#HPparty : Our 11year-old’s Hogwarts Orientation Party plus FREE Printable

Here at Equipping Catholic Families, we usually post about Catholic crafts, activities and traditions to help celebrate the Catholic Faith at home. As a family, we also happen to be avid Harry Potter fans….and epic backyard birthday party planners. This post shows how we combined the two (and made a 36-page FREE printable in the process). I know that some of my subscribers may not be big Harry Potter fans and I’m just hoping that you’ll consider reading this really great article  by Kendra at Catholic All Year before you post an angry or concerned comment about the dangers of Harry Potter.

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SuperHero Party 2016

There were capes and masks…

…and an Assessment Centre made from a Fridge Box. Our local Appliance Store graciously supplies appliance boxes for birthday parties!

The Assessment Centre has an impressive Retinal Scan, Handprint and Fingerprint Scans, Voice Recognition (microphone), Photo Booth and Height Measurement

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5th Year Magic Party #5

In case you didn’t see it…this was the invitation for Adam’s big party!

We have a little tradition in our family…each kid has had a special Magic Party for their 5th Birthday …

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DIY Magic Box Tutorial

It’s a bit of a tradition in our family to have a Magic Party for each child’s 5th birthday…driven by the fact that my Dad is a hobby Magician!

He has an awesome Magician’s robe, does beautiful magic shows and grows a pretty authentic wizard beard, worthy of the name Sigurd the Wizard.

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7 Most Unappreciated Craft Kits

No, Mom…not a shameless plug of our 7 most unappreciated Craft Kits…

Afraid so.

Here are some of our coolest Catholic Crafts (I thought!)…that haven’t received much attention!

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Advent and Lent Quest now has THREE different themed paper chain link sets: one with family prayer challenges, another with Year of Faith Catechism and another with Saint biographies. Despite its’ name, Advent and Lent Quest is great all-Liturgical Season-round and can be used as a countdown (or count-up?) activity towards Christmas, Easter or ANY favorite Feast Day!  In fact…this craft kit will be GREAT for the continuous stream of celebrations for the 50 Days of Easter! Keep the Season going with Advent and Lent Quest!

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The Ultimate Superhero Party Printable

Although we try to primarily offer Catholic activities and crafts here at Equipping Catholic Families, we also like to share other creative projects that have become part of our family culture. Just like our  Minute To Win It Birthday Party Post (also with FREE printable), we tend to have very cool birthday parties at home.  Although the birthday party programs seem to relax a bit as the kids get older, we have some great memories … and we will likely repeat a couple of the favorite themed parties for Bridget and Adam.

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Minute To Win It with FREE printable!

This is a sneak peek at our 2nd Minute To Win It party! The first one was a few years ago…with a number of 14 year olds. You can see Emily’s Minute To Win it Party from 2011.

This time…Emily was one of the activity leaders for the thirteen 7-year olds!

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Superhero Party

When Joseph was 6, we had a Superhero Birthday Party.

We made special invitations with a registration form to let the kids think about what superpowers they would like and what would be their superhero name and secret identity.

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Birthday Party: Teddy Bear Depot

Our first DIY Teddy Bear party was so much fun that we had another Teddy Bear party for the same kid when she was 10!

For both parties, I was able to find very reasonably priced bears for each of the kids attending the party.  The second time around, the bears were only $1 each at Dollarama!

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Birthday Party: Minute to Win it!

****Update**** Get your FREE  NEW Minute to Win It Printable from our 2013 party! ****Update**** Minute To Win It is an NBC gameshow with challenges to complete within 60 seconds. My eldest daughter decided to host a Minute To Win It party for her 15th birthday.  She collected the household materials for about 25 different challenges and tried them out, ranking them by difficulty.  Her 13 friends randomly chose 3 different challenges…and it kept them busy for about 2 hours! She let me take pictures as she and her brother tried each challenge before the party! Face the Cookie Move Oreo biscuits individually from your forehead to your mouth Materials:  Oreo or other favorite cookie Suck Up (Minute To Win It’s name…not ours!) Materials:  long straws and M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Candies
Ping Pong Plop Align 5 glass bottles upside down.  Place a ping pong ball on the first bottle and blow it across the bottles and into a bowl. Materials:  5 glass bottles, ping pong ball and bowl A Bit Dicey Stack 6 dice on top of each other on a popsicle stick held in your mouth Materials:  popsicle stick and 6 dice Baby Rattle Transport all the gumballs from one soda bottle to another. Materials: 2 empty, clean and dry 2L pop bottles, 1 lb of gumballs, duct tape

Unicorn Horn

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