Harry Potter Birthday Party.

First of all, let me just say, a huge risk involved in having a child in your life (even if it's a friend's little one), that no one ever tells you about, is that they will inevitably fall in love with something, at some point, that is no longer popular with anyone else. For example - Lyam's obsession with Harry Potter.

Now before you start rolling your eyes and yelling at the monitor, I know, the last movie JUST came out on disk. But they're already getting set up to do the Disney thing and "vault" the collection. Which means everything Harry Potter has suddenly gotten even harder to find and more expensive even than it was before.

$5.79 plus shipping for 12 napkins with Daniel Radcliffe's picture on it? I don't think so.

$7.99 for 8 plates with the logo on it? Forget it.

The old Wilton Harry Potter Bust pan that retailed for $11.99 and could be gotten cheaper with a coupon, now is discontinued and only available used starting at (I'm not kinding) $34.50 + plus shipping! And there's no guarantee that a used cake pan won't be too warped to use.

But Lyam had to have a Harry Potter Birthday and Lisa and I were determined to make it happen. So we went online and we found a Hogwarts Cake Set, complete with figurines of Harry, Ron, and Hermoine. And it was a decent price and eligible for free shipping from Amazon! Jackpot!

Then is showed up in the mail. 3 days before the party and it is the saddest, most pathetic thing you have ever seen - with no instructions or suggestions about cake size or anything. But the figures are good. Like, really good. Good enough to make it worth the money anyway. So I figure I can work with this.

I bought the Wilton "Romantic Castle Set." It's meant to make a fairy tale princess castle, but also has intructions for a "Medieval Fortress" and at this point, I'm feeling like anything would be close enough.

So after about a million false starts and a last minute realization that I was short a box of cake mix, we finally get the cake going.

With the last minute addition of Rice Crispie Treats for the top layer, we're in business.

Then I realize I don't have my little round detail tip. And I'm at someone else's house. In the middle of not much. Miles and miles from any legitimate cake or candy supply store. So we head to bed with the decision to hit Walmart early in the morning.

I bought some icing writers and a cheap ass, good enough to get through round tip and we're back to finishing up the cake.

Decorated with banners to match the streamers around the house and everything. With the addition of our heroes, it turned out to be an impressing castle and a pretty passable Hogwarts.

The figures really were very good, it's a shame I couldn't just get them without the crushing disappointment that was the rest of the set they came in.

And while the decorating was a bit hurried in places and a little clumsy due to the belated realization that I hadn't brought all of my tools with me, the cake was a huge hit.