Bailey's First Year at Hogwarts (Age 11)

I don't even know where to begin on this party. My daughter has wanted a Hogwarts party for her 11th birthday for years. She read all of the books right at age 8 and became a fan from there. And we have a wizard wrock band, The 8th Horcrux to thank. She read the books because she wanted to understand their references. being a huge Harry Potter fan myself, I profusely thank them. Anyhow....to the party details.

I spent a long time planning this. Fortunately, I had approximately three years of ideas. I started the real shopping in the fall, which is great for many reasons. Most importantly, it meant I had plenty of time to find certain things and it spread out the spending so I didn't feel it all at once.

The invitations were letters to Hogwarts complete with train tickets and wax seals and Harry Potter stamps. The party started out with me not allowing the kids in the house. We had to go through the Leaky Cauldron, grab a beer mug, and get to Diagon Alley for our shopping. We needed school supplies, after all. We went to Potage's first for our cauldrons. Then we stopped at Gringott's to withdraw wizard money. Money came in the black velvet drawstring bags and were actually bubble gum coins that I made to look like galleons and sickles. We skipped Broomstix, since first eyars aren't allowed their own brooms. Then we stopped by Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, even though the students didn't need anything from their lists. Since we were there, we picked up Chinese Finger traps and adopted Pygmy Puffs. They received an adoption certificate and a cage, since they're known to escape. next was Ollivander's because every wizard needs a wand. Every student let a wand choose them and they were placed in a wand box.

At Wiseacre's Wizarding Supplies, we picked up gloves and telescopes. Next, we picked up textbooks at Flourish & Blott's. the texbooks were combined this term into one book. We merely window shopped at both apothecary shops and the Magical Menagerie. Finally, we made it to Madam Malkin's and picked up hats and robes. We also picked out an owl at the Owl Emporium. And our last stop was to pick up quills and parchment. Yes, their cauldrons were getting full.

We stopped by the treat cart and then went through Platform 9 3/4. The students were lead into the Great Hall. Since they were all in Gryffindor robes, there was no need to be sorted, but the Sorting hat was nestled by the fireplace. The students mingled in the Great Hall while pizza was being delivered and Butterbeer was being concocted.

Our first class was Herbology and we went out in Greenhouse #1 and planted Phoenix Flame (Celosia). They also received homework in the form of Snapdragon seeds.

Next, we had our flying lessons. The students practiced on their brooms on the Quidditch field and everyone found a golden snitch. Then we made a stop by Hagrid's hut where he had left us a note and presents. Hagrid left all the students eggs. The students ended up hatching their eggs and finding dragons inside. Oh, Hagrid.

In Potions Class, we opened up our textbooks to find our experiments and directions. We made fizzing bath dough, with baking soda, baby oil, citric acid, and food coloring. We placed our fizzing dough in little glass jars. We also made lip gloss out of melted petroleum jelly and Kool-aid and placed those concoctions in little lip gloss containers. The last experiment was using a small cauldron and mixing vinegar, food coloring, dish soap, and baking soda. Luckily, every student had their cauldrons on a metal tray as they ran over. The students enjoyed playing in their bubbly mess.

After Potions Class, we headed back into the Great Hall for some treats. The table had been covered in cauldron cakes, cockroach clusters, exploding bon bons, pumpkin pasties, treacle tarts, pumpkin spice cookies, and Hagrid's cake. He spelled the birthday girl's name wrong, but his heart was in the right place.

The candle was this cool one we bought off Amazon. it was a flower that started with one candle and opened up with other candles, shot out a few sparks in the beginning, and spun, all while singing. The birthday girl had no idea, so she was really excited. After the students nibbled on some treats and ate ice cream, we headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

In Defense Against the Arts, we were face to face with a Dementor. We went over what Dementors do and how to handle them. Then, each student took a swing as they yelled at happy thoughts to keep the dementors away. once we defeated the Dementor, we discovered all the fears it was full of- gummy earthworms, sticky maggots, sticky slugs, gummy spiders, plastic spiders, plastic snakes, etc.

After class, we headed back into Hogwarts and received mail from the owl post from Molly Weasley. She made all of the students Gryffindor scarves. the students were all very proud to wear them.

In Charms class, the students had their textbooks and had to pick a folded paper out of a container. They had to look in their textbook to figure out how to act out that charm or spell. the students watching also had to look in their books to guess what it was, then point at the student with their wands and say whatever spell or charm it was. So it was sort of like charades...but a little different. The students were great!

Next, the birthday girl opened gifts.

We had Transfiguration class afterwards and discussed different methods of Transfiguration. The students took turns picking items out of the trunk and transfiguring themselves as I took photos. We couldn't have astronomy class since it was too bright outside, or so the professor said.

We then went around taking pictures at different points and gathered up our items, ready to take home. The students also received gift bags from Hogsmeade since they weren't able to visit since that's reserved for third years and up. Honeyduke's, Three Broomsticks, and Zonko's all sent the students items. Other party details can be found at www.evolutionfromKansas.blogspot.com

• What People Ate

  Pizza and breadsticks.

• What People Drank

  Butterbeer and bottled water.

• Desserts

  Cauldron cakes. Pumpkins pasties. Pumpkin spice cookies. Treacle tarts. Cockroach clusters. Exploding bon-bons. etc.

• Party Favors

  Um....see above.

• Activities / Games

  Also see long explanation.