Abracadabra...Alakazam!

For Elina's 7th birthday this year, she asked for a magic-themed party.  I knew she liked magic, but I didn't think she'd want a magic party.  I had my heart set on an easy-peasy pool party at our neighborhood pool across the street.  I was going to rent out the clubhouse and just have everything take place over there...which meant no set-up or clean-up at my house!  But, alas, I couldn't figure out a way to incorporate magic with swimming...magical swimming??  So we decided to have the party at our new house and to hire a magician to come perform for the kids.

It was weird googling "magicians for kids."  Have you seen what some of the magicians out there look like?  Semi-greasy, semi-creepy...I wasn't sure what to make of it all.  Then I stumbled upon Dwayne Stanton.  He didn't look sketchy at all.  He actually seemed really nice, especially because he runs a magic camp, which is inclusive of children with special needs.  When I told Elina I found a magician for her party, she asked, "But why are you going to get a magician?  I'm going to do the tricks."  Isn't that cute?  I didn't want to break it to her that when she does her "shows" for us we can totally see what's going on.  Plus, I didn't want a kid to make her feel badly on her big day.  So I just explained that we would get a magician to do lots of tricks and that she could help him with a few of the tricks.

For the invitation, I made magic hats with bunnies coming out of them.  They actually turned out really cute!

Then my sisters (A and J), J's boyfriend (V, the famed watermelon carver from Eli's 4th birthday party), and B all helped out with decorations and food.

We had a wide selection of magical food--

There were also Lucky Star sandwiches (PB&J sandwiches cut out into heart shapes) and J made another Magic Potion for the kids where she had drops of food coloring on the bottom of cups, put ice cubes on top of the drops (to hide the color), then she poured Sprite into the cups and the clear soda "magically" became a different color.  That was a big hit!

Each kid got a cape and hat when they walked into the house--

We started with the magic show and each kid got to munch on Hocus Pocus Popcorn and magic wand pretzel sticks.  The show was really totally awesome!  He let the kids help out a lot, especially Elina.

Then the grand finale was a levitation trick with Elina...she was so excited about it and it looked SO neat!

While we got the food ready, A showed the kids some magical things with dry ice.  We made Magic Potion with Kool-aid and dry ice.

Then the kids played with foaming soap bubbles (that bubbled out because of dry ice).

Then they blew bubbles onto dry ice steam, which is really neat to watch because the bubbles seem to just stop on top of the smoke.

After eating the food, we played a Magic Bean Tasting Test game with the kids.  Each kid had to figure out 10 jellybean flavors.  It was really funny to read their guesses.  I didn't use anything funky and kids wrote down "veggie" as a flavor. Evie wasn't allowed to guess the flavors, but she decided to take it upon herself to grab her own bag of tasty jellybeans.

We also had a Magic Bean Count contest (actually a ruse for us to get rid of all the jellybeans we had bought at Costco for the party).

Then we had Vanishing Cupcakes, which were just red velvet cupcakes with magic-themed toppers.  I really copped out this year and just made the cupcakes and bought the toppers.  I didn't have the energy to figure out how to make a hat cake with a bunny coming out of it.

We ended the party with gifts.  Elina got some really great stuff...art supplies, calligraphy stuff, mouse toys, arts and crafts, a magic set, and bug stuff.

What a magical birthday party!!