Hogwarts Feast

For our last Day of Harry Potter crafts, we had a Hogwarts style feast, and made our own candy for dessert.

While I worked on dinner, Atlas, Oliver, and neighbor Jackson, kept busy painting on the kitchen floor. Joaquin was in the other room drawing us placemats.

Joaquin and Atlas all dressed up for the 'feast', drinking their sparkling pumpkin juice.

After dinner they enjoyed butter beer floats.

Making pretzel and licorice wands

Finished treats!

Hoot! Hoot!

Our favorite Hogwarts pets are owls! On Thursday we drew our owls, then made owl hats!

Atlas' owl, so proud of him, he really struggles with perfectionism. Every time we do a drawing project he is so concerned about making it look just right, and afraid of drawing new things. When it doesn't look just right he breaks down in tears. This fear is something I've been working on with him, he has grown so much this month in his art work, trying new things, and just enjoying the creative process.

Joaquin's large eyed owl

Atlas' alien owl. He made a mistake on his owl (made the eye too big to fit two eyes), and instead of getting upset with himself, he decided, on his own, to turn it into an owl from outer space!

Oliver always enjoys our drawing projects!

Owl Hat

For Joaquin's hat, he cut up an old soft sweatshirt for the owl body.

Joaquin cutting out his owl.

Joaquin sewing, his second time using the machine, and he was really good at it!

Joaquin's finished hat.

Oliver's hat. For the two younger boys, they picked out hats, colors for the eyes, and helped lay it out. I did all the cutting and sewing for them.

Atlas' rainbow hat

They have enjoyed wearing them every time we've gone out, perfect for our snowy winter wonderland!

Wizard Hats & Death Eater Masks

We made wizard hats. We talked about the different Hogwarts houses, and of course they all wanted to be from Gryffindor!

Oliver loves oil pastels

Joaquin in his new hat

Little Harry Potter

I had an extra skull mask, so Joaquin spray painted it black, then used silver sharpies to make his own Death Eater mask.

Potions Class

Today we had potions class. We made three potions, one to look at, one to play with, and one to eat.

First we made bubbling, color changing potions with vinigar and baking soda.

We learned about mixing primary colors to make secondary colors.

Then we made edible potions- a polyjuice potion.

After mixing a few key ingredients (mostly vanilla pudding) , they ate their polyjuice potion, which transformed them into other people.

Atlas instantly transmormed into Harry Potter

Joaquin instantly transformed into an employee from the Ministry of Magic

For the last project we made a new batch of Troll Boogies (flubber), this recipe came out much better than the last.

A Magical Week of Harry Potter

We finally got to the theater to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, I loved it! We decided to make this a whole week of Harry Potter inspired wizarding crafts.

We made magic wands.

First we rolled up paper, then filled it with magical ingredients, phoenix feathers, dragon scales, womping willow leaves, and troll eye balls.

Atlas stuffing his wand.

We made designs with hot glue, then spray painted them.

Their finished wands

Through the Rabbit's Hole

Both Joaquin and Atlas are huge Alice fans. Joaquin came up with the idea of  making Alice falling down the rabbit's hole. This was a big project that we split into two days, Yesterday they sculpted their Alice doll.

Atlas made his out of modeling clay

Joaquin made his out of sculpey clay that we cooked in the oven.

Today we finished them off, using oatmeal containers for the rabbit holes, doll chairs and mini playing cards to hang beside their floating Alice.

This is Joaquin's

Joaquin really enjoyed digging through the fabrics and ribbons to make her dress and hair.

This is Atlas', she is wearing a Queen of Hearts dress.



The Runaway Bunny

Continuing on with our week of books, we enjoyed another Margaret Wise Brown book, The Runaway Bunny. The kids each made a scene for their bunny to hide from it's mother. They each drew a little bunny, attached it to their picture with a string, and cut out little hiding pockets in their drawings. I covered them all with contact paper to make them extra sturdy.

Oliver says 'Ta-Da' after he finishes his drawings

Ollie's bunny

Joaquin's cute little bunny!

Atlas' bunny is going to hide in this well, the man next to him is helping him hide.

So proud of Atlas' bunny, he's been really growing in his drawing skills and losing his fear of perfection.

Joaquin finished his Goodnight Bunny!

Goodnight Moon!

All of my kids at one time or another have been obsessed with Goodnight Moon, by
Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd. An average story time with Oliver consists of reading this story 3 to 5 times, he just loves it, and I do too.

Today we made stuffed Goodnight Bunnies to sleep with.

Atlas drew his bunny out on paper with transferable fabric crayons.

After Atlas picked out his fabrics, I transferred his drawing to the fabric, then sewed him up.

Atlas loved sleeping with his little bunny. He came out about 8 inches tall.

For Joaquin's he made a pattern and sewed his bunny using my sewing machine. He still needs to embroider his bunny's face, I'll post pictures when he's finished!