hogwarts week 5

 hogwarts week 5 back in ravenclaw

Week 5 saw the following lessons:

2 dragons - research and compare 2 dragons

making a cardboard knight bus

crystal ball prediction - he had to repdict what he thought was going to happen

make a famous wizard - he had to invent his own wizard and what it was famous for

instant ocean - this was a potions subject, although there was changed it didnt work fully for some reason

bits to ice cream - this was making ice cream in a bag. it tasted horrid!

Next week is a 1st visit to Slytherin

hogwarts week 4

 hogwarts week 4

This week saw my son in Hufflepuff house. His lessons were:

a dragon stained glass window (he had to colour it with sharpies).

Edible floo powder - from sherbert, glitter and popping candy

tarot cards - learning about them and how they work

disappearing penny  - using water and a glass

a brooms eye view - 4 writing tasks linked to being on a broom

a new wizard sport - this was good he had to write about a new sport, but if he could make it in real life he got extra points. He went with giant frog racing, whereby people rode on the backs of frogs and competed as a team to win.

He was sorted into Ravenclaw for next week

HOGWARTS week 3

week 3 at Hogwarts my son was in Gryffindor again. He got a large amount of points this week and gave Gryffindor a big lead.

His lessons were as follows:

Gringotts vault - this was a general lesson. it was a box i had made with holes cut in it and a plastic cup in each (think halloween punch out game). each cup had a small gift/item inside and was then covered in gold paper and had a "harry potter" number added to it. These numbers were also on keys that had been hidden around the house with clues.

Dragon impressions - this was a care of magical creatures lesson and what dragons meant to my son.

Bertie Bots challenge - this was 2 parts. part 1 was how many beans were in it (son spent ages weighing jellybeans, and proper trying to work out total) the 2nd part was guessing flavours from appearance and possible smell and then eating them to see if correct.

magical store - making his own magical store and writing about what it sells etc

inverted balloon - this involved heating a glass bottle and placing a balloon on top and it *should* suck the balloon into the bottle.

He was sorted into hufflepuff for next week

Hogwarts week 2

 Today marks week 2 (day) at Hogwarts for my son.

We didnt have any arguments over work today, he just got on with his "pre-sorted" tasks that he picked last week. He was sorted into Gryffindor for this week, meaning that any points earnt for tasks go to there.

His lessons for today were as follows:

Weeping werewolf (care of magical creatures), this invovled lemons, washing up liquid and bicarbonate of soda. The ingredients cause a reaction.

Tarantallegra (spells) this involved him using just dance on the wii to make his legs move!

Describe snape (potions) he had part of the story and then he had to use bits from it to describe snape.

Bean in a bag (herbology) this involved putting runner beans into a zip lock bag with wet tissue to make it grow. he needs to log what it does daily.

Butterbeer fudge (cooking) this didnt quite work as it didnt set so we had to re-boil it and then add some cornflour to set it. BUT it did taste really nice!

cloud in a jar (divination) this involved hot water in a jar with ice on the lid and then adding hairspray to see the cloud form.

as well as the above he had 5mins to find words in the giant wordsearch (A3 in size), he could do some tasks from the OWLS book, he had to fill out his time table and write his daily prophet newspaper.

He has been sorted into his house for next week (Gryffindor again) and he has picked his 6 lessons.

Hogwarts/Harry Potter treasure hunt for trunk

 Many months ago i found a post online here (nothing to do with me) that gave me the idea for my sons trunk. So before i start the hunt, i will explain the box.

I used an old shoe box, the straps were pieces of cardboard stuck onto it. i bought a small hasp to fix on it.

the whole outside of the box was covered with kitchen towel and glue, which gave it a rough texture. I let it dry and then painted it all. I fixed on the  hasp and glued over the screws as they were slightly bigger than the box. I printed an assortment of images - hogwarts, platform 9 3/4, mauraders map, 3 broomsticks etc and his name, and stuck them to the box and covered with pva glue. The box/trunk was now complete.

Onto the treasure hunt. as per the blog entry here , my son had to go on a hunt to find his trunk. The clues had been printed onto mini scrolls (word art shape) and laminated. There were dummy keys and real ones, you need to make sure that the keys needed early are in early places and not later ones. the scroll he was given had the following info on it:

Dear Mr Watson, 

before you can fully enter Hogwarts you need to find your missing trunk. To do so you need to work through the clues, keep hold of anything you find as they will be needed. Good Luck.

