My brother and 2 sisters and I had a blast planning my mother's 70th birthday party. We come from a very corny family that loves to sing together so keep that in mind when reading what we did. We all dressed the same--light green tops and white bottoms. Kids, spouses and grandkids. Why? Because we did a skit. It was fashioned after a Bill Cosby Show episode and was called, "When Mom Was my Age." It took quite a bit of research. We lined up oldest to youngest and stepped forward one by one to say, When Mom was my age the year was 1980. Ronald Regan had just been elected president for the first time, Charlie's Angels was the number one show on TV (here my sisters and I adopted the Charlie's Angels huddle with guns that's their 'trademark'), and a gallon of gas cost $1.10. Then the next youngest (my sister) stood forward. At one point we all hummed the theme from Star Wars, another point we all did the Hustle. We tried to get as much sound and movement into each person's fact recitation as possible. Each of us said 2 facts about the times and ended with the cost of a gallon of gas. It took a lot of prompting to get our 4 year old neice to say her lines at the end (a gallon of gas was around 24 cents) but the whole thing was a big hit. We also did a Powerpoint presentation to music. My mother's childhood photos to In My Life by the Beatles, her early married life to What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong, pictures of us growing up, getting married, the grandchildren to Through the Years by Kenny Rogers. On the tables we had small Hershey candies with computer made wrappers with photographs. For favors, each guest got a larger sized Hersey Bar with a photo of them with my mother at some point in life with the words, Thanks for sharing Connie's birthday. The table numbers were made from an enlarged black and white photo of her from a beauty pagent in her early 20's. We glued them to foam board, secured them to bases and put them out like a large paper doll holding a number and stood one on each table. My parents taught us songs to sing in the car for long rides. My siblings and I did a corny rendition of Down By the Old Mill Stream with fake moustaches after a funny story about how my father dealt with us in the car. My SIL made a big scrapbook with contributions from all the party guests. It took her over 6 months to gather the photos, stories and rememberences from everyone. My husband, a radio DJ, was MC and kept the day flowing smoothly. All in all, we had a terrific time. Everyone was entertained, well fed and my mother still brings the party up when we're together. She says she watches the DVD of the party every once in awhile, too.

Does she enjoy family reunions? Maybe you could organize a "family party" near her birthday (I agree August is pretty far off) and have a nice cake with candles. For my 50th, my husband gave me the nicest gift, and it might be nice for your aunt, too, because she doesn't like to be the center of attention and might not like toasts or tributes to her at the party. He contacted all the relatives and friends -- including old friends from school and even camp! -- and asked them to send him a favorite memory or story. He put photos in, too. I ADORE it -- it's the nicest gift I ever got. We had done this years for my parents' 40th anniversary, and they loved it, too. So you could do this for your aunt; buy a pretty scrapbook and ask all the relatives and, if you know who her best friends are, them, too, to contribute. Maybe you could invite a few of her friends to the dinner, too? If all of this would still be too much fuss for her, maybe just have a small group take her for a little trip or something. Then the focus is off her, even though she is the guest of honor. We and my SIL's family are taking my MIL on a family trip for her 80th (although she LOVES being the center of attention!). If that is still too much, then just take her to dinner at the best restaurant you can do and give her a nice gift and/or a generous gift to her favorite charity. If I were your aunt, I would love any of these, because they all share the most important thing: they show you love and honor her. You are a good niece!

I've been thinking more of this, and I think I can get her DH to go along. Since we've not really ever done anything for mom on her birthday, she would easily buy it that he's taking her to the casino to celebrate. They go frequently, and he can say they're going to meet his brother & his wife. She'd totally buy this scenario. Then I can do an open house at the club house. I figured I can supply the main dish (something simple) and non-alcoholic beverages. Everyone else (family) can pitch in with food stuffs, too, and I know that the people in her park will be happy to pitch in with pot luck. If my mom doesn't know that family is going to be there (including me) she'll absolutely love it. Our family has a tendency to do surprises of unexpected family at events and it's well received. My primary concern now is trying to find lodging for everyone...since virtually all family will be from out of town. I think this could be a blast for mom, and she wouldn't mind people knowing her real age. It would tickle her because her peers are ancient (looks & energy wise) compared to her. She loves to be the center of attention, so I think she'd really like this.

