Hi, This birthday party was the best party i had just about ever. It is a harry potter birthday party for 11 year olds to be. I did it for my eleventh birthday because in hogworts, you go when you turn 11 so it all seemed real. For the invatations, i did them on old fashoned, parchment-looking paper. I just typed up on the computer a make believe story how peeves blew-up half the school and you instead need to show up at.... i started with the typical I pleased to annoce that you have been accepted in to Hogworts school of whichcreft and wizardry.Snince it was a sleepover party on the list of materials, I put things like sleeping bag, and toothbrush. The key thing is that you make it sound real and add inhere and there things like robes and pointed hats for day wear.To seal them I just put hogwarts crest stickers but i advise you to seal it with wax and the initial H. I just couldn't find any. For the decor, i changed my whole house in to hogwarts. we found some cool glitter paisly handcerchifs that we srtung across the roof on a circle and then we set up a tool for the sorting hat and put the hogworts crest in the door way. the key thing is the details. you know that stack of magazines you have, which it for a few books about vampires or goblins. A cute idea is if you have a section of the house you don't want people to go to is to put up a picture of a werwolf and say don't go in there, it's professer lupin's office or something. And don't forget to put out alot of candles. When the gesuts arrive, take thier things and quickly put them down. you want to make sure they don't wander and see the rest of the house. Once they are all there you say, let the sorting begin. I made a paper mache sorting hat that tuened out awsome. in the top of the hat, duct taped a walkie talkie so that the sorting hat could talk. I sang the sorting song and then had every one sorted into Gryffindor. My friends say it was really cool because when it was on some ones head only that person could hear it talking just like in the book. After the sorting lead them to the dining room and the great feast. that's dinner time. rename things like cupcakes into pumkin pastries and cream soda into butterbeer. For a cool effect on the drink, have it foam in a cauldrun. what you do is but a big plastic cauldrun and find a pot that fits it comfertably. inthe actual cauldrun, put water and dry ice, but in the pot put the drink. when you serve it , it looks like it's foaming. after dinner, you get your wands. melt chocolate, and have them dip pretzel rods into the chocolate and then roll it in theings like dragon scales, ( flat round sprinkles) floo powder, ( green sugar) and dried pixie droppings ( chocolate jimmys). Let them cool while you move on to potions. divide everyoner into pairs and have them sit at a table give each pair a popcicle stick and a cup. the professor,(a mom or older fiend)willmakea speech the goes something like this: Today we will be learning a potionthat restoreseyesight. Can everyone see this clearly( holds up homemade eye chart)Good. Now so you know that the potion works i will cast a spell that will blur yoursight.close your eyes. While all the kids have thier eye closed, the professor will mutter some made up incantation and pull out a new eyechart the had been soaked in water and is blury. then everyone opens thier eyes, sees the blury eye chart and is amazed that the spell worked. The ingredients for the potion are 3 drops of phenox tears ( water) 3tablespoonsnewt blood ( fruit punch) and a pinch of crushed unicorn horn ( crushed alka-selzer tblet) stired clockwise for 30 seconds and couter clockwise for a minute. after dirink the potion they will have to rubb thier eyes for 2 min. while the professor takes out the good eye chart and thier vision is restored. after potions comes divination. have a room set up with lots of pillows on the floor dimmed lits and scarves everywhere. if you have insense and an incese burner that works nicely too. I bought a crystal ball that looked as though it was floating, but you don't have to troble yourself over that and glass ball that is propped up will do. now for this you will need the cooperation of one of the geusts and another professor or the same one. after everyone is settled, have a short explianation of palmustry and everyone pair up and read each other's palms. then have the professor pretend that the whole time they were in the room they felt there was another seer. and ask the crystal ball to show you thier face. The seer will of couse be the designated guest. then have them stroll curiusly about the room until they stop in front of the "seer" and says something like " you my dear have the gift if the second sight!" the seer should object to this and ask the people in the room to agree with him/her. The professor should then say that they will test the fact that he/she is a seer. and escourt them out of the room. once the professor is back in the room they should ask the guests to pick an item in the room, any item, andsee if the "seer " could find what it was.  after chooseing an item, escort the seer back into the room. and tell the seer that she has to say which item they choose. the professor points to varius items, but the seer knows that before the chosen item is pointed out, the professor will point to something blue, so that way the seer is always correct, and amazes the guests. after this at my party, we had to go back to our dormitories to set up our beds and ate our wands. we had a blast! I'm sure you will too if you try out this party it takes alot of planning but it's worth it in the end. while i'm at it, i'd like to say what a GREAT web site this is and that i use it for all my parties.