Outside in the "toy shed" you will find an assortment of wand blanks, one of these is your new wand. Remember the wand chooses you not you it, so you will need to close your eyes and feel the best one. Also with the wand blanks is further instructions.

Professor Dumbledore

He went to the toy shed  (which had a sign saying "olivanders"), and he picked his wand and read the 2nd clue:

clue 2 - Inside the owlery* you will find some feathers, you need to gather these to make your Quills. There's also a key with wings and another key. *the owlery is my dining room window and it has has plush/toy owls hanging from the curtain pole.

Along with the quills and keys there was another clue.

Clue 3 - In Flourish & Blotts stationary store* you will be able to gather the materials for your ID card. *Flourish & Blotts was the drawer that holds all my pens, staples, hole puch etc. 

There was also the next clue.

Clue 4 - the words "go to the upstairs library" are among the pens as well as a key. *The upstairs library is the bookshelf at the top of the stairs.

Clue 5 - you find a stack of books that will help you with your studies. There's also a "gringots  coin".

and the next clue.

Clue 6 - One of they keys fits the bank vault. You open it to find a well deserved snack and the words  "the mirror shows the most desperate desire of a persons heart, a vision that has been known to drive men mad.". *This clue was on a lockable money tin labelled gringots bank. 

Clue 7 - it says "some keys have been dropped by an owl down the chimney. They could be important."  *this clue was on the "mirror of Erised".

and the next clue

Clue 8 - one of your keys unlocks professor snapes potion cupboard where you can find a simple experiment to do today. *This was on the fireplace.

Clue 9 - well done for finding the correct key to the cupboard. your simple experiment is here and an image of moaning myrtle. *the potion cupboard is one we keep all of our sceience things in and i had locked with a bike lock. 

clue 10 - how many "POINTS" do you get for hitting Myrtle in the head?" * this was in our bathroom which we had named myrtles bathroom, there was also a key.

clue 11 - Deep in the restricted cellar you will find your trunk that the pesky elves have hidden! *This was on the hogwarts house points chart.

The drinks cellar was my outdoor cupboard that has a couple of shelves for alcohol. Obviously you can change the clues to fit your own house etc.

This was alot of fun.

Hogwarts sorting hat

 Linked to our "year at Hogwarts" as part of home education we will be doing the sorting hat ritual every week so we can award house points and hopefully get a different house each week. I will add them as we do them.

I have come up with various ways of doing the sorting hat. We have a stool and a sorting hat (see left), the stool was an old wooden chair i cut the back off, picked up in local charity shop and the hat was bought off ebay few years ago.

Like in Harry Potter my son will sit on the stool with the hat on his head, he will be given "the task" for the week to be sorted and will ask the hat where he belongs, he will then do the required task and go into that house for the week.

1. The 1st sorting hat task was 4 Hogwarts envelopes (picked up in a charity shop), to which i added a printed "house info", each envelopes had 1 house in it. We didnt seal the envelopes as we can re-use this option to sort into houses during the year. I shuffled the envelopes and gave my son all 4, he picked the one he wanted and took out the house info.

(although only ravenclaw shown each house has one of these inside the envelope). All house info bits have been laminated so that they will keep throughout the year.

2. We used a dice and a pre-made chart. 1, 3, 5 and 6 give you a Hogwarts house, 2 says it likes your shampoo and thinks its in love, so you need roll again, 4 says yuk your hair is greasy i want to leave! roll again.

3. I had made an assortment of "bingo" type grids with words linked to each house, some of the words (in gold) are linked to mroe than 1 house, the other words are only on 1 house. He had to mark off which words described him and then i went back to my sheet and worked out which he had the most words for and that was his house. (i have 12 of these in total!)

WELCOME TO HOGWARTS

Today (5th September 2023) was the start of our Hogwarts adventures. Sadly my son dint get to go on the train from half hr away as we couldn't get him there, but there will be other weeks this can happen. He had yesterday picked his house of Ravenclaw, there will be various ways of sorting him. (see separate post).

The day started with him receiving his "welcome to Hogwarts" pack (powerpoint) which had information on how things are going to work (1 day Muggle = 1week at Hogwarts), the colour-coding i have done for each lesson, house points, lesson rules etc. Once he had read so far in his welcome back there was a slide that read:

"As you know you have been given a place at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Upon arriving at the school you are presented with a scroll with your name on. You open it and read the following:

Dear Mr Watson, 

before you can fully enter Hogwarts you need to find your missing trunk. To do so you need to work through the clues, keep hold of anything you find as they will be needed. Good Luck.

