For Gabriel's 8th birthday party the two of us thought it would be fun to have a HARRY POTTER PARTY. Thanks to this site, along with a few others, the ideas were fairly easy to come up with.  NOTE: the party was held in four different rooms of my townhouse recreation centre. We had 18 children, the party went from 2-4:30 PM on a Sunday. INVITATIONS:  Written up just as the letter to Harry telling him of his acceptance at Hogwarts.  Printed on parchment paper and sent rolled up like a scroll and tied with cool ribbon, to school.  We included a page about the supplies needed, such things as a broom, HP books & books on  related topics etc. ENTERING THE PARTY:  Each child arrived with their broom to be decorated (I called each parent and reminded them).  They guessed how many Bertie Botts All Flavour Beans were in the jar and filled out a Bertie Botts All Flavour Beans estimation card (winner won the jar).  Each got a passport to fill out for each station, a name tag and they received a sticker bag for the party to be used for broom, wand, hat mural etc. FREE-TIME CHOICES (down-time is my worst nightmare at one of these parties):   Harry Potter activity books that I made by photocopying HP ideas from the net, books etc.(colouring, dot-to-dot, complete the picture, colour by number etc.), broom decorating (pipe cleaners, stickers, glitter) and a mural (templates, stickers etc.).SORTING HAT (set the tone of party):  We made our sorting hat from burlap (prewashed and dried on a table, not the dryer) and the backing (forget the name of the material, but any fabric store will know) used tag board to make a template for the hat, used thick chicken wire to make a base for the hat to rest on while I worked on it. I removed the hat from wire after it was all sown up and stuffed it with plastic bags to get the right shape, including something that looks like a mouth and could easily have a hand slipped inside it so that it could move as if it were talking. I wet the burlap and let it dry and sprayed the hat with spray starch over the course of many days and added brown felt marking to make it look even older (and wiser).  The table was made by a friend from scrap wood with hole cut out of centre where the hat will sit. Use a skirt for around table top and edge of table down to the floor so no-one can see inside.   Gabriel's dad sat under the table with a copy of the sorting song, script describing each child, and the house that each child will end up in; Gabriel was responsible for coming up with two POSITIVE adjectives the day of the party (kept him busy for quite a while) for each of his 18 friends. The sorting hat/table was located in a separate room and once it was time to start, John (Dad) was in place and the children were ushered upstairs to be sorted.  The child to be sorted sat in a special chair and was sorted.  Note: the children did not wear the hat, because then it could not talk!  When the sorting was finished, all the children went back downstairs to start their station rotations before John came out from under the table.   All the children were completely mesmerized by the sorting hat, it was truly a sight to behold!!! STATIONS: Each station was run by an adult.  The transfiguration station had two adults.  DIVINATION CLASS: I used plastic pill bottles from a pharmacy (14 cents each- Canadian) with mineral oil, beads, bobbles, glitter for the inside of the bottles. Tape name tags onto the lids.  Each bottle was filled with oil and each kid picked what they wanted to put inside.  The lid was put on and each name tag was then attached.  Sit back and watch the fun as you flip the bottle upside-down and right-side up.HERBOLOGY CLASS: I used plastic cups for the Mystery Seeds with a label on each (made on computer) using earth, water, seeds and name tags.  What to do is self explanatory. CARE OF MAGICAL CREATURES CLASS: I made playdough in several different colours to match the "house" colours (the best recipe is 1 C flour, 1 C water, 1/2 C salt, 2 T oil, 2 T cream of tartar and food colouring.  Add all dry ingredients together in pot on med. heat.   Immediately add the mixture of water, oil and food colouring together. Stir and and add wet ingredients to the dry. Make beads, buttons, googley eyes, etc for decorating creature. Use paper plates with each child's name on it for the creature to dry on.TRANSFIGURATION: I made wizard hats out of black tag board (coloured tag board for all the adult helpers). Spray paint shapes onto hats from both store bought and hand-made templates (stars, moons, planets etc.) and onto the base and the cap.   I used gold and silver spray paint. Wands were made from dowels cut and sanded, spray painted gold and silver. Cover the tips with black electrical tape.   Harry Potter glasses are made out of pipe cleaners (web address for great ideas - kidsdomain.com/craft_recipe.html). Store-bought HP tattoos, templates, stickers etc. for additional decorating.  POTIONS CLASS: Two potions - oobleck (cornstarch, water and food colouring) and this stuff to make a fizz cornstarch, baking soda, vinegar (write me if you need more info eminuk@telus.net).  Baggies for potions (oobleck only) with name tags using a felt marker.FOOD (this year I went simple!):  Pizza, chips (three kids- the favourite by far were the All-Dresssed), several colourful flavoured kool-aid choices in see-through pitchers.  The colours were really neat but don't ask what makes the colours, I for one, do not want to know! (I normally   never allow kool-aid as a drink choice, this was an exception).  A castle cake to die for (a friend made it) complete with gray frosting, turrets out of upside-down ice-cream cones, licorice all-sorts cut in half for windows, chocolate rolls for large castle doors, a HP Hogwarts flag and thin black licorice as a border around the entire cake; I added some of Gabriel's HP Lego people, and dragons. GOODY BAGS: Made from large freezer bags, include everything they made (hat, wand, glasses, activity book, passport, mystery seeds, divination, magical creature, plus some Bertie Botts beans- I purchased regular jelly beans, much less expensive and then got a picture of the actual BBEFB from the net, copied it and put it into a small plastic bag, added the beans then tied off the bag with a matching ribbon MISCELLANEOUS:  Snitches hung from the ceiling made out of small styrofoam balls spray painted gold with one feather stuck into each side, lightly painted gold (not spray painted). Station names above each station with job descriptions emailed to each "professor" and taped to each station.  House rotations posted in several key places with plastic covers for all the station tables.  Plenty of name tags for everything and extra help.  Platform 9 3/4 was made from a large refrigerator box, cut out, spray painted and computer generated name of platform and King's Cross Station-nailed to a wall.  Pictures from the movie of various scenes, Hogwarts/house crests all tapped to front doors.WHAT WORKED? Lots of help during and after the party and lots of help the day before the party to set up everything. Job descriptions sent out ahead of time and someone to sew the sorting hat and help with odd jobs (I recruited my mother who willingly helped out for her grandson's party!). Down-time activities.  Lots of large garbage bags. Plenty of felts for name tags WHAT WOULD I CHANGE?  I gave myself just under a month to prepare and it wasn't long enough.  It was too much of a rush the last week ( I am a full time working single mother).  The next time I will give myself two months.  The same adult stayed at the same station for the party, the children rotated around.  Last year an adult was assigned to each group and they took their group through all the stations. Although this was much harder on the adults (having to learn all the stations), it was easier on the kids because they were so closely monitored.  This year the kids rotated on their own and when told to do so, but occasionally I ran into a snag.  Luckily I had enough adult help that this was not too much of a problem.CONCLUSION: The party was a huge amount of work, but a true labour of love for me and for all who helped me, including my cousins who took Gabriel for the day before the party so I could devote an entire day (along with my brother and a friend) to the party preparations and Gabriel would be given some quality attention. I am an elementary school teacher and would consult with my colleagues when I needed some assistance with an idea.  I found that whomever I asked, everyone was so willing to help out. The secret is to do the asking!  I hope I have given at least one person some ideas for a party in the future, or that if nothing else, you enjoyed reading about this party.  Good luck to anyone who attempts any of these ideas, or any of the ideas listed on this great party site.