Philosopher's Stone Party  My sons are both into Harry Potter, and have birthdays three weeks apart. Last year we combined their party, but this year they wanted separate parties. We have lots of duplicate people on the guest lists, so the parties had to be different enough to interest everyone. This is the first of the two parties, and runs just over three hours (we hope!). There is quite a bit of work and prep involved, but knowing that much of it was to be used again in three weeks made it easier to face.  The kids will be sent their acceptance letters to Hogwarts printed in a suitable font on simulated parchment and signed by Professor McGonagal. These are of course sealed with red wax and stamped with an H from my son's ink stamping set. A Hogwart's express ticket is also included inside. We'll divide the hall into two sections; one for Diagon Alley /classrooms and a one for the great hall. The room has a folding dividing wall. The kids meet at Diagon Alley and are given their keys for their Gringotts vaults. Once they find their money (wizard coins we made from metallic fimo and spray painted buttons), they can spend it on school supplies (robe, hat, cauldron, wand, spellbook). To save time, we put the robes, hats, cauldrons and spellbooks together in kits that they could buy in one shot. Extra money left may be spent on Honeydukes candy (pixie stix, droobles gum, Bertie Botts Beans and chocolate frogs all with homemade labels) or Weasley Wizard Wheezes ($ store gags). For wands I used sticks from our garden stripped off the bark and brushed with a food colouring and water mixture to give them distinctive colours. We had the birthday boy do the animal charade thing to show whether the wand was a match. He also had a whoopee cushion hidden away to use for those that weren't a match.  Robes were made from old choir robes but could easily be made from cheap black tablecloths with holes for the heads slipped over the head and tied with metallic rope, cut drawstring garbage bags, rectangles of black felt with a single drawsting seam, XXL men's black t-shirts slit down the middle, or XXL men's black dress shirts found at a thrift shop.  Hats were simple plain purple, navy and black party hats, although you could make larger ones yourself from Bristol board or felt. Spellbooks were made form downloading spells from the net (muggle.net is very helpful!) as well as using some from the books. We also added a short glossary of wizards and magical creatures at the back. There were price charts for each item and the kids had to pay for each thing. Once they had their supplies,they can go to Honeydukes and the joke shop to spend the rest of their money.  Once outfitted, they board the train (after running through a cardboard box flap brick wall at the station). The train consists of two refrigerator boxes on their sides with the tops cut out and a single door in each. This was painted brown, black and gold to match the Hogwarts Express.The passengers will sit cross legged, eating their Honeydukes candy, chatting and listening to Hogarts Express music while we make the finishing touches on the decor and serve the food.  At the first table are stickers, sticky gems, etc. to decorate their hats while we have the sorting hat ceremony and in case they finish eating early. We'll choose two houses--Griffindor and Slytherin (to be switched at second party). The sorting hat is made from old paper grocery bags glue-gunned together, stiffened with spray starch and thin wire, and embellished with fabric scrap patches. I also made a hidden pocket inside for the walkie-talkie. We'll use the walkie-talkie trick to make the hat talk (put one walkie-talkie under the hat and have someone in another room read info about each guest and assign them their house through their walkie talkie). We'll only have one table set up, because, as Dumbledore explains, co-operation is important to defeat Voldemort and his followers. Food consists of standard party fare--pizza, veggies and dip, and fruit kebabs topped with a star-shaped cookie (baked onto the skewers) to look like a wand. We'll serve butter beer (non-caffeinated root beer mixed with cream soda and soda water and a teaspoon of butterscotch sauce) and pumpkin juice (recipe found on mugglenet.com) to drink. This will be served from washed-out glass sparking grape juice bottles that have Butterbeer labels printed on them. The table is decorated with purple plastic table cloths, gold coloured plates, real cutlery, and has a Hogwarts banner (made from bristol board and cardstock painted with the Hogwarts coat of arms) hanging from the ceiling above each end of the table. From the ceiling hung at various heights with fish line are battery-operated candles (the kind generally sold for Christmas decor). Since the ceiling is supposed to look like the sky, we used a slide projector to project a cloudy sky on the ceiling.   After the food, the kids go to their classes. The classes should take a maximum of 15 minutes each. If we go overtime, we'll skip defense against the dark arts.  Potions: photographer's solution demonstration (use fixer to make colour changes, easily found on the net) and they get food coloured fakes to try themselves (cabbage water and detergent, vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice etc.). After that failure (their results are different from the demonstration), they'll be asked to make an antidote for Dragon burns (silly putty, pre-mixed so there are just two solutions to combine). It will involve Troll boogers and bubotuber pus. Care of magical creatures: Led by my brother dressed as Hagrid, kids have to choose a dragon egg (all painted with different colours/patterns) then hatch it. These were made by paper macheing on a balloon (see paper mache recipe here: www.greensim.com/lemonade/concoctions; if your dragon is small enough, you can put it inside a small balloon then tie it up and put on one layer of paper mache. Wrap a cotton string all the way around and overlapping by about 3 then add two more layers and let dry (leaving the ends of the string out) then paint. If the dragon is too big then paper mache two layers and let dry. Cut open a hole place dragon inside then tape shut. Add string as close to the cut area as possible then add another layer to seal. Let dry and paint. The kids pull the strings to hatch the egg. A couple of them are basilisks (toy snakes) instead and must be dealt with by finding a mirror in the room or using an appropriate charm or spell. There are also a couple of pygmy puffs (knitted from eyelash yarn or glue ggogly eyes onto large pompoms) and giant spiders (Aragog's offspring) in a few of the eggs. The kids will be asked to predict their creature then name it once hatched.  