Outside in the "toy shed" you will find an assortment of wand blanks, one of these is your new wand. Remember the wand chooses you not you it, so you will need to close your eyes and feel the best one. Also with the wand blanks is further instructions.

Professor Dumbledore

THIS was the start of his treasure hunt (see separate entry) around my house. He followed the clues and gathered items to make his ID cards, wand permit, an experiment to do today, some chocolate coins, some books he needs and eventually his trunk.

He sat and typed up all of the rules onto word document for each lesson and printed them for their folders, which he also sorted. 

He made his ID cards (for each house), his wand permit, care of magical creatures permit, library card etc. He wasn't able to finish his wand as the glue gun hadnt been delivered. He made his Quills using feathers we had collected whilst on walks (a swans and a seagulls). He sat and made a start on on plant fact files. He asked if he could do a fact file for our pets linked to the beast classifications. He did his experiment.

A year at Hogwarts part 2

 Earlier in the year i posted on here about "A year at Hogwarts". WELL, we are almost at the point of it happening! Only a few days to go until we "go to Hogwarts!"

No I didnt totally lose my mind, but came close, the printer is still here, although it has come close to being thrown away as keeps stopping and i hope everything is planned.

SO where did the inital idea end up?

We have the following subjects:

• Arithmancy (maths)
• Care of magical creatures (includes Dragons)
• Cookery
• Divination
• Defense against the dark arts
• General Hogwarts
• Herbology
• History of Magic
• Potions
• Spells
• Transfiguration

Each of these subjects has many different activities and lessons linked to them. This has happened due to countless hours of research and hunting on the net, finding and saving them all and then working out which subject they fit into. Powerpoints for all subjects with the lessons have all been made, worksheets have all been printed, i have spent an absolute fortune onthings that we need (and probably things that we dont), and i still have a list a mile long that i havent got yet. 

As per the orignal email all subjects have been given a colour and each lesson has been printed in the correct colour, laminated and then added to a cauldron so my son can pick out the 6 subjects he is going to do the following week. (There was originally 265 i think but this is now nearer 300! so we have plenty to do).

I had thought about getting a proper book made linked to spells and magical creatures but these were going to cost loads so i printed and stuck in exercise books instead and also did 1 linked to Dragons. I need to finish the spells.

I currently have piles of paperwork EVERYWHERE as i'm trying to sort it all into the different subjects as we have folders and dividers for them. I still have loads to print off as well.

I have boxes of harry potter/hogwarts decoroations down from the loft as we had them for HP party few years ago and we need them for this next year. once they go up they are staying up!

We are not sure HOW son is getting to the train station on tuesday as his Dad's car is off the road at the moment. So this could be a big change in his plans sadly.

As much as this has been hard work to sort out i am actually looking forward to it as is my son. And i think i will end up doing the same thing for next year so i am hunting new ideas already.

A year at "HOGWARTS"

 A year at "HOGWARTS" 

Yes you have read the title correctly, we are having a year at "HOGWARTS". No we are not moving into the warner bros studio, nor has my son got a place in the musical. However, as he is Home educated this is our plan for set 2023! 

For Info - Hogwarts = HG and Harry Potter = HP

Lets back up a bit as it's been ages since I posted on this blog, well during covid I think! (no that was my family tree one, never mind!)

In October 2021 my youngest son was removed from school due to ongoing bullying and the fact the school couldn't (or wouldn't) protect him and keep him safe. When he fought back against a gang of 6 lads he was the one who was suspended for 2 weeks for fighting. When we went in to school for a return to school meeting the safeguarding officer (SGO) was really arsey with us. He didn't know why we were so upset over this as it was his 1st punishment and incident. Errr no it's not! He argued i presented him with 2 A4 pages of "incidents" including dates the school had taken him to hospital with suspected broken ribs from being kicked. SGO was shocked and didn't know anything about them all. He went and spoke to a teacher who said "well they are boys being boys you didn't need to know". THAT comment was the final straw and I decided I was removing my son and going to Home educate him.

So, we move back forward. Since being home ed, my son has done various things. As part of this years work he is doing the Pagan wheel of the year and this was meant to be ended (nearly) with a visit to the Witchcraft museum in Cornwall and the History of Witchcraft. My son then said "well you have said about doing Harry Potter theme at some point, can we do it at the same time as the History of Witches?" Well yes we can, i will work on it.

