Harry Potter Marathon 2012

            I feel like I am really missing out because I haven’t seen all the Harry Potter movies. It bothers me that I don’t know all the details of the whole story. I know I should have read the books to my kids instead, but . . .  we decided to borrow the movies from a friend and watch all of them, 1 movie a day! I didn’t really think things through to realize that two of my four children are too young to watch the movies, so even though yesterday was our last movie, I still haven’t seen them all! Anyway, here are the activities and treats we had each day of our eight days of Potter. I tried to keep it all simple and inexpensive!

Day 1

Color banners for different Hogwarts houses

Popcorn served in a cauldron

Pumpkin juice (aka orange julius)

Movie 1

Day 2

Make Harry Potter scarves (I wanted to make this as easy as possible. I used a 28" piece of yellow fleece and then used fabric spray paint to make the maroon stripes. It worked really well! I took pictures of the process below. I cut them into 4, 7" strips. Four scarves cost about $6, and the kids were able to help make them. I made them wear them all week.)

Fruit & dip/Veggie & dip

Movie 2

Day 3

Character quiz (from http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/397pBC/Which-Harry-Potter-Character-Are-You)

Sorting hat ritual (to announce results from quiz)

Butter beer (Ginger Ale with caramel flavoring added that I found at the dollar store)

Movie 3

Day 4

Lightning bolt shaped breadsticks w/ bloody marinara dipping sauce

Movie 4

Day 5

Guess # of jelly beans in a jar (aka Bertie Bott's Every Flavor beans)

Eat jelly beans

Movie 5

Day 6

Make pretzel wands (pretzel rods found at dollar store, dip in peanut butter or frosting)

Movie 6

Day 7

Paint stick wands (This was by far my kids' favorite. Luckily, I am a hoarder, and I had a wooden dowel lying around from a different project that I cut to the sizes they wanted. :) The kids loved decorating their "wands" the way they wanted, and they have played with them more than they've played with most of the toys we have bought for them.

Funny how the simple things are sometimes the best.)

Eat popsicles

Movie 7

Bryn "Hermione" Wand-Stealer Christensen

E Potter Power Christensen

Gabe Harry the Horcrux Hunter Christensen

Sam the Snake-Whisperer Christensen

Day 8

Horcrux Hunt (Use clues to find all the different horcrux's. I found the clues on-line. There was a treat at the end. I had fun doing this and was giggling in delight as I put it together! Again, I had most of the stuff already to do this.)

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/features/crafts/potterparties/horcruxhunt

Movie 8