is it impossible to find a non-commercialized (Barbie or Ariel) toy and all little girls go through the phase of loving and believing in mermaids. This is the same for fairies which are the one of Beccijo’s specialty items. Here is a picture of the set Beccijo sent for my girls – including the silk scarf for water and they have spent hours playing with their mermaid dolls and Mama with their beds and sea anemone, setting up the ocean background blocks and ocean wave stacker.
This set of toys also gave me exposure to wooden stackers that I’ve seen quite often online. These puzzle/stacker toys are awesome for free-play, but even my girls at 4 years old have spent hours slotting the pieces together and this Waldorf concept has kept them very happy while setting up their mermaid toys. I also love the classic storybook inspired collections listed with The Enchanted Cupboard. What child doesn’t love the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears or Big Bad Wolf and Three Little Pigs? Of course – they all love these stories. If you’re searching for a magical, heirloom gift, look no further than these classics. My 8 year old would still love to play with this Little Red Riding Hood collection (although it might contain some graphic scenes once the Wood Cutter doll arrived!!). The wolf and Grandma doll are double sided, plus the opening door, and little bed with nightstand? Really – it is too adorable!
You’ll be on Bejjico’s site for awhile – behind every category is another magical series. I leave you with this cake topper. If you understand that making investments into quality items to save yourself a lifetime of purchasing new disposable products every year is worth spending more money – these cake toppers are right up your alley. EEEp! Look at the the wooden cake toppers ~ they come with 10 candle cups and all the wooden goodies to last for many years of party magic. Or you can personalize little people cake toppers for any celebrations or a wedding. The sets are my favorite and just look amazing on top of a cake!
Thank you Beccijo for the hours of magic you’ve brought to myself and my girls. Your store has always been a favorite of mine and I look forward to the magic you continue to produce from an imagination that is very special.
Related Articles:
The Fairy Ring – Etsy Wooden Dolls
Children Learning Through Play