I started looking for ideas and things to do and came across a blog of a lady who home educates in USA and she had done "a year at Hogwarts" and this is where my thoughts went!!! She had done it every day and all lessons were linked to it. Sadly there wasn't much on here blog except this was what they were doing. I know for a fact that my son will be bored doing it every day for a year as he gets bored of long topics after 5 weeks. So I spoke to him, and he has agreed that he will do 1 day a week at "Hogwarts". 

Let's do some maths - there are 39weeks in a school term (approx), so that's 39 days of work. If we do 4 lessons a day that's 156 lessons I need. BUT some HG lessons and activities I've found are fairly quick and less than 30minutes to do, this means a very short day of learning. Back to numbers if I add in 1 more lesson I need 195 in total or if I go to 6 I need 234! OMG! This is going to be mad. My middle son then said, maybe you need a bank of extra bits as well "just incase" something goes wrong or you can't do the planned activity then you have a back up. (Thanks son! start thinking of extras then!) So it looks like I need about 275 different things. (Ideas on a postcard please!)

My son has stated he wants dropping off at the train station 2 or 3 from home by his Dad, with his suitcase, an owl in a cage (toy), and him in wizard robes. He then plans on travelling like it to the local station where I am to meet him, dressed as a WITCH, and we then proceed to get a taxi or bus home so that he can start his HG experience! This is also to be reversed on the last day of each term. He also wants a sign outside on the wall above the post box saying "welcome to Hogwarts" and it's to stay for the year. (My neighbours and postman are going to think I've totally lost the plot! LOL!)

I started planning. I wrote down possible subjects - we have 7 main, a general HG and maths. I then started hunting the internet and saving websites with ideas, activities etc. I grabbed all of our science instructions from kits and a few science experiment books and started making notes - this for potions, that for spells and such. From here I have made (well started) a powerpoint for each subject. So I can start adding the activities to them. This is going to take me a few weeks.

A few things I am 100% certain on:

1. I think I have totally lost the plot on agreeing to this (and actually doing it).
2. My neighbours and postman are going to think I've gone mad, my friends probably will as well but most know I will do anything for my kids.
3. I am 99.9% certain I am going to be fed up of seeing HP/HG decorations and items around my house before my son is.
4. I am going to sell the "work pack" afterwards that I am making as it will help so many others.
5. We are going to change "house" every week, with a new sorting hat ceremony. This means that we can work with a house points system and see which house wins at the end of the year. (Son won't be able to "fix it" for his favourite as it will be done via a quiz, a dice, a spinning wheel online and picking paper from a cauldron throughout the year.
6. Lessons are going to be picked out of a cauldron at the end of the each week ready for the next week, so I have time to get the equipment together, especially as some tasks I am looking at require fresh foods etc.
7. IF I manage to pull it off I think I could end up with 6 weeks to plan another big theme for September 2024. BUT saying that, if son decides he wants another big thing and says soon after we start etc I will have time.
8. I think my printer is going to leave home crying due to the amount I will need to print, thankfully I'm on a pay as use ink programme and they send me replacements.
9. My middle son thinks I'm crazy for even considering doing this and has said he's NOT dressing up or being involved - he will be!

Watch this space for more updates on our "Year at Hogwarts". I think it will work out really well when it comes to it.

February 24th 2016 - Harry Potter Part 1 - Food ideas

As per my previous post about Halloween preparation for the Harry Potter Party (HP) I am hosting this year for Halloween here is part one - Food ideas for Harry Potter.  I shall add to this as and when I find new ideas/possiblilites of food for the night that are linked to Harry Potter, witches/Wizards etc.

As well as having traditional party food I do try and have some healthy fruit/veg options for the kids as well.  Food and it's witchy/halloween/hp names are below, some are listed more than once with different names:

FOOD	WITCH/HALLOWEEN/HP NAME
cocktail sausages	mummy wraps
jelly with eyeball	jellied eyeballs
grapes	witches warts (HP)
gingerbread men with cuts etc	gruesome gingerbread
cooked dough on a stick	dough snakes
hot dogs	severed fingers
coffin shaped sandwiches with ham man	coffin sandwiches
choc chip cookies, marshmallows & icing	dracs fangs
white marshmallows/merangues choc chips	ghosts
chicken bites/nuggets/chunks	chunks of flesh
choc chip cookies	moon bites
liquorice sticks	wands
cinnamon dough (shaped as hats)	sorting hat bites
cocktail sausages	owl droppings (HP)
sausage rolls	owl pellets (HP)
dough twists with sugar coating	unicorn horns (HP)
rice crispie treat balls with red icing	brains
shreddies	monster scabs
green popcorn	bogies

