Happy Halloween!

This year Halloween was so much fun!  The kids came up with their own costume ideas, we went to goodwill and they helped create them.  It was crazy but fun. 

Michael was a dark and stormy night...ask him where the storm was and he was ready to spray you with water.  Katelyn was a good witch, Lilly was Princess Rapunzel, James was Zoro, Robert was, of course, Doctor Who and I was "The Nicest Mom EVER!".

We had a bumper crop of squash this year and I didn't want to spend money on pumpkins so I told the kids to pretend the squash were yellow pumpkins.  They were so excited I let them decorate so many!

The month leading up to Halloween we worked hard making lots of Harry Potter Halloween decoration.  (my sister, Nikki, was staying with us and helped a lot with the decorations!)

Since we had so many fun decorations we decided we should have a Harry Potter Halloween party with our homeschool friends. Here are the highlights:

You can't go to Hogwarts without going through platform 9 3/4 first. 

We made floating candles!  They are AWESOME!

They are cardboard tubes (toilet paper, paper towel and wrapping paper tubes) covered in hot glue, painted and hung with fishing line. 

Wands are a must so Nikki and I apprenticed with Ollivander's and learned how to created some amazing wands!!

 They are made out of chop sticks, lots of hot glue and then painted. A few special ones have glitter on them.

Our dementor, Phil, isn't quite done yet but still creepy!

 Here he is in the making:

It was messy...but as you can see so was platform 9 3/4.

 Follow the spiders:

A fun sign to keep kids out of the bedrooms:

We had a photo booth:

Here is the pin the scar on Harry Potter game that Michael drew up for us.  He did a great job!

We had a really fun potions class.  I found empty essential oil or vitamin bottles and relabeled them to make it look realistic.  It was so fun adding pixie dust, swamp water, werewolf hair, dragon's blood, bug slime, three spiders and bone dust to create a fun growing potion!  The kids did it at least 4 times because they loved it so much!

 (Pixie dust: glitter, swamp water: white vinegar with a little unfiltered apple cider vinegar added, werewolf hair: dog hair, dragon's blood: red food coloring, bug slime: dish soap, three plastic spiders, and bone dust: baking soda.)  Click here to print the recipe.

We had lots of snacks: Hufflepuff Popcorn, Ravenclaw Ranch Dip, Slytheryn Cucumber Snake, Owl Droppings (olives), Gryffyndor Grapes, Sorting Hat Cupcakes, and you can't have a Harry Potter Party without Pumpkin Juice!

Here are our Sorting Hat cupcakes.  There was colored frosting in the middle so when you ate it you would find out which house you were sorted in to.  The kids loved it!

I didn't get a picture of the Pumpkin juice but it was a big hit as well!
Here's the recipe we came up with:

Pumpkin Juice

1 Gallon Apple Cider

12 Oz Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate

15 Oz Can Pumpkin Puree

3/4 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice

Mix all together and enjoy over ice.

We had so much fun!  I see many more Harry Potter parties in our future with these fun decoration. 

Parties are hard work!