Monday, July 23, 2012

Our Little Athlete Olympic Party SNEAK PEEK with ideas too!




UPDATE! The party details can now be viewed HERE.



Dakotah, our sweet middle boy, just turned 10! Ten was a big age in my life history book: double digits, cool number, not *quite* so elementary anymore.  I loved repeating the word "ten" when people asked my age back then.

 Dakotah reading a birthday card on his 10th birthday


So, it was appropriate that Dakotah's 10th birthday was the big party of OUR year.  I usually choose ONE boy's birthday each year to GO BIG on like Cameron's Secret Agent Spy party or Titus' Hocus Pocus Magic party.  We keep the other birthdays intimate, but of course still very special.


Contrary to the typical thoughts on boys, my kids LOVE the special extra touches I add into their little lives.  They all three notice and appreciate the details and that makes this mama's heart happy!  I suppose they take after me! {wink} Dakotah especially is a boy after my own heart.  He absorbs and soaks up the special touches in life, finding joy in them all.  When birthdays edge closer on our family calendar, all the boys get excited!  I was very enthusiastic to dive into this party project!

We just celebrated the party last weekend.  The theme was a LITTLE  ATHLETE OLYMPIC CELEBRATION! I will be sharing a handful of posts on the party details but today is a PEEK-A-BOO for you.


This picture was after the party, taking down all the decor and packing up...



I picked out the Olympic theme last year while on vacation.  In January 2011, we toured the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center.  It was inspiring to learn about the dedication that went into training.  I knew that an Olympic party would be the perfect fit for our active Dakotah! But I wanted to wait until an Olympic year to throw the party....so I had to wait...and wait. 

Inside the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO

A few months later we watched Olympians train in Park City, Utah, at the Utah Olympic State Park.  The boys learned a lot about the Olympics in these two trips and they were ready to celebrate with a party this year! 




Pictures below are at both the Utah Olympic Park AND Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center.




The invitations were designed by a very SWEET friend of mine, Jessica of Pen n' Paper Flowers.   Jessica's blog has been a longtime favorite of mine! It rates right up there in my top 3 favorite blogs! I simply adore every-beautiful-thing Jessica creates.  I was EXTRA excited when she designed my party invitations!




 I printed her design on kraft paper cardstock.  They turned out JUST RIGHT!




For Dakotah's birthday we bought him new shoes which included ALL the colors of the Olympic rings!  I searched and searched for a shoe that included all the colors and these were IDEAL.  I just had to add the red laces and it was done!





I ordered custom stickers for party embellishments...



And I found a beautiful Olympic inspired gold necklace for me to wear! 



I double love the simplistic symbolism of these ancient world games gracefully put into an airy gold necklace.



A lot of you know that I ALWAYS incorporate gifts into the party decor.  Some day I hope to write a blog post about JUST that!  This year, we gave Kotah an endearing story book about the Olympics and we gave him a stop watch.  We also used these new gifts as part of the party decor props. 



An easy snack to celebrate the Olympics is cheesy torches!  Use Bugles and spray cheese to create these yummy bites.



This super huge banner we used for the party ROCKED my housewife livin' day when the UPS man brought it to my doorstep!  It was provided to me from Banners on the Cheap.  I was absolutely impressed with the quick shipping time and the quality!  I definitely will be using them again!


Okay, I'm showing you too much already!  Just ONE more thing then the rest of the super fun details will be coming in a future post.  I made quick and easy DIY Olympic torches.  Simply buy a tabletop tiki torch and wrap with foil and you have a very quick Do It Yourself project done.

These babies have a mighty flame so as a disclaimer, I'm not sure how safe these are to use but I know that I wrap my corn with foil before cooking over the open campfire flame so I think it's OK to wrap my tiki torch with foil too?? lol




Before closing, I wanted to share some Olympic ideas you can do at your own party or in your own home as we speed into the week before the opening ceremony.  These are ideas that I wanted to use at my party, but I already had too many ideas and not enough time
so I'll just share them here:

- Make Olympic candy necklaces while learning about the meaning behind the Olympic rings.  String 5 lifesavers (in the Olympic colors) on baker's twine.  You can use the gummy ones or the classic hard ones. 

- Buy mini bagels and top with cream cheese or laughing cow cheese.  Then use the Olympic colors to create edible Olympic rings: olives for black, tomatoes for red, green peppers for green, yellow squash for yellow, and blue cheese or dyed cauliflower for blue.   You could do this with fruit too.  You could also use donuts to make edible Olympic rings.

- Use biscuit cutters to cut french toast into rings and fill the center of the rings with fruit before serving.

- Play Olympic ring hop scotch.  Use chalk to draw super big Olympic rings instead of the traditional hop scotch squares.  To make it trickier, make hops into the interlocking part of the rings too!



That's all for now.  
My mind has been swimming with RINGS for days now.  
But, I would still love to hear more ideas on Olympic fun from YOU!

SEE FULL PARTY DETAILS HERE


* The government makes me say that this was a compensated post but all thoughts and opinions are my own and always will be!


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4 comments:

Deanna at Mirabelle Creations said...

Hi Lisa! Thank you so much for stopping by Mirabelle Creations. I love the sneak peak of your son's party. What thoughtful details! Can't wait to see it all!

Meaningful Mama said...

Love that your guys still appreciate your efforts to make things special for them. Their wives will have a lot to live up to. What a fun party idea too! Great work. Jodi @ www.meaningfulmama.com

Craft That Party said...

Your invitations look sooooo amazