Thank you so much for this wonderful site. We built heavily on other Harry Potter parties that we saw on the site and modified them for our house and child. Here is our party: HARRY POTTER Birthday for 8-yr-old Girl - Boy & Girls Invited.  We had 19 kids at the party and it rained so it was a good thing that we had plenty of activites.  We did the following: (1) INVITATION: We used the language of Harry's invitation to Hogwarts for our party invitiations and modified it to include our address etc. We used sparkly gold velum paper and printed the invitations on the computer.  Where the letter said "Albus Dumbledoor, Head Master, we inserted "(a.k.a. Mr. Capps), and the same for Prof. Magonigal as (a.k.a. Mrs. Capps). We included a line that muggle attire or Hogwart's uniform was acceptable and we used a footnote to explain what muggles were. We also made a statement at the end that the children didn't have to have read all of the Harry Potter books, and that fun would be had by all. (2)  ENTERING THE PARTY: We created a brick wall for platform 9 3/4 for our front door for the children to enter into Hogwart's School. We purchased 2 yards of red felt fabric and drew bricks on the felt. THen we cut the sheet of fabric in long strips (all still connected at the top) and hung it in the front doorway.  We cut out a large number 9 and a large number 10 out of black felt and put it on both sides of the front door.  The children loved running through the "brick wall" (3) WELCOME TIME - GETTING STARTED: I made a black cape for each child as a party favor and costume during the party. I used twine and Command removeable stickers to create a clothes line on my mantel.  I hung the capes along the mantle and had the children each choose one when they arrived.  We downloaded the crest for each of the 3 school -- no one wanted to be a slitherin -- and used the crests to make name tags. I had the children draw out their name tag and write their name on it then we safety pinned it to the cape. I tried to use iron on fabric, but it didn't work well on the black fabric. You could also use a sorting hat for this but we needed to cut down some of our time to fit in the games. (4) DECORATIONS:  On the mantle, I took down my art and used the command stickers again to attach a large broom to the fireplace.  My daughter wrote out a sign which read "fire bolt" and "property of Harry Potter"  It looked really cute up on the wall with all of the robes hanging down.  (5) SELECTING WANDS:  After everyone had a cape with a name tag and a school crest, they each sat down and my husband and I welcomed them to Hogwarts and told them what a fine class of students they were. We explained that they would be learning many new spells in their classes, but that first they needed a wand.  Since each wizard or witch needs his or her own special wand --- and I didn't want to fight with them over which one was best, we had a wand ceremony.  I had my younger daughter stand on a chair.   We made wands from sticks in our back yard by spray painting them with a sparkly gold paint and covering one  end with purple electrial tape. The children made a semi-cirlce with the wands in a basket in the center. The first child stepped forward and I gave him/her a wand. THey pointed it at my younger child and said "voice of a frog...or a pig, etc. If nothing happened, I gave them another wand to try.  My husband was standing to the side with a bag of poppers.  He would randomly pop one and confetti would shoot out. This was the sign for my younger child to start making the sounds of the animal the guest had just said in his/her "spell."  This was the sign that the wand was the right one for that child and I would give them the wand. The kids loved seeing my daughter make the animal noises. She got into the act and pretended to be the animal too.  (6) CLASS ASSIGNMENTS TO KIDS FOR PARTY ACTIVITIES: When everyone had their wands, I explained the schedule for their classes.  They would each attend (1) care of majical creatures; (2) potions; and (3) divinations.   Based on their name tags with a certain school, they went to one of the three classes.  They switched 3 times so that everyone could do every class.  This made it managable for us and stopped them from picking who they wanted to go with. They are all friends and this way no one was left out. We used poster board to make signs for each area of the house the class in that room.  (7) DIVINATION ROOM/CLASS: I set up the formal living room as the divination room. We attached lights to the ceiling and I got yards and yards of sheer shiny fabric at the local fabric store.   I just went to the sale area and picked it up for $1-$2/yard. We attached the fabric to the ceiling with the lights shining through -- it worked really well.  THank goodness for command stickers that allow you to put stuff anywhere without hurting the surface. We were able to get a cool mystical room for not much money and now we have the fabrics for other projects and dress up.  I used a large box for a table and draped it with fabric too and surrounded it with pillows all over the floor. I put a vase on the table with marbles inside. When the children arrived I introduced myself and poured out a handful of marbles into my hands. I had the children close their eyes and listen to the sounds of the marbles while I shook them up in my hands. I told them to think about the sounds and draw on their magical powers.  