Check out these pans of Candy Cane popcorn cooling and waiting to be lovingly packed for gift bags:
10 hours later, I wasn't thinking it was such a great idea. The day before the party, I spent 10 hours making batches of popcorn. (Then Nathan helped the next day by making three more massive batches of other flavors). I made 5-10 gallons of popcorn for each flavor.....there were big plastic tubs of extra popcorn stacked under the popcorn table just waiting to restock depleted serving bowls. Joseph discovered this delightful fact at the beginning of the party, so he tidily slid under the table, squeezed himself under the tablecloth next to the tub of hot cocoa popcorn, and methodically began picking out the marshmallows.
I'm a huge fan of popcorn (because it's a whole grain and honestly it's pretty cheap), but I'm not sure if I would choose to do a popcorn bar again at the next birthday party. However, it was a huge hit with all the guests. But first let me back up.
We only host birthday parties with friends every other year. The alternate year we let the birthday child choose a fun family excursion for their birthday 'party'. Children choose to go rock climbing or bowling or camping or whatever they want (within a certain budgetary guideline).
This is the year for parties with friends. Sarah invited friends from school, church, and after school clubs to her party....so we were blessed with 22 friends joining us in celebration of her special day. Our house was packed with excited, giggling girls. Luckily we had plenty of chairs for everyone (thank you again, Nana Kingsley for giving us so many dining sets over the years!)
(And darn it all, I was so busy hosting the party, I didn't take ANY pictures of the actual event. I only have photos of the setup before guests arrived. Boo. You'll just have to imagine the rest.)
As people arrived, we started with an Icebreaker game. I taped the name of a Harry Potter character to their back. The girls would then ask their friends questions to discover what name they were given. I expected some girls to roll their eyes at this game, but surprisingly everyone was eager to play and enthusiastically participated, asking for more turns with new names.
After everyone arrived, we sat in a ginormous circle in the library and played a game to pass out the wands. I had made 2 dozen wands (see how I do it HERE.) and painted them slightly different colors so they looked like different woods. Each wand had a tag that named their core (pheonix feather, dragon heartstring, unicorn hair, thestral feather, griffon feather, and troll whisker...I wanted to have one core type that people wouldn't want to keep, just to keep things interesting later).
To play the game, I pass out a deck of cards. (Any deck of cards will do, but I didn't have face cards, so we used the ingredient cards from the game Elixir- it fit our theme perfectly!) I had a matching deck of cards in my hands. Sarah would pick a wand and read it's description aloud. I'd have a guest pick a random card from my deck, and whoever held the matching card would inherit the wand. There would be pleased squealing or disappointed moaning, depending on the wand.
We repeated this process until everyone had a wand. Then I announced a twist. We were now going to draw cards one more time and people could choose whether to trade wands with another player or keep their wand (if they chose to keep it, it was placed on the ground in front of them and protected from being traded or stolen). This was where the most fun happened. Girls would triumphantly rush to the player of a coveted wand so they could trade. Some girls tried to hide their wands from view, hoping others would forget who had the 'best' wands. The most sought-after wand of the game was definitely the Elder Wand- I made one wand with much more detail and it claimed to have a thestral feather core. These avid Harry Potter fans recognized this extra-powerful wand the moment it was revealed, so everyone eagerly traded for it.
The next game let everyone use their wands to cast silly spells on other guests. My original plan had been to play a big game of Elixir, but then far too many people RSVP'ed to fit in one card game. (Can I just say how frustrating it is to have people RSVP the DAY OF THE PARTY?! Oh man! I was glad they wanted to join us, but was SO frustrated when I had to make half-a-dozen more wands just hours before the party started. I learned some important things about party etiquette from this- always RSVP early!)
I made several Harry Potter themed bingo cards and passed these out to everyone. We used spooky Halloween-themed erasers to mark of the bingo cards (these were also sent home in the gift bags later). When people scored a Bingo, they'd be allowed to cast a curse on a player of their choice. I'd draw a curse card out of a deck and read it aloud, then the guests would cast away (with appropriate flair and magical-sounding Latin words of course). All the girls from school who detested Latin class surely had the most fun with this part. They came up with very convincing spell words to recite as they waved their wands.
Oh this was too much fun! The spells were all so silly and the guests were so eager to oblige. Well, with one execption. One curse card is the Love Spell.
It obliges the player to express their deep affection for the person who cast the spell. When I read this curse, Matthew was surrounded by a circle of giggling girls with their eyes alight in anticipation as they cast this one on him. Their faces reminded me of pleased cats playing with their food. Poor Matthew. He deflated immediately. He was a decent sport about it, but wasn't happy to do it. He obligingly told each girl how much he adored them. The girls were in heaven. To prevent this from happening again later in the game, he cast a silencing spell on himself so he couldn't speak. The next time the Love Spell came around again, he could just use sign language to sign a half-hearted I Love You. Even with that subdued expression of affection, the girls squealed and were delighted.
After the games, Sarah opened her gifts and we started the movie in the art-studio-transformed-into-a-movie-theater. It was interesting to observe which gift seemed to bring the most delight to everyone- it was a homemade knitted hat that looked like Harry's owl, Hedwig.
The girls oohed and aahed over it and exclaimed over how adorable they thought it was. The gifts were so thoughtful and so many people selected gifts that fit her personality perfectly. She was particularly greatful for the gift of a wristwatch, since she can never see the clock that hides in the school classrooms. Sarah was also blessed with some gift cards to her favorite place- the bookstore. She was delighted beyond words. She felt very blessed and thankful for the kindness of her friends.
As the movie started, we gave everyone decorated popcorn bags and let them fill it with flavors of their choice from the popcorn bar. Here's the lineup of flavors we made: Dorito, White Cheddar Cheese, Ranch, Birthday Cake, Candy Cane (this was the most popular batch by far), Hot Cocoa, Cookies and Cream, Sour Lemon, Taco, Caramel, and Peanut Butter.
Oh they loved this so much! The popcorn bar was busy all night with girls restocking their favorite flavors or trying new mixes. I had made tubs and tubs and tubs of popcorn, so each flavor had plenty to go around as I restocked the serving containers frequently.
During the last hour of the party, most of the girls decided to play nightgames outside in the dark. Many had never been on a farm before, so they begged Sarah to show them the animals. Imagine my surprise when I discovered 6 girls crowded in the chicken coop, giggling and watching the roosting hens, trying to find the chicks hiding under their mother. The hens roost in the rafters, so they were all perched directly overhead the group of girls. I laughed and told them that hen poop has landed on my head before, and asked whether they were wanting the same hair treatment as the hens peered down at us and nervously paced above them. They shrieked and dashed out as quickly as possible. The goats were popular and the girls loved hand feeding them through the pasture fence.
The most popular spot was the tire swing. Nathan obligingly pushed the swing for the girls, making it swirl rapid giant loops 6 feet off the ground while girls laughed. There was a queue of girls waiting for the swing the rest of the night as they took turns riding.
It was such a delightful evening celebrating Sarah's birthday. I was so happy we could share our joy with so many friends. We are very blessed to have Sarah in our family. She is so smart and so thoughtful. She is responsible and organized. She is beautiful inside and outside. She is so kind to her younger brothers. She is witty and makes us laugh often with her straight-faced humorous comments. We adore her and are so happy to share this life with such a talented, precious daughter.
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