Harry Potter Party 5-7 yrs old  Invitations:  I used the books as a reference for much of the party, so it seemed natural to send each child an acceptance letter to Hogwarts.  Really play with your font size and selection to make it feel real!  (header)HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY  HEADMASTER: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE   (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards) Dear Mr kid's name, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You'll receive a list of all necessary books and equipment upon arrival at Hogwarts. Our first celebration in the Great Hall will be for Alex's 6th Birthday.  Please wear the appropriate uniform consisting of the house colors you'd like to be sorted into (please see house information on the back of this letter). Term begins on "party date". We await your owl(RSVP) no later than "rsvp date". Please report to platform 9¾(our porch) at 11:00am sharp. Your parents can pick you up at the end of the term (1:00pm) at platform 9¾.   Yours Sincerely, Minerva McGonagall Deputy Headmistress On the back was part of the sorting hat song with house colors listed: You might belong in Gryffindor,  Where dwell the brave at heart, Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart COLORS: Scarlet & gold You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffs are true And unafraid of toil. COLORS:Yellow & black  Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, If you've a ready mind, Where those of wit and learning, Will always find their kind COLORS: Blue & bronze Or perhaps in Slytherin You'll make your real friends, Those cunning folk use any means To achieve their ends COLORS:Green & silver \*\*Each invitation was printed on regular computer paper and then dipped for a few seconds in a pan of instant coffee.  When I removed the paper, I then sprinkled a few granules on the wet paper to give it an aged parchment look.   PREPARATIONS: 1. Platform 9 ¾.  Use a rectangular sponge to paint bricks on two large boxes that have been unfolded so that the side flaps are on the right and left of the wall when it is vertical.  2. Paint wizard money & wands.  Buy plate joining biscuits(I used size 10) and dowels at the hardware store. Spray paint some of the biscuits gold(galleons) and some silver(sickles).  It helps to put them on wax paper so the paint won't stick and you won't need to wait for them to dry.  Cut the dowels to 12" lengths and paint them 2 or three wood tone colors.  3. Capes. Buy non-fraying black material.  The amount per child will depend on the height of the children. Cut the material into rectangles and sew velcro on two of the corners, you will not have to sew the edges if it is a non-fraying material!!!  4. Make a spell book for the kids on the computer, staple construction paper or posterboard as the cover.  5. Make a supply list for each student and prep it like the invitations. THE PARTY: My husband and I dressed up in capes and hats and referred to ourselves as whichever character we were playing at the moment. We did have a third adult helping out, but we didn't have a costume for her. When all the kids arrived we gathered them in our front hall and welcomed them to King's Cross Station.  They would have to go to Platform 9 ¾ to get to Hogwarts. My friend and I each held up one of the painted boxes so that the flaps were touching. Each kid then got to run through the brick wall entering at the flaps (at the end of the party we had 10 minutes left and this is all they wanted to do). After they ran through, we handed them their supply list and told them they were responsible for buying their own supplies.    So first they went to GRINGOTT's the Wizards bank. I had prepackaged the wizard money in baggies so each bag had an equal amount of money. We spread the bags on the floor and blindfolded the kids and they had to find their money.   Then they went to DIAGON ALLEY (you could use the brick wall here too).  We had three shops set up.  Ollivander's for wands, Madam Malkins for robes and hats, and Flourish and Blotts for the cauldron and spell book. At Ollivanders, my husband had all the wands with a label bearing the length of the wand, the wood it was made of and its magical core ingredient, on the back of the label was a child's name.  They each chose a wand to try, but he had set up 3 soda cans that would crash down if that wasn't their wand.  Remember the wand chooses the wizard, so when they got the one with their name, one of the cans would float (be picked up by my hubby).  At Malkin's I measured them with my tape measure and gave them a robe and a paper party hat. At Flourish's they were sold a plastic cauldron (bought at Wal-mart labeled as a salsa dish) and the spell book.  They then went to Hogwarts for SORTING. We re-read the sorting hat poem and sorted the kids by the color they were wearing, it was a quick process because the invitations told them to wear the color of the house they wanted to be in…they were all Gryffindor surprise surprise.   They then went to the Gryffindor common room for a Bertie Bott's Every Flavor BEAN TASTING CONTEST. I had presorted jelly belly's and the Everyflavor beans into different cups. Each kid got the same flavor and had to guess it. You could just use jelly belly's but the gross flavors were fun for the kids too. TRANSFIGURATION: We changed lollipops into spiders.  We had them try first with their wands, but then we provided 4 black pipe cleaners and 3 eyes each. Twist the centers of the pipe cleaners around the lollipop stick and bend to look like spider legs then glue the eyes on.  HAGRID's HUT: Hatch the dragon egg.  The kids popped green balloons with notes & spells inside by sitting on them.  One balloon had a you won a prize message inside.    CHARMS & SPELLS:  We poured Invisible ink (lemon juice) in each of their cauldrons and had them write or draw on a piece of paper with a q-tip. After the papers had dried we took them one by one and put the papers in the Magic Box (preheated oven @ 350º) with the light on. They counted to 20 and said the spell (aparecium) and I pulled out the paper with visible writing! POTIONS: We found recipes for silly putty on the internet, here is the website for the one I liked best:  http://www.wcsscience.com/silly/putty.html. We called it magic silly slime.  MEAL: We just served wizard hat pizza (triangle slices pizza), leprechaun gold (crinkle cut carrots), and orange soda/orange sherbert floats.  Cupcakes with 'charmed candles' (the ones that don't blow out, or relight) are a nice touch here.  While Alex was opening each gift, we painted a snake, star, scar, or broomstick on each gift giver.  GOODY BAGS: I decorated lunch bags with glitter glue and paint pens. Each kid went home with their "school supplies" and their lollipop spider, their wizard money, silly putty, pop rocks, and a couple of bottles of disappearing ink. A magical time was had by all.