Between the Valentine crafts for 5 y/o and HP for 8 y/o - we must have very similar lives! I had one for my son last summer, he was also 8. It was the first time we went all out for a party. He usually chooses to just go out with a friend or two. We even had it a few days later than his bday to do it on July 31, Harry's bday. The guests ranged in age from 5 (my own middle child) to 9. I printed invites myself, on parchment in emerald ink, telling guests that they were invited to a summer session of Hogwarts School. I used the same words that Harry reads in his letter (Dr. Mr. xyz, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted...), just changed them a little to suit the occassion. I might have saved it, email me, I could send you the file (in Publisher 98 or 2000) if I did save it. I wrote that it was in honor of Eric's 8th birthday, and concluded that all supplies would be provided, robes were optional. To make quick robes for my own kids, I bought XXXL mens black tshirts and cut a slit up the middle front. They were satisfied, that was before they saw the more glamorous version in the movie though. I have a black graduation robe of my own from HS that would work great, but when you have one thing and two kids that's asking from trouble, so I never even showed them. We only had about 10 kids, some had read the books, some had not. And since it was before the movie, those who hadn't knew very little, so we worked with that. I knew someone else who had a lot more kids and divided the kids into teams according to the houses and declared a house champion at the end of the party. Kids drew their house out of the "sorting hat." But they said it didn't go well because all the kids wanted to be in Gryffindor and some were a little miffed when they weren't. The games were classes -potions class we did some goop you make with kitchen stuff. I actually made (I could kick myself for the time spent, but they looked good) golden snitches. I dipped small styrofoam balls in gold glitter paint and attached white feathers. I made about 20 then hid them in the yard for the kids to find, "Quidditch Practice." One game was Bertie Botts beans in a jar, guess how many. I also sent my crafty aunts on a hunt for frog shaped chocolate molds, which they found. Another time consumer project, but they were the hit of the party. My kids no longer ask me to bake cookies, they are still asking for chocolate frogs or treats. The kids inhaled them, though. If I did it again, I would wrap a few in little bags for their goodie bag instead of just putting them out. We served orange soda and root beer, relabeled pumpkin juice and butter beer. I decorated the patio we had then (man, I miss that patio, we moved) with a roll of purple plastic table cover. It was about $14 for 100 feet (best decorating bargain I learned from college days working in a party supply store). I hung it in strips from the ceiling like curtians and tied it with gold rope. I was going for the great hall look, I put stars on the ceiling and tried to get my white Christmas lights up, but that plan didn't work for me. Always something goes wrong. Everything was purple and gold, the cups were clear plastic goblets. The favor bags were filled with a couple Harry Potter things (pencils, notepads, bookmarks) and cheap magic tricks I bought from a local magic shop. I told the man I wanted things for less than $2 that kids 6-9 could do, he was very helpful and demonstrated the tricks (after they were purchased LOL). So teaching the kids to do the tricks in their bag was part of the spells lesson. If money was no object, I would have hired a magician, I saw a couple ads in local parenting magazines for magicians who had tailored an act to the HP craze. I think everyone had a good time. The golden snitches and the chocolate frogs were the biggest hits, a little pride in myself since I spent FOREVER on them! All the kids wanted to know where I got them -it never occurs to them people make things. So I told them I could not reveal my Underground sources. Oh, and we made wands. That was the first thing we did as kids were arriving, so they had their wand for rest of the party. Can't go to wizard school without a wand. I bought I think about 1/4" dowel rods (I let my son pick what he thought looked best for wands) from home depot and cut them into 10-12" lengths. I had glitter, glue, wire garland with stars and paint markers set out to let the kids make their own wand as they arrived. I know my own kids had fun, they wore those robes and played with those wands for days. I guess thinking about it, everything was pretty much non-competitive, that's just how my ideas came out.