Transfiguration: first we'll try out the wands with Luminus--have light on remote or switch and kids magic it on. Then we'll have a game of animal charades to figure out what they've been turned into.  Defense against the Dark arts: -spell names and what they do (spell books) and have duels; award points for winners and let kids make up their own spells as well and describe what they do.  Time killer activity: Moaning Myrtle game (like a noisy game of blind man's bluff). The kids make a circle and one child is blindfolded. The others make moaning sounds and the blindfolded child must find a moaner and identify who it is.  Then we'll introduce the quest. Hagrid can show them the spilled unicorn's blood and hint at Fluffy and perhaps the robbery at Gringott's can be mentioned; lookup details 1st room: Fluffy--three Scooby-Doo stuffies fastened together (all stuffed into a large brown t-shirt) need to be soothed by playing music or singing a lullaby. We plan to really ham this one up pretending to be terrified at Fluffy etc.  Then we'll play the tangle game (remember the devils snare?) in which the group forms a circle and joins hands. Then an adult will help the kids weave themselves in and out of each others arms. Once tangled they must untangle without letting go of each other's hands.  The keys are scattered about the room (cardboard key shapes); each has a riddle on it or a simple math question (based on wizard money); the answer to one matches the combination lock that opens the next room. The others will be obviously wrong as they will have the wrong # of digits. Room 2 The troll Kids must use a powerful spell or otherwise distract the troll (my brother) who will try and "get" them and "slime" them with hair gel. Once past the Troll they reach the chess game. The kids will be given the basic moves of chess then I'll shout out a piece (say bishop and they have to move that way to try and reach the other side of the room. This is a variation of the game mother may I?.  potions the answers are found in a logic puzzle; we'll have props available for wrong answers (ie. ageing potion spotty face potion etc.; all labelled underneath). If a kid drinks one of those we'll have a prepared hand mirror ready that makes them look spotty or have grey hair and wrinkles (use window markers/chalk to make spots or wrinkles and grey hair on the mirrors). The correct solution will be fruit juice the others are coloured water and a tiny bit of vinegar.  The kids can all try it as the potions will be in pitchers and we'll have cups they can pour them into. Mirror of Erised I used an old tarnished mirror for this. Using steel wool I rubbed away a patch of mirror paint from the centre. I used a glue gun to fasten pasta embellishments to the outside frame as well as Mirror of Erised in alphabet pretzels. I covered the glass with newspaper and spray-painted it gold. I printed out pictures of different things I know the guests like such as a soccer ball for the soccer fan etc. Then I fastened a piece of black cloth to the top of the mirror to hang loosely over the back. Eventually I had it so that the kids could look into the mirror and see their refection (the black fabric helps with this) only when I slip the picture in does the reflection disappear to show their hearts desire. For the BD boy I'll just leave the black there and have another adult slip the stone into his pocket.  The Philosopher's Stone is a red glass gem cut to look like a giant ruby. I found one at our annual Gem and Mineral show.  Pool time! In the pool is a quidditch game all set up. The broomsticks are swim noodles the goals are hula hoops with weights tied on such that they sit vertically just under the surface. A small beachball is the quaffle two spongy soaker balls are the bludgers and a golfball painted gold with feathers glue-gunned on is the snitch (added after the game has been played a while). The quaffle is floaty so it will have to be stuffed under the water to get a goal; alternatively some water could be added to it inside to make it neutrally bouyant. From there the game is played as described in the book but without bats for the bludgers. Free play in the pool follows this with the possibility of Moaning Myrtle in the pool (aka Marco Polo). Then we head back to the great hall where the cake is served.  The cake is a Hogwarts Castle cake which is just a square (or rectangular) cake of your choice with turrets etc. made from ice cream cones one upside down and one on top of that right-side up at the corners. The cake should be tall enough to accommodate the turrets and the doors. The whole thing is iced in grey tones with brick details scattered here and there. For the doors I melted semisweet chocolate chips and spread the chocolate on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. As it began to set I traced out the shape of the doors using a plastic knife in the chocolate then let it completely set before adding it to the cake. There are many variations on this available online. I picked up sparklers to add filibuster fireworks to the top of it.   Thank you cards will be emailed out to the guests afterward with a scanned photo of the child at the party. "