9 3/4

Marcus basically had a Halloween party on Friday. His 9 3/4 birthday, Harry Potter theme. I sent out acceptance letters to Hogwarts students (his friends). I loved this part: Headmaster - Andrew Bahlmann Master of fantasy and mythological, grand sorcerer and supreme daggnabbit

Upon arrival they had to enter Platform 9 3/4

 After being sorted (I didn't take a single picture of the sorting hat because I had to control it. There was a cell phone inside and Andy had his upstairs and I said the names loud and he sorted them into preassigned houses.) they drank Polujuice potion and earned points for their houses. Each question subtracted points from the 1500 they started with. (They drank powdered drink mixed with clear soda and I pinned a name or animal if they didn't know the characters, to their backs.)

 They wore shirts in their house colors and got wands to use:

They played 10 minute Quidditch* games. Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw Gryffindor won 230-70, Hufflepuff vs. Slytherin and then the play off with Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff:

 Hufflepuff found the snitch and won the Quidditch cup:

 Slytherins (plus Andy) A more motley crew I have never seen:

 Ravenclaw dominated the last activity:

 We ate food-Chocolate wands

 Snitches and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans

 Meat Pasties and Herbology bites

 Butter Beer (Cream soda, butter extract and whipped cream)

 Chocoballs - cake pops that say Happy 9 3/4 (there were more, but these had peanut butter in them and I separated them for allergy reasons.)

 We played a Jeopardy game with Harry Potter questions. Final question: The original owner of the sorting hat. No one got it right! They all guessed Rowena Ravenclaw. Anyone know?

It was a very fun day. We had several no shows so I am glad everything worked out.


*We made up our own rules for Quidditch. I would recommend getting at least 2 hoops per side but preferrably 3. One was too easy to defend. Volleyball = quaffle kickball = bludger Ferrier Rocher chocolate = snitch 
We started using rackets to hit the bludgers, but it was too dangerous, so we changed the bludger rules. You could not hold the ball but had to immediately get rid of it. If hit by a bludger you had to stand still for 15 seconds (it was supposed to be 30 but no one followed that.) After they played for a while the Seeker went to find the hidden snitch. It was hidden by the teams not playing. We didn't have enough players for each team so we had a keeper, beater, and chaser then they chose a seeker after the game ended to search. It was really fun. 10 points per goal and 150 if you found the snitch.