This last weekend, we loaned out our basement & backyard to some very dear friends for a surprise Harry Potter themed 40th birthday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When our friend asked about using our house to surprise her partner, I said, of course, as long as we keep it safe. After all, one of the reasons we moved into this house was it’s potential for entertaining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Given that we are in the middle of a pandemic, one of the things I was adamant about was safety. We quickly established that the party would be primarily outdoors, where everyone could easily social distance and that we were capping the # of guests at 15- which included the 7 of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guests were instructed to enter the party via our back gate, grab a Harry Potter themed mask & personal hand sanitizer. Given that the majority of the guests were in the healthcare profession, this wasn’t an issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guests were encouraged to stay outdoors, however we did set up food and drinks inside. When they came inside, masks were required & they were only allowed in the room with food & the downstairs bathroom. Upstairs was completely off limits-my children were going to spend the majority of the party up there and I wanted them kept as distant as possible from the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ground rules for any party are important, but especially mid-pandemic. If your guests can’t respect them, then you shouldn’t be inviting them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We had some really cute themed items for this party. In addition to the themed sanitizer & masks mentioned above, we also had HP glasses for guests to wear. We hung “flying keys” from the ceiling, and kept to the main colors from the 4 Hogwarts Houses. We also decorated the tables with cute confetti and mini cauldrons. I purchased some refillable spray bottles<\/a> from Amazon, we placed “Flesh Eating Slug Repellent” labels on them and filled them with bug spray to minimize bug issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We had sorting house cupcakes & a super neat themed cake that when sliced into, it’s layers were all the Harry Potter colors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing we did, that I wouldn’t necessarily recommend for your party, was the alcohol mini filled pi\u00f1ata. Though none of the mini bottles broke, I was terrified of it happening the entire time! ?? It was kind of fun though! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Ground Rules<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Details<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Golden Snitch Chocolates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n