muzing # 038: birthday celebrations at hogwarts

Yesterday my step-nephew Brendan celebrated his 11th Birthday in style, with an amazing Harry Potter themed party!

Arriving at the train station [the front yard], we were greeted by the sight of numerous owls peering suspiciously at us. We passed through the brick wall [the front door] and found ourselves on Platform 9¾ [the entry hall]. The platform was adorned with posters of Sirius Black [my brother], proclaiming: "Have you seen this wizard?", Azkaban prison #310704.

We paid a visit to Honeydukes, the candy store in wizarding town Hogsmeade [the dining table] where we were able to fill our black cauldrons with all manner of wizarding sweets, including: cauldron cakes, Bertie Bott's every flavour beans, chocolate frogs, cockroach clusters, ice mice, acid pops, fizzing whizbees, anti-dementor chocolate, and Dumbledore's favourite - lemon sherbets.

At lunchtime we progressed to the Great Hall [the garage], resplendent with floating candles, for a typical Hogwarts feast. Pumpkin juice and butterbeer were on tap, an owl flew over the table and delivered some post, and Scabbers and Crookshanks got up to all sorts of mischief!

The house elf [my sister-in-law] did an absolutely tremendous job with preparations. Everyone had a marvellous day, including the Birthday boy who seemed to like his gifts, although he managed to open them in about 30 seconds flat. Ahh, youthful exuberance!

I am thinking of enlisting my sister-in-law to create a themed party for me. ;-) It's been a long time since I last had a themed party.. when I turned 7, I had a Poochie party.

I also enjoyed a memorable moment yesterday when my other nephew Daniel called me by name for the first time. YAY!! It gave me a lovely warm fuzzy. :-)

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