Welcome to Diagon Alley

Welcome to Diagon Alley, where you

have to enter and buy your cauldrons and

other necessities before you enter Hogwarts

Castle.

Obviously you can tell that we have a

theme for Halloween at

Purple Chocolat Home this year.

Spend a while with us and see 

what fun we have been up to!!!

My daughter in law came up with the idea to

decorate our porches as Diagon Alley, and

she and my son created my fabulous stacks

of cauldrons from Potages - cauldrons of

all kinds.  We got them for fantastic prices

at Zurchers, and they drilled them and stacked

them with a dowel, keeping them in place with

spray foam and then painting them,

first with a stone texture and then with paint.

They also cut and stained the signs.  I

did all of the Cricut work on the

signs.  It was a super fun project

to do together (although they ended up doing

most of the work).

Invitations went out to the family to

Celebrate 20 years with Harry Potter.

We are all big fans.  When the kids were young

we always had to have multiple copies of the

newest books, as we were all reading them at

the same time.

My niece and I just did a Harry Potter marathon

at a local theater, where they showed three

movies a day for three days, including

Fantastic Beasts.  It was a lot of fun to see

them all again on a big screen, and with 

fun theater food - this theater has great food,

not just popcorn!

Beaulah was quite excited to be a part

of the fun, as we decorated the house

and set up for the party (parties, but that will

come later - hubby always wants to have multiple

parties once I get the house decorated.)

She said she was dressing up as Bathilda Bagshot -

pretty appropriate as Bathilda is a old, ugly witch.

(Hope Beaulah doesn't read that!)

We didn't even get our regular Halloween decor

out this year, as everything is Harry, Harry, Harry!!!

You have to be a Harry Potter fan to appreciate a

lot of the decor.

This is an authentic Pumpkin Juice bottle 

from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

in Orlando.

Beaulah and I found wonderful new plates

on Amazon this year.  We had to buy quite

a few to accommodate this crowd.

The sets contain all four of the house crests.

They set quite a festive table.

Of course we would be eating in the Great Hall.

And all of the houses are represented

(Amazon again).

Chairs were set up for 20,

with all of the houses mixed together.

A tribute was paid to our dear

departed Dumbledore.  You will notice

his blackened hand.

We can see where everyone is on

our new clock, patterned after Mrs. Weasley's.

One of our favorite features is

Harry's old broom flying around.

Should anyone need to head to the

Ministry of Magic quickly, we are set.

(I got a lot of my HP images from Etsy

in SPG files for use with my Cricut.)

And since we have had lots of those

nasty dementors circling Hogwarts lately,

we are prepared with chocolate.

Thanks to More Than Thursdays for

the free printable for these.

An agenda was sent to everyone letting

them know how the festivities would 

happen.

And Professor Mc Gonagall and a

Death Eater were there to greet them.

This is the first sight they would see as they 

finished up at Diagon Alley and entered 

Hogwart's Castle.

Beaulah and I decorated the banister

with an animated sorting hat, a basilisk skeleton

and quotes from Dumbledore.

The doorbell rang to the castle and we

answered the door and found this

little baby all alone on the doorstep.

Little Harry seemed happy to arrive.

That was quite the fun surprise for us

as hosts.  The baby had been dropped

off and the family had hidden.

Their family was the first to arrive.

Dobby was so cute and stayed in 

character all night.

 Of course we had several Harry Potter's.

How nice to have an avid fan.

Gryffindor house is always a favorite around here.

A more grown up Harry and his lovely wife,

who is expecting in December, also appeared.

Only the three year old was frightened 

by our resident Death Eater.

He was glad to see another Death Eater

come, along with a Quidditch player.

One of our favorite Gryffindor students

showed up with her broom cookie creations.

Professor Trelawney was able to make it.

We have such a soft spot in our hearts 

for dear Professor Trelawney, and we were

so glad when Umbridge wasn't able to kick her

out of the castle.

Even Newt Scamander showed up!  He really 

knows how to pose.

 Newt was able to bring his older brother along,

they are a handsome pair.

This little Mandrake is almost ready.

They are growing them cuter these days.

Luna is another one of my favorite characters,

so glad she found her shoes.

And of course, every Harry Potter party 

needs Wonder Woman, in case of a

Death Eater attack!!!

They all received their personal invitations to Hogwarts

after the meet and greet in Diagon Alley.

And then everyone was seated in the Great Hall.

We invited each family to bring a 

Harry Potter themed food.

We had English pot roast, and a

Havarti Ring appetizer.

Cornish pasties,

broom cookies

chocolate frogs

Butterbeer Cupcakes,

and of course, Butterbeer to drink.

We even made some frozen Butterbeer.

But I get ahead of myself, no feasting took

place until Professor Mc Gonagall read a

headline from the Daily Prophet for everyone

in attendance.

I won't make you read all of them,

but here are a few to give you a taste

for the fun we had.

I just searched for Daily Prophet images

and then used PicMonkey to add my own

photos and headlines.

I couldn't quite contain myself as I read these off.

We laughed and laughed and passed each

newspaper around the table.

Everyone had a wonderful time at the feast

and I think the Daily Prophet news articles

were the hit of the party.

As I mentioned, hubby (our resident Death Eater)

 always likes to see us maximize the house decorations

with more than one party.  So the table was set for

our craft group.  Disappointingly, not everyone

understood Harry Potter (we will have to have

an activity where we get together and watch

the movies - of course they are even better

if you have read the books.)

But they all tried on their Harry Potter glasses.

We had a cauldron class that night where 

Mrs. Mc Gonagall taught them a secret 

recipe for homemade donuts.

We feasted on soups and this really fun

Hedwig appetizer.

Quite a lovely photo of all of our

visiting professors.

Our last party was our Ward Council for

our Young Single Adults.  We left the table

set up in the Great Hall and served them

breakfast before their meeting.  We decided 

to make quiche in honor of the visiting

Beauxbatons.  Of course more Butterbeer

was served.  You can find my recipe for

Butterbeer here.  It is always a favorite.

Thanks for stopping by Diagon Alley

and Hogwarts to visit with our festive

and crazy family.  

We will be posting this party with

Tablescapes Thursday

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Dishing It and Digging It