My family has been Harry Potter fans for awhile now. My daughter has read all of the books, including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them and The Cursed Child, at least once. My oldest son and I just finished reading the illustrated Prisoner of Azkaban. We have watched most of the movies together and even threw my daughter a Harry Potter themed birthday party. This isn't the first time that I've made my kids a Wizarding World lunch, you might have seen my Dumbledore, Hermione Granger, or Hogwarts Express lunches, but I figured it was time for a new one.

Since we were reading The Prisoner of Azkaban, and Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup against Slytherin, I knew what I had to do. If you've read the story you know that Harry wins the big match by reaching out and barely grabbing the Golden Snitch before Malfoy does. After I put my son to bed, I immediately started dreaming up what a lunch based on this part of the story would look like. What you see here in this post is what I came up with.

Harry Potter Birthday Party Ideas on a Budget!

Let's face it. It's hard to escape Harry Potter. Even if you had a magic wand from Ollivanders you couldn't cast a spell to make this phenomenon disappear. So why not embrace it? My kids are all about Harry Potter and their dream is to get to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios one day. My daughter's birthday was not the day to make that happen, but we did put together a ton of ideas to create a magical Harry Potter themed birthday party for her!

I wasn't sure that I would write this up but it turned out to be a fantastic time so I thought, why not? This whole thing began when my daughter wanted a hand in planning the party, so we gave her a small budget to spend however she wanted. She had the freedom to buy party decorations, food, etc. What did she immediately find out? That things are expensive! Even after scouring the internet for days on end she was still over budget. So we helped her find the best deals and supplemented what we couldn't buy with props from around the house.

We also did what you are doing right now, scouring blog posts! We ended up thinking up some of the ideas that you see below, and other themed activities we found on different websites. Where possible, I'll link to the original blog posts below so you can see how to create those activities in detail. I hope you have a party filled with laughs, chocolate frogs, and Bertie Bots Beans!

Harry Potter Hermione Granger Lunch

This is actually a birthday lunch in surprise! My daughter is turning twelve today and one of her favorite all-time things is Harry Potter. She even had an entire Harry Potter themed birthday party this weekend. I might eventually have to do a blog post on all the fun parts of the party that we created. However, I have never made her a Hermione Granger lunch, so it was about time!

This is not my normal style lunch but I figured why not try something different? I think this might be the second lunch in which I have ever used rice in as the main dish. I'll even let you in on a little secret. I took the easy route and just went and bought sticky rice at a local sushi place today instead of making my own. It cost all of $2 and was worth every penny. Another hack is to put cold water on your hands as you're shaping the rice and rolling it in nori. This will help the rice not stick to your hands and also make the seaweed easier to seal. I made the lunch in an Easy Lunch Boxes container. So make sure to read the recipe below and share this with all of your Potterhead friends!

Harry Potter Dumbledore Lunch

The Harry Potter series has so many fantastic characters that it's hard to pick one to feature. The good news is that both of my older kids love it so it gives an endless supply of ideas for lunches and special treats. For today's lunch I wanted to highlight Dumbledore because he is such an interesting part of the series. I wanted to show his fierceness and wild side that he exhibits when the situation calls for it. While he has a soft side for Harry, Hermione, and Ron, he is always quick to step up and lead. I hope my kids remember how important that is when they are faced with tough decisions at school. Maybe this lunch will help!

I created it in an Easy Lunch Boxes container and also made a video showing how I put Dumbledore together. Watch the video first, and then check out the recipe to see the ingredients and how I made the rest of the lunch!

All of My New Sugar Sprinkle Art Portraits Including Harry Potter, Beauty and The Beast, Star Wars, and More!

Who knew that sprinkles could be way more fun off the cupcake than on? A little while ago I was perusing Instagram and saw some people creating amazing works of art using items like sugar sprinkles. I thought it would be a fun little project to try for my kids. I had no idea if I could do it, but it actually turned out to be pretty enjoyable.

I turned it into #7DaysofSprinkles on my Instagram channel where I surprised my kids with a new portrait every morning. I used only a toothpick and my fingers to create the art, no stencils allowed. I even made a few videos since then showing how I made them (scroll to the end to see those). Each portrait usually took 30-40 minutes. Don't worry, I didn't feed these to my kids for breakfast, they were strictly for fun. The trick was getting inspiration from other works of art, using a smooth surface, and not getting frustrated. I hope you enjoy the results!

1. Beast From Beauty and The Beast

A post shared by Beau Coffron (@lunchboxdad) on Feb 23, 2017 at 8:01am PST

Harry Potter Hogwarts Express Lunch

To say that my daughter is addicted to Harry Potter is an understatement. This year she read all of the original books and is now on The Cursed Child. She hasn't seen all of the movies yet but we just watch The Prisoner of Azakaban last night. Can any of you relate? Are your kids into Harry Potter as much as mine are? I don't know a ton about it, but my daughter can talk for hours about the details of the books. Apparently The Goblet of Fire is her favorite.

Even though I don't know every minute detail of the stories, I have watched a few of the movies with my kids and we have read the first couple books together. We have our favorite scenes, but I think we can all agree that when Harry makes it onto Platform 9 3/4, and The Hogwarts Express train shows up, it is one of the most magical in the whole story. Since I have never made a Harry Potter lunch before, I thought I would start with the Hogwarts Express. Of course I also had to include Harry's wand and Hedwig, his owl. I made the lunch in an Easy Lunch Boxes container.