treacle tarts	treacle tarts (HP)
Snake cake (use a bundt tin for effect)	Nagini (HP)
ferrero rocher/lindt chocolates	Golden snitches (need add wings) (HP)
raisins	owl droppings (HP)
cheese puffs	"cheese-huffle-puffs" (HP)
chicken wings (any flavour)	dragon/griffin wings (HP)
veg sticks (carrots, cucumber etc)	herbology bites (HP)
breadsticks/cheese straws	olivanders wands (HP)
coloured hard boiled eggs	dragon eggs (HP)
dorritos	troll toe nails (HP)
green food dip	cave troll snot (HP)
cheese puffs	pumpkin poo
cocktail sausages	dead mans fingers
pizza slices	severed fingers
custard creme biscuits	cauldron cremes (HP)

February 24th 2016 - Halloween Preparation

YES I know it's MONTHS until Halloween 2016 BUT i'm stating preparation early, infact I started it this time last year with my spell book.

This years theme is going to be HARRY POTTER (HP)!  2/3 of my sons really like HP, me and hubby like it and it's going to be very easy to do.  During half term we went to the Harry Potter Studio tour and I took loads of photos to help with ideas. All of the people who will be invited have been pre-warned of the theme so that they have time to sort out witch/wizard outfits or a character from the HP series if they wish to.  If they want to just dress halloweeny that fine with me.

I have pieces of paper and word docs all over the place that have various ideas on - whether for decorations, outfits, props, food, games etc.  I plan to add them to here so that they are all in 1 place and I can access them (as well as helping others with ideas).  I can't claim that alll ideas are my own, nor can I remember exactly what page/site on google that I found.  IF I am able to add a link to the source I will do, but if not I thank the original person now for sharing their ideas.

I plan to post ALL ideas on here and I wont be saying which ones I am doing - I will confirm some but not all as I want them to be a supprise for my friends at the party. 

I think I will make extra posts linked to the party - 1 of food ideas, 1 of games, 1 of decorations etc, that way they will be easier to add to and easier to find.

My house has an "L" shaped lounge/dinner and part of that is the under stairs cupboard.  YES you've guessed it this is going to be "Harry's bedroom" under the stairs.  It does mean that all my "junk" that gets chucked in there will need to be moved in order to make it work.   BUT it will be sorted by halloween.  This is also going to be accessible for all of the children to go in one at a time and have a photo taken which I will print out for them to take home at end of party.  I am going to print out some book images to fix to the underside of the stairs as well as making a meter box from cardboard.  There will be toy soldiers, an air bed and cover and shoes and not forgetting "Hedwig" the owl in a cage and dustpan and brush on the door.

Hedwig is a soft toy owl that came from £1 shop, however, its more grey than white so I am going to keep looking for a more white one.


My spell book that I started last year is now in it's final stages.  From my original idea of printing the pages and sticking them to pages in an old book didn't work as the printed pages were the same size as pages and made the book too thick to close, so I have used a make your own book website and had the spells professionally printed.  This is going to be fixed (somehow) into the original cover I made.  Watch this space!!!  I also made a second book of Witches food and meals (not that I would want to eat them) but this has been printed as well.

March 30th 2015 - Harry Potter Halloween Planing

March 30th 2015 - Harry Potter Halloween Planing

Today is the end of the first 3months of the 365 challenge, i'm impressed to have made it this far, there has been a few problems and I have had to pin new things to match what I have done on a few days, but we are here 1/4 of the way through the year.

For today there isn't 1 pin but a whole new board of pins linked to a Harry Potter Halloween Party for next year, 2016.  Yep that's right i'm planning Halloween 2016 already and we still have 8months until this years party - but that's not really my problem as it's being held at a friends house, although I am helping with decorations and such for it.

Me and hubby were talking about how we need to beat what we did with last year party and the spider theme - we had spider nests and webbing everywhere, hundreds of spiders all over the place and  it too us over a week to put it all up as we were stretching the webs and then layering it with another thinly spread bit in the opposite direction.  It did look really cool especially wit the disco and uv lights on.  I started looking on the net and the halloween forum for ideas and there was 3 possibles - Harry Potter, graveyard or scary carnival, but as the youngest will only be 5 and the next two up be 7 we decided the scary carnival can wait until they bit bigger and we only have a few graveyard bits that I picked up in the sale, we need to buy more!

