Wizards Of Waverly Place -7yr- Jelly Bean Taste

For our daughter's 7th birthday party, we had a Wizards of Waverly Place party.  We looked at hiring a magician, but after seeing the rates, we decided to focus on activities and teaching the girls a (simple) magic trick.  This had the girls involved and entertained throughout the party. 

INVITATIONS:  We used Wizards of Waverly Place images and clip art with Cast a magical spell at [our daughter's] 7th birthday."  We kept it simple and used green and purple coloring to match the colors on the logo. 

ACTIVITIES:    For the activities we tried to incorporate each of the characters. 

SPELL BOOK - As the girls arrived we gave each a composition book that we had purchased during the back-to-school sales for 50 cents and also gave them a fabric book cover that was purchased on clearance after school had started.  The fabric covers were a little tight and some of the girls needed a little help to put the cover on but they fit well and dressed up the notebooks.  We also provided each girl with a few jewels to stick on the cover.  Using stickers or covering the book in a material the girls could color is a good alternative.  We asked the girls to write their names in their books and draw and color a picture while they were waiting for everyone to arrive. 

ALEX'S MAGICAL SPELL FILL-IN-THE-BLANK - I found a Mad Libs type of spell for the kids to create by filling in words.  We ended up doing this as a group since the girls had varying reading levels.  I recommend adding something about a personalized funny spell that includes the birthday girl and the characters.  Turning parents and/or teachers into animals also seemed to be a hit with the girls.   

JUSTIN'S ALIEN LANGUAGE MYSTERY CODE - Based on Justin's Alien Club that often speaks in their own alien language I used alien fonts from a free online font site to spell out a poem that detailed the next activity.  Each girl got the fill-in-the blank with the alien symbols in place of the letters and they also had a decoder sheet with the letters A-Z shown with their alien language counterparts.   

MAX'S MAGICAL JELLY BEANS - Since Max loves to eat everything the jelly bean guessing game was perfect for him.  We thought about doing the gross-out flavors that Jelly Belly offers but decided it might not go over too well with the girls right before lunch.  We had 15 flavors that we chose from the bulk aisle - we let the birthday girl choose several flavors from a list but didn't let her see the final ones that we purchased.  Since these were from the bulk bin we tried to get about the right number for each girl to have one but ended up with extras of each flavor.  We used the extras as a jelly bin guess game near the end of the party.  Each girl had a small Dixie cup and we went around and filled each 1 jelly bean for them to look at and taste and determine the flavor.  In their Spell Books we had put in a sheet that showed a clip art image of the flavor (cotton candy blueberry etc.) with a blank for them to add the corresponding taste test number.  (Jelly Bean 1 - Toasted Marshmallow 2 - Strawberry etc).  The girls had fun seeing how close they were to the right flavor and quickly realized it wasn't as easy as it sounded. 

JELLY MARBLES MAGICAL IMAGE -  We purchased Jelly Marbles from Steve Spangler Science allowed them to expand and then put them in a clear bowl over a picture of the Russo family holding a sub sandwich at their sub shop.  The jelly marbles obscure the picture until water is added which then makes the marbles "vanish" and allows the picture to be seen.  We told the girls that the next activity would be magically revealed.  The girls were amazed as the picture appeared before their eyes after we added the water.   

RUSSO WAVERLY SUB STATION LUNCH - We had a selection of bread sandwich meat toppings and condiments so that the girls could make their own sub sandwich modeled after the Waverly Sub Station on the show.  The girls enjoyed helping to make their sandwich and being able to choose what they wanted on their sub. 

MAGIC TRICK - As the wrap up we taught the girls a magic trick from a kit from the Dollar Store.  We showed them a card trick that appears to make a card change (it's a double-faced card) and then let them see how it was done and let each of them try it out on each other.  We also showed them the trick to make a dollar bill flip over by folding it a certain way.  They liked this one too because it was easy to do. 

FAVORS:   For the favors we used red Chinese take-out boxes (purchased on clearance at Wal-Mart after the 4th of July) to give a New York City type of feel and to include the main colors of the party.  We had small Wizards of Waverly Place sticker packages that were purchased after Halloween character rubber bracelets "Magic Potion" Fun Dip (individual Fun Dip packages with character stickers on them) a few of the Jelly Marbles and a magic trick (we separated a single trick from the magic trick packages from the Dollar Store)."