I LOVE the Olympics. It’s a toss up which I love more, summer or winter. Summer may get the slight edge though since my daughter was born during the summer of 2012 and I spent many a late night and early morning feeding watching the coverage. That was when I learned that kayaking is an Olympic sport.
My daughter recently turned 4 and has yet to catch on that she can have an opinion on her birthday party theme, so I seized the opportunity to choose for her for the 4th year in a row (jig is probably up next year though). I chose the Olympics and then went to party inspiration central: Pinterest.
Ultimately I had more ideas than I knew what to do with, and because it was July and I’m pregnant we opted to host her party at 360 Gymnastics instead of at a park or our backyard where we could have implemented some of the other ideas I pinned. Air conditioning basically trumped everything else, plus not having to clean up after. Other Pinterest-party loving moms probably understand the internal struggle this was. I think we found a middle ground though and my daughter and her friends had a blast!
Invitations: I bookmarked several options on Etsy but ultimately went with this one from Etsy seller saralukecreative. I love ordering digital invites because then I can use them on Facebook, in an email, or get them printed and mailed out!
Food: We did the party at 3pm so food was just snacks and sweets. Instead of cake/cupcakes we opted for frosted sugar cookies from Polkadotte LLC (seriously her cookies are amazing you guys. Nothing beats her buttercream!)
The stars of the food table though were the Olympic ring fruit trays. After lots of time pondering my options I went with a 9 inch aluminum pie plate with a 3 inch aluminum pie plate turned upside down in the middle. They worked perfectly! I used blueberries, blackberries, watermelon, pineapple, and green grapes. You could easily use other fruits or use some veggies for this as well!
Party Favors: I know some are not a fan, but I can’t resist them as it’s so fun to tie them in with a party theme. I kept them pretty simple this year and after browsing the many Olympic themed options at Oriental Trading and Amazon, opted for the Olympic ring bracelets, medals, and an assortment of gold, silver, and bronze wrapped candy. The medals were by far the favorite for the kids! I found favor bags in the 4th of July section at Target and printed the Go for the Gold tag from this blog.
Activities: Since we opted to do our party at a gymnastics venue, they obviously did lots of gymnastics 😉 The instructor led them through some warm up exercises and then they got to do an obstacle course followed by lots of free time. It ended with everyone’s favorite: THE PARACHUTE! Is there any greater joy for a preschooler than parachute play?
Here are some other ideas for hosting your own Olympics party (it definitely does not have to be a birthday party!)
- Make it an actual competition: If the kids are older and capable of understanding the concept of friendly competition (my 4 year old is NOT) then you could have an actual competition with Olympic-themed events, followed by a medal ceremony! Check out this medal ceremony prop from Oriental Trading (or you could easily DIY!)
- Make it a pool party: For older kids that know how to swim you could have swimming/diving competitions, relay races, etc. at the pool.
- Get the kids to crafting: There are lots of tutorials on Pinterest for making an Olympic torch, I pinned a few here.
- Winter Olympics party: Have the party at an ice skating rink or go tubing/sledding at Snow Creek!
- For the adults: My friend Brie hosted a Winter Olympics party in 2014 where we gathered to watch the opening ceremony together. There were white Russian jello pudding shots and Cheeto torches, of course.
Check out my Olympic Party board on Pinterest for inspiration for your own Olympic bash!
