Luke's Birthday

This year I wanted to make sure Luke had a great birthday. Not that I haven't cared in years past, but this year needed to be special. He really helped me out and stepped up in a big way. How do you repay a child that at 8 1/2 takes on the roll of an adult? Well, I decided to make his birthday the best one yet! We started off by celebrating as a family on the actual day of his birth with his special dinner, Toastadas, and the cake of his choice, a chocolate candy cake. Anyone who knows Luke knows his favorite treat in the whole world is a plain old Hershey's Bar. So this cake was chocolate deliciousness with a little Reece's in there too.

 And of course there were presents! Luke is really into Harry Potter, since he read the entire series this summer, and of course Lego's as well. We couldn't afford to get him what he really wanted, but I think he was just as happy with the substitute!

 Grandma and Grandpa sent his a cool slider toy and Nana and Pa sent him a gift card, which of course he used to get more Lego's, SURPRISE!

 His sisters got him some more books, because you have NO idea how much this kid reads! (This summer he read over 5000 pages!)

 And Julie got him an awesome Lego Star Wars shirt. (He is into Star Wars almost as much as Harry Potter)

 For his party we invited a few friends over for a Harry Potter party. Now I have some friends that are WAY more talented than me and pulled off way more amazing parties than me, but I think we did pretty good considering our circumstances. But I did steal some of their ideas to incorporate into our version of the ultimate Harry Potter birthday. First Luke carved a wand for each on of his friends, all by himself with the knife he got last year for his b-day. I forgot to take pictures though. We set up the dinning room to look like Diagon Alley. We stopped at Gringotts to get money, then to Olivanders to buy wands and then went to school. We were on the hunt for the Sorcerer's Stone and started in Astronomy Class. We went over several constellations then decorated our own star with glow in the dark paint. Then when we turned off the lights to see them glow there was a message written in glow in the dark ink that led them to the dungeon for Potion's class with Professor Snape. (Nate was lucky enough to be home and of course I roped him into my roll play idea, he loved it :)) Snape led them in an experiment with pop rocks and coke. They used their wands, cast a spell and their balloons started to expand! They loved it. Then they got their next clue. It took them back to Diagon Alley to Flourish and Blotts.

 They had to buy the first Harry Potter book and look up words on a bunch of different pages to find their last clue. It took them outside in the back where they found a mirror hanging up.

 They looked into the mirror and found the stone hanging behind them! They loved it!

 Here is the group holding their stones. They each got one. Then we went in to Honeydukes and bought candy. We had pizza then opened presents and had cupcakes. It was great and they ALL loved it! I was glad they had fun.

So all in all I think the party was a hit and I think Luke was in heaven! Happy Birthday Luke!