Cat Turned 30

Our friend Cat, who was one of my roommates in college, turned 30 a few months ago & in our favorite fashion, celebrated her birthday with a Harry Potter themed party. As you might know, we heart, heart, HEART, Harry Potter anything, so we were super pumped for her B-day! 

See Cat above as Bellatrix Lestrange.  

 

I'm sure you can tell because of the super high quality photo above, but Zachary went as Professor Snape & I went as Rita Skeeter. Please see the bright green beetle ring above. I'm quite proud of that find. You may recall that Rita's animagus is a green beetle. Also, please see that huge feather pen & that curly Rita Skeeter hair that made us late to the party. Turns out, I don't own a curling iron so I had to get creative & burn a few fingers by using my hair straightener.

These other photos are all stolen via the Facebook event, so they're much better. Check out Narcissa Malfoy & Professor Trewlaney above. Pretty amazing costumes, eh?My brother was our plus one & made sure to dress up for the festivities. Can you guess who he is? That's right, the rugged Quidittch World Cup champion, Viktor Krum. 

 

Tonks made an appearance, as well as, some dark marks, Hogwarts letters & several other characters. It was a fun night full of homemade butter beer, pumpkin pasties & some empanadas, that I couldn't get enough of, that I'm sure also had a very on theme name.

Thank you Cat for turning 30 & blessing us with your friendship! We're so thankful for you!

Please forgive the terrrible spacing of this post. This post & it's spacing will be the end of my sanity if I don't walk away and say it's fine as is, crazy spacing and all.

Harry Potter's Creamy Butter Beer

 

Want a warm and cozy drink for the holidays that's not hot cocoa? I mean, still have hot cocoa. Hot cocoa is amazing. But, every now and then, it's fun to try something different! Last year we had a Harry Potter Murder Mystery Party & this butter beer was definitely enjoyed! It is super rich. I suggest having it in place of dessert. Here's a super easy butter beer recipe below for you to try! 

 

 

2 1/2 cups  milk

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp butter

or

2 1/2 cups of milk 

1/2 cup of butterscotch chips

1. Heat milk in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stirring constantly.

2.  Once warm, add the remaining ingredients. Stirring constantly.

3. Once mixture is almost boiling, remove from heat.

4. Top with whip cream, caramel sauce & sprinkle with cinnamon. Enjoy!

Tip: Blend if you want it extra frothy!

This recipe is found here along with 10 other variations. I would love to try them all & try the one that I think tastes the most like I imagine it! Let me know if you try one. Enjoy! 

Harry Potter Murder Mystery Party: The Food

A good party is all about the food (and company, of course!).  Fortunately, when hosting a Harry Potter party there is SO MUCH fun, creative and delicious, on theme, appetizers and desserts to choose from. If we lived in the States I would have loved to be even more creative! I would have loved to make pumpkin pasties, chocolate shaped frogs and all the fun potion-cocktails. For being in China, I think things came out pretty great though! The best desserts were the butter beer, butter beer cupcakes and cockroach clusters, which were all made by my beautiful & talented friend, Kate. Thank you Kate!

This butter beer was fantastic. It was so warm and rich. We topped it with whipped cream, cinnamon and the leftover carmel from the butter beer cupcakes. The beer mugs were a great party favor (make sure people remember to take them home--we now have 14 beer mugs in our cupboard) that I bought at the store for $1.50. These would be great for any party, honestly. Check the dollar store before your next party. 

I tied red ribbon around the mugs and attached Harry Potter labels for decoration! 

Butter Beer Lables found here from Colleen at Just Sweet and Simple blog. 

Butter Beer Recipe here
We did number 5.

These babies were SUPER sweet but still delicious. I would suggest serving the butter beer before dinner and the cupcakes after! After everyone had their huge mug of rich butter beer, these cupcakes were just too much. On their own, they would be great!

Butter Beer Cupcakes recipe found here at Easybaked.net

Cupcake toppers found here from Colleen at Just Sweet and Simple blog. 

These cockroach clusters were awesome! They reminded me of pralines but chocolate! Delish.

Cockroach clusters recipe here
We didn't use the peanut butter chips and instead used all chocolate. 

