HARRY POTTER PARTY FOR A nine year old!! (it was 3 hours long) We had another Harry Potter Party and it went so great. We had 23 kids ranging from 3-9 so we had to make sure we had things everyone could do. I really didn't know if they might be getting too old for the imaginary stuff but they really enjoy pretending right along with us ...and really believed some of it....It was so fun. The invitations were printed in the same manner as the Hogwarts Acceptance letter and addressed in green ink (with directions to each child's bedroom) then sealed with purple wax. (we just melted purple crayons). I printed owl post stamps on the corners and hogwarts as the return address.  We gave the invitations to the parents and asked them to place them on the kids beds and the kids were so funny, even at nine they couldn't believe real owls delivered their invitations!!) The adults were all dressed in black gowns (graduation robes) and as a character from the book.  We started with the sorting hat. I had sang the sorting hat song on a tape then said houses "such as what you don't like Hogwarts you think Dumbledore smells like a toad?? You are a Slytherin" or "most like Harry potter I have ever seen...gryffindor" and the kids got in line. They put on the hat and passed it down the line as the radio told them which house they belonged in. They were really gigglin at the comments the hat was saying ...this made it fun and no one minded being in slytherin since it was so funny. They then were all given scarves to match their house colors (I knitted these but you could make them from felt or something ) and treat bags with their names and house stickers on them. They also each got a sorting hat key chain and on the back of one key chain was an envelope that said you have found the first clue your house gets 50 points. Inside the envelope were shopping lists for each house. They then were divided according to house and given wizard money. (we printed knuts, galleons, and sickles from the internet and cut them out). The items were a feather quill pen (easily made by buying feathers at the store and putting pen "insides" up through the shaft of the feather and hot gluing them in place), cauldrons (little black plastic cauldrons bought after Halloween), wands (these were so simple we just painted branches with spray paint and the kids loved being measured for their wands), HP collectors stones (these were purchased at hallmark), chocolate frogs (I just bought a frog mold and made these then put them in cellophane bags with the star garland tying them shut), droobles best blowing gum (we used egg shaped gum that comes in individual clear wrappers and put them in a plastic container labeled Droobles best blowing gum but you could use any gum).We thought if we had extra time we would have a bubble blowing contest but we didn't need too do this.  Each of these items was a certain amount of wizard money or one trivia question. No teams had enough money to buy everything so they had to answer some questions too. The first team with all their items for each wizard got 75 points, then 50 and so on. (these were there treats to go home) I had them open their HP stones and the one who got VOLDEMORT lost 50 points for their house for "BEING DRAWN TO THAT STONE!". And there was a note in one of them that said someone had just performed a HUGUNDO EXPANDO spell on Bertie Botts beans in the HOneydukes store room go right away to help and get 50 points. I bought the big plastic jelly bean containers (they are like the plastic eggs at Easter but are shaped like jelly beans instead). I filled them with Bertie botts beans and other jelly beans and taped them shut. We had a relay race where the kids had to push their giant bean with their wands to a line and back. One of the beans had a note that it was time for quidditch and to score their house 50 points. ...QUIDDITCH was so easy and the kids loved it! We were in a gym so we had the kids play it like hockey with their brooms but with a basketball. They werent allowed to touch each other or the ball till it got to the "key" or the square under the basket on the end. Then they could pick up the basketball and score 10 points if they got a basket. The seekers on each team were blindfolded and just out on the field till we sneaked the snitch on the field. Then it was up to their teammates to direct them to the snitch but no touching them or the snitch. It was so fun to watch. The little kids (ages 3, 5,5 and 6) were the bludgers. They had soft balls and threw them at the kids when the kids got hit they had to take the balls with them and sit on the bench for a minute then go back in. (we had an adult wizard with a stop watch) This worked so well! It was great. ...We played it two houses against two at a time so no one was sitting out (ravenclaw and slytherin vs hufflepuff and gryffindor)we played all combinations and the points scored were given to both houses on that team. Each game was about 10 minutes long depending on how long it took them to see and get the snitch. I had a whistle for this and recommend it if you don't want to lose your voice shouting and making sure you can get their attention. We then went to potions class. They got out there cauldron and we did the secret harboring spell....SO FUN!! I had ground up a red cabbage in the blender then mixed vinegar ....it looks and smells gross! I labeled it troll blood. I gave them this then we had two bottles one with flour and glitter and one with baking soda and glitter and labeled it ground unicorn horn. We went and put a little of this in a separate cup randomly ....and to top it off I had dragon poop. IT was burnt chocolate cake batter and it looked like poop! the kids were so grossed out. I used a grater and grated this on everyone's experiment and on them "oh oops it was so funny". (at the end they all wanted the poop so we broke it into a few pieces and did trivia and they all wanted the poop!) They then put the unicorn horn into the troll blood and if it turned blue and bubbled all over they were harboring a secret. (only the baking soda reacts like this) They just loved this. The ones who bubbles the most got 50 points. I also awarded random points for good manners etc....We then went to the Great hall. We had 4 tables each one done in the house colors, gold plates and clear glasses with each house sticker on it. We served snitch cupcakes (SO EASY!). You just make wings out of paper plates and stick them into yellow cupcakes and the kids love them! We had licorice wands, flying key cookies, chocolate spiders (chocolate with candy legs), pretzel wands, dementors chocolate bars(miniature bars with homemade wrappers that said dementors choc bar), chips and unicorn blood to drink (fruit punch) oh and of course dumbledore's favorite lemonheads. We did some more trivia while they were eating and then added up the points. I made trophies (this is the second year and the kids get so excited about these) I just make them out of wooden table legs. These ones had the golden snitch on top and a hogwarts sticker on the front..they are really easy and the kids love it when they get one!) The winning team got the trophies (house cups) and the winning quidditch team got HP spinning balls (from Wal-Mart in the favor section). Then they played quidditch till mom and dad came. the kids are still talking about it and it was inexpensive and fun! The kids even took home their little cup of potion to show their parents because they liked it so much! We took a picture at the party of the whole group in their robes, scarves, brooms and animals (they were allowed to bring creatures) and I am including a copy in their thank you letters.... The other parents are saying their kids want to have these parties now too so it was a big success!