I made a big production of it then said stop! I went around the circle and had each one guess how many marbles were in my hands. The child who was closest became my special helper for the class because of their special "magical" skills. Next I had them make fortune tellers (aka cootie catchers). These are those folded paper squares that the children put on their fingers and manipulate until finally they open a flap and read an answer to a yes or no questions.  Instructions on how to make these are easy to find on-line. I made one myself as I showed them how to do it. I made mine with "answers" on the final flaps that said things like "absolutetly!" "No way!"  "Concentrate harder and try again" etc.  I made sure that I knew which flap of the folded paper on my answers said "absolutely"  At the end of the class I asked my fortune teller if my class would go on to be great wizards and witches.  I thin had the children pick the right numbers so that the answer was "absolutely!" When class was over they put their fortune tellers on the mantle (with their names on it) and went to the next class. (8)  CARE OF MAGICAL CREATURES. For care of magical creatures, we have the children grow their own magical creature by making a slime concoction. It was equal parts elmers glue and liquid starch with drops a food coloring. They mixed it in zip lock bags then named it and took it out and played with it.  They loved it and they made up things that they thought the creature could do.  When "class" was over they put it in their zip lock back again and put their bags on the mantle.    (9)   POTIONS.  For potions, we set up the kitchen like the potions lab.  I found fabric with spider webs all over it and hung it from the light fixture over the kitchen table. We went to the party store and bought an assortment of creepy plastic spiders, bats, bugs, snakes, etc. Since it was January, we were able to get a deal because they were left over items from Halloween.  We put them in the mason jars and put them down the center of the table. I found "magic" growing animals at a craft store. These were pills which turned into small sponges cut in the shape of various animals when hot water was added. We gave each child a cup and a pill.  They did a spell over the cup, we poured in the water, and presto -- an animal potion. Next we had the children make ice cream in plastic baggies.  This was an idea from another Harry Potter birthday on this site.   In a small baggie, put 1/2 C cream, 1 t vanilla, 1 T sugar. Seal it up well and put it inside another larger baggie with ice and rock salt. Shake for 5-7 minutes. I was worried about this and bought backup ice cream, but it worked great and they loved eating their own ice cream.  (10) FEAST. For the "feast" we moved into the dining room. I set the table with a long purple runner (again cheap fabric) and a plastic party cloth.  I used a large punch bowl in the middle with a basic ginger ale / sherbert fruit punch. I added alka seltzer at the last minute so that the punch would fizzle -- they thought this was cool.  We also strung more lights all over the ceiling to replicate the floating candles at Hogwarts.  I would recommend those icecicle dangling lights if you have them. We had a fountain of chocolate fondue, bowls of gummy snakes, cake (in the shape of a wizard's hat), and chocolate covered frog cookies.  We based sugar cookies then used a frog cookie cutter to cut out frogs after the cookies were baked.  We tried to just cut it out first, but the batter kept spreaking too much in the oven. Anyway, after cutting out the frogs, we dipped them in melted chocolate (4 parts chocolate chips to 1 part candy wax). This was a huge hit.  Good to eat and fun!  I also bought plastic wine glasses at the super market and wrote each child's name on the glass and drew picutres and patterns on the goblet. If you have time you can let the children do this craft project.  (11)  Goodie Bags:  After the feast, my daughter took each child back to the magical creatures area and she had a stuffed animal for each child. We got them at the drug store -- again left overs from CHristmas.  They were basically beanie babies in odd colors.  We picked the oddest ones they had and got them for 50 cents a piece.  The goodie bags were passed out and each child collected his slime magical creature, his animal spong, his or her forturne teller, and the stuffed animal.  With sales and inexpensive fabric for the capes, we were able to do the cape, goodie bag w/stuffed animal, and wand all for just under $4 per child.  (12)  WHAT WORKED:  I had an adult "teaching" each class. One parent assigned to the ice cream and punch and another assigned to helping collect everything and deal with the goodie bags.  Chocolate Frogs, Divisions, HOme Made Ice Cream. (13) WHAT WOULD I CHANGE:  Write names in advance on bags for making ice cream so that each child definately gets his/her own.  (14) CONCLUSION.  The party was a ton of work -- especially the capes, but it was a huge success.  Several of the children even said it was the best party "ever!"  My daughter was just thrilled! Several of the kids have continued to wear their capes non-stop since the party. They are sooo cute.  Thank you to everyone who posted to the cite and thank you for running the cite. Have a great party!  Kelly Capps