Harry Potter Party -16yr- Muggle Quidditch

I've always been a huge fan of Harry Potter, so I decided to have a Very Harry sixteenth birthday party.

 INVITATION:  I made the invitations on the computer. They were meant to resemble a Hogwarts acceptance letter and my guests loved them. I used old-looking paper, putting a small picture of the Hogwarts crest at the top and proceeded to congratulate the guest on their admittance to Hogwarts, found at Platform 9 ¾ (my house).

DECORATIONS: I made a Platform 9 ¾ sign and put it on my front door. I decorated the party room (my rec room) with streamers and balloons in red, blue, yellow, and green to match the Hogwarts houses, as well as candles and signs with Hogwarts, Great Hall, and other appropriate terms on them. I had a small budget, so I really couldn't go all out, but it was still really nice and set the mood.

COSTUMES: Some of my friends came dressed up with suitable Hogwarts attire. One friend had a Gryffindor tie and others had Harry Potter shirts. It wasn't requested by me to wear any costumes, but my guests seemed to enjoy wearing them.

ACTIVITIES/GAMES: By coincidence, a Harry Potter movie marathon was playing on TV that day, and my guests love watching it while we waited for everyone to show up. We started by eating pizza off of Harry plates I bought at my local party store. On two plates I wrote HP on the bottom and gave prizes to the people who had the initials. Prizes consisted of Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans, Fudge Flies, Droobles Best Blowing Gum, and small toys all found at local stores.

I proceeded to pass out drinks, and my guests were astonished to find that their cola was orange, red, green, blue, or black! I slipped a little food coloring into each cup and told my friends that each color had a specific fortune.

After that we had a balloon popping game where guests had to pop a bunch of balloons to find one that had a slip of paper saying Winner!  inside of it. This was fun to watch. The winners got prizes.

Next we went outside and bust open a dragon-egg shaped pinata that I made several days before. I filled it with candy and little prizes. We all had a blast. We went back inside and separated into three teams (Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. We didn't have enough people for Hufflepuff, unfortunately.) My older friend who offered to help me with my party asked us trivia questions from a Harry Potter trivia board game.

The team with the most right answers won a prize. It was hilarious listening to some of the answers some of my guests gave (The question was, Who is the only ghost teacher at Hogwarts? and one of my friends who isn't the most knowledgeable about HP answered, Dumbledore!.

Later we went outside and played Muggle Quidditch. We split into two teams, each with a Seeker, a Chaser, and a Beater. The Beaters were equipped with half of a Styrofoam pool noodle and a small nerf ball to serve as a Bludger. They had to stand still when hitting a Bludger at someone, and if a player was hit they had to freeze for ten seconds. Chasers tried to put a red rubber ball in a basket placed at each end of the designated playing zone. The rules were that a player must stand still when they had the Quaffle and then throw it to a teammate.

The Seekers had to run around finding Snitches, which were plastic Easter eggs that I painted gold. They had to only grab one at a time then put it in the Quaffle basket. Well all the snitches were found, we tallied up the number of goals and the number of Snitches caught (Each goal and each Snitch was 10 points each) and declared the winners who were then awarded prizes. Everyone had so much fun.

CAKE/SNACKS: We then had a Harry Potter cake (ordered from a grocery store) and ate snacks (Chips, pretzels, Cheetos, etc., each with a label with appropriate wizarding food names on them, like Dragon Scales.). We socialized while we waited for everyone's parents to arrive.

FAVORS: I sent all of my guests home with a Harry Potter treat bag, filled with Harry Potter candy, mini kaleidoscopes, puzzles, and other little toys and magical items. My friends still talk about my party and how we MUST play Muggle Quidditch again at our next get together.

I was afraid that the games would be to cheesy, but my guests absolutely loved my Harry Potter party.