So we decided to make a plan for the party - the plan is that everyone dresses up as a character from Harry Potter or comes as a Witch/Wizard.  This can be as easy or as hard as you like - Witch/Wizard costumes are widely available and so are proper Harry Potter ones, you can also get iron and stitch on patches that can be added to cheaper outfits.  There is no other rules, and if the adults want to dress as one of the kids at Hogwarts they can!

Hubby already has long blue wizard robes and a long white beard so he will be going as Dumbledore.  I always have my hair  dyed a bright red but will do it purple and I am going as Tonks - the punk Witch.  My eldest son has straight blonde hair and a major attitude, along with being gobby and opinionated so he is going as Draco Malfoy.  My middle son has dark brown curly hair and wears glasses, so he is going to go as Harry Potter.  My lil son is still really small despite his age, so I said about him going as Dobby the house elf but hubby says no he needs be a Wizard, we're just not sure which one or if going as "a Wizard".   He also has Wizard robes in blue that he is going to wear this year, but it wont take much to get a Ravenclaw badge and tie for him to wear next year so its not qute the same.   I have messaged our friends that will definately be here and 2/3 have replied so far saying it sounds a good idea so I will be going ahead with it.  Nearer the date next year when the kids decide which friends they want to invite I will let them all no about the theme so the parents can get Witch/Wizards as well.

My mind has gone into over-drive of the possibilities we can do to the house etc, and although this will be a party a think it is going to end up very big and a thing in its own right.   The internet is going to be a great help for ideas and printables as so many people have already held Harry Potter parties over the years.   Although my house isn't huge I do have space to do things if I move few things around.  Plus I have the garden but there is no guarantee that the weather will behave!

I plan to re-use the spiders and webs etc from last year, with a trail of spiders stuck to  my floor, across my bedroom door and into the bathroom where the big spider will be as Arragog!  The toilet is going to be re-named Moaning Myrtle's bathroom (as I can't put it as girls bathroom cos it will confuse the boys) and im going to have a picture of Myrtle on the toilet lid, I am going to try and find some quotes from her as well to put in there - if I can find a way to do it I will have her talking from the films on repeat playing somehow - this still needs to worked on as to how we can do it. 

I need a platform 9 3/4 sign and a brick wall making - my house is made from concrete so I don't have brick walls, so this will be done via a white shower curtain or bed sheet and a sponge with brown and red paint to give the brick effect.  I plan for this to go over the lounge doorway so everyone goes through platform 9 3/4 to get into lounge.  And hopefully on the other side of it a picture of the fat lady that is over griffindor house.

I have a BIG idea of making a Professor Trelawney from a stuffed painters suit, hippy clothes (charity shop), wig, big glasses and sat at a table with crystal ball, set of rune stones and few other pieces.  This can be used as a photo station as well.

The other BIG thing I will be doing is turning the cupboard under my stairs into Harry's bedroom, complete with airbed and blanket, dressing gown and slippers, a pile of books, a dim light and a few other things!   This will be available for everyone to go into (carefully) for a photo that I will print out and they can all take home at end of night.

I have also had the idea of making a giant basilisk and fixing it around the ceiling of the lounge and up the stairs, just not 100% sure on how to make it - im thinking ladies tights stuffed with ? so it's light weight, just need to play around to make it look effective and like a snake not stuffed tights!  There is a bigger problem here though and that is HOW I fix it to my ceiling as I have horrid polystyrene tiles on it and I can't afford to take them down and get ceiling artexed.  I thought about somehow turning the ceiling black and added small fairy lights to it like the stars in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, but not sure on how to do it or to fix it up.  So again it''s a possibility that I have time to play with and see where it goes.


There is also loads of other things as possible decorations on my list but i'm not declaring them just yet as I want some of it to be a supprise for  the actual party but i'm sure it will be really good by the time Halloween 2016 gets here - I have 20months to get it sorted - that's a long time and gives me leverage to buy bits cheaply as and when I see them! Ebay has loads of jewellery type bits and other things from 1p, sent from China but as i'm not in a rush it doesn't matter.

I have started to compile a list of possible foods, or foods we can name as Harry Potter foods, possible games we can play and ideas for party bags - including Harry Potter magic frogs - i've found a template for the boxes and frog cards to go them.  I plan to label sweets as though they are from Honeydukes and hope to get some "tricks" like they have in Zonkos joke shop, all for as cheap as possoble.

I am really excited about this and I plan to make it a night to be remembered by all!