HOGWARTS CELEBRATORY FEAST (Age 9):  My daughter is a HUGE Harry Potter fan and so, of course, she decided that she wanted me to plan her a fun and imaginative party. Since my daughter's birthday in on Feb. 12, we have to have an indoor party, which can get tricky when we live in a small apartment in So. CA! Weather has been an issue as well for outdoor parties at the park. SO, we found the perfect place this year in our church's Fellowship Hall. It was GREAT! Not only did we have a kitchen, a huge area to play indoor games, as well as lots of tables and chairs, we had clean indoor restroom ;) Any of you who have had parties at parks know what I'm talking about! But it was really inexpensive to rent the room as well.    INVITE: We printed a half sheet "invitation" letter on beige parchment paper with dark green ink in a "calligraphy" type font. It read:  "Honoured Guests~ We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited to the Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry for an extraordinary day of celebration, commemorating the day of birth of a Miss B. Hartunian-Vaughn.  Please arrive on platform 9 3/4 on the morning of the 26th of February at the stroke of 11 o'clock. There you will find the magical door visible only to Hogwarts sutdents, friends & families.  Once inside, please proceed to Bercaw Hall where you will be sorted into houses by the Sorting Hat, treated to a celebratory feast befitting a true wizard, a trip to Alivan's Wand Shop, a game of Petrificus Mobilus, a seach for Moaning Myrtle, a Hogwarts Treasure Hunt, treats from Honeydukes Candy Shop, a friendly game of Muggle Quidditch...one never knows what else might unfold! ~ \* ~ Proper school attire should be appropriate for indoor or outdoor wizardry classes and games. ~ \* ~ Please respond by owl or muggle phone to Headmistress Switzer by the 15th of February.  Sincerely, Prof. A. Switzer Headmistress of Frolic & Delectables" We then put them in an invitation sized envelope with a picture of Hedwig holding an open scroll of paper where I was able to calligraphy the addresses, it also made it a little more authentic looking. I was able to find the Hogwarts Seal and put it in the corner where the return address goes. We then sealed them with a Harry Potter sticker.  DECORATIONS & ACTIVITIES: I made a large poster that read Platform 9 3/4 and hung it from an awning that extended from the entrance of the room we rented. Then upon entering the doors to the room, we had a long table with a black fabric tablecloth on it set up as Alivan's Wand Shop, where they all picked out a "wand" (sticks from our yard). Then they were all given a Harry Potter party hat (I found the "Quidditch" pattern on clearance at Alins Party Supply), a lightning bolt Tattoo(Oriental Trading) and Harry Potter glasses(Oriental Trading Co.)...these were displayed in a large clear fishbowl. The table had all sorts of candles and brightly colored "potions" bottles as well (Walmart & the Dollar Tree) set up on it too. We also had a LARGE Hedwig Mylar balloon (BOY WAS THAT HARD TO FIND!) The kids looked great! Then they kids were sorted into either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw (my daughter's 2 favorites-easier too)by a really fun black witch's hat that I found with black feathers around the rim (I think every kid wore that hat at some point during the party!). They just reached into the hat and picked out a house. I had printed small cards with the crests on them and then laminated them, punched a hole in the top and then the kids put yarn through the hole and tied them, so they could wear their crests. Next, we went straight to the games..."PETRIFICUS MOBILUS" was a good old game of Freeze Tag...the tagger being the Basilik. "BROOM PRACTICE" I bought 2 full sized brooms for the kids to do a relay race...running around 2 large stuffed unicorns at the end. "MOANING MYRTLE" was basically like Marco Polo, where you blindfold one of the kids and then the rest of the kids position themselves around the room and start moaning and crying and when the blindfolded child finds someone, they have to guess who it is. If they're right, the 2 switch places and the game continues. "MUGGLE QUIDDITCH" We played a downsized indoor version of Broom Hockey! I bought the little brooms, the kind without handles(which made it even more fun to watch!), for the kids and then had 2 dads with full sized brooms as the goal tenders. They LOVED this game and wanted to play again (we actually played again at the end of the party)! All the games were a BLAST...it gave me just enough time to prepare the "feast" and it tired out the kids so they'd be ready to sit down and really eat! (I figured out this was a GREAT idea!)  FOOD: We set up 2 long tables with purple paper Harry Potter Quidditch table cloths, candles in some pretty mosaic blue and red glass candle holders (99 cent store). Then I bought a bunch of the disposable silver platters to serve all the food on (like they do in the movie). We served BBQ chicken legs, rolls, veggies, pigs in a blanket (in honor of Dudley), and Wizards Punch (rainbow sherbert, sprite, and ice cubes with gummy worms frozen in them...this was a hit!) We found a Harry Potter Quidditch cake at Sam's Club-it was PERFECT!!!  MORE ACTIVITIES: Then we had another table set up at Honeydukes where I had pre-packaged various candies and made labels on my PrintShop. Such as:  "GOLDEN SNITCHES"-butterscotch candies, "DEMENTOR'S KISSES"-atomic sourballs, "PHOENIX EGGS"-cinnamon Mike&Ikes, "GUMMI BASILIKS"-gummy worms, "FIZZING WHIZBEES"-pop rocks, "BERTIE BOTT'S EVERY FLAVOR BEANS"-jelly beans, "LEMON SHERBERTS"-lemon drops...you get the idea :) The kids took their bags and "shopped" to their heart's content! Then we had her open presents. The final organized activity was a HOGWARTS TREASURE HUNT in which I gave the kids a clue and they had to go find the next clue that had some gold chocolate coins attached, that would lead them to the next, etc. The final clue led them outside to a Dragon Pinata (Norbert) which we told them needed to be tamed!  They had a WONDERFUL time and I think I had just as much fun planning this one!!!