All food lables found here--From Colleen at Just Sweet and Simple Blog

I ordered the black candelabras online for $3. They were perfect to set the scene. If you're in China, try taobao next time you have a party! They have everything! If you're in the States, get creative, check the dollar store, check local thrift stores and ebay for cheap party supplies!

I think these gummies were actually the octopus shaped gummies, but hey, with 8 legs, they worked as spiders. 

I used an old strawberry container for the wretched worms holder. I was going for the worms in a cage look.

We bought these clear suckers with fruit inside and drew a black dot on the front of the package to make them look like Goblin eyes. You can get creative and think outside the box when planning for theme parties.

These snitch truffles were super easy to make! All you need is Ferrero Rochers, white paper cut into wings and tape. Easy peasy. I would have loved to make a huge tray of them but Ferrero Rochers are expensive here, as they are in most countries I assume.

I used pink marshmallows for the Cauldron creams and placed them in a black tea pot.

I used dried dates, since they looked like black rocks, as the Rock Cakes and random cookies as the moon stone cookies. If you're in the States, with access to all of the ingredients, there are tons of recipes for Harry Potter party good online. For Moon Stone Cookies recipe go here. 

While guests arrived and were talking we had tons of appetizers, desserts and finger foods for them to snack on. After everyone arrived and had their fill of the starters we moved into the dining room for a course meal. We started with salad as the first course, opened the wine for the second and moved on to Spaghetti for the third. Then, we moved back into the living room for dessert and butter beer.  

I really want to thank Colleen from the Just Sweet and Simple blog. She has posted EVERYTHING you could possibly need for a Harry Potter Party or Harry Potter Murder Mystery party, including food labels, the murder mystery script, DIY's and every printable imaginable. This party would not have been possible without her blog! Check it out! She's a pro at throwing parties and her website is full of tips, tricks and DIY's. 

Harry Potter Murder Mystery: The Suspects

Hey friends! If you know us, you'll know that Zachary and I love Harry Potter. We spent the first year of marriage on the couch, sipping wine, and reading all 7 books aloud to each other. It was awesome and super romantic. We can't wait to read them with our kids one day. The Harry Potter movies are still on a pretty continuous repeat in our house. We each have our favorite, me, The Goblet of Fire, him, The Prisoner of Azkaban, but we love them all. They are feel good, happy movies for us. With our love of Harry Potter, we decided that of course, we needed to have a Harry Potter themed Murder Mystery party. It was awesome and so, so very much fun! I can't wait to share with you guys, through several posts, all the details of it, and where you can print out for FREE (heck, yes!) all that you need to have your own Harry Potter themed murder mystery party! 

Today, let me introduce you to the cast of Characters! The first step in the process of having a murder mystery party is picking a script, assigning characters and sending the invites! I sent each person an invitation to the party and what character they would be playing, with details about their characters thoughts, attitude and quirks. 

As the host, I played Professor McGonagall. My attire included glasses, a stern look, a black velvet hat, and McGonagall's trademark emerald green. 

Zachary played the unamused, shady Professor Snape. His attire included all black, with a black cape, and Snape's trademarked black stringy hair. 

Catherine played Bellatrix Lestrange with crazy hair, dark makeup, black leather and black drapey clothes.

Warren played a remarkably close Gilderoy Lockhart, with his blonde locks and purple cape.

Nicole played Ginny Weasley and made sure to carry Tom Riddle's Diary.

Eric played a brooding Harry Potter, with black dress robes, a Gryffondor scarf and his famous scar.

Rosana played Luna Lovedgood with some fun clothes, a fun head band and kept her long blond hair free.

Angie played a fabulous Rita Skeeter in all green, kitten heels, glasses and a quill.

Trent played Ronald Weasley with a confused look, and loosely fitted dress clothes.

Justin played a dark haired Draco Malfoy with smart clothes and his hair slicked.

Kate played Hermione Granger with a cardigan, white button up, Gryffondor scarf, and of course, a text book.

Abigail played Mundungus Fletcher, a guy. She did a great job playing this shady character by throwing on scarves, a hat and a flannel top. 

There you have it. The list of suspects, a.k.a. our totally awesome friends who went all out and did fantastic jobs playing their characters!

Next up: The Setting. <I am so very excited to post about this! It was, of course, my favorite part! The decorations and ambiance!

Have you ever had a Murder Mystery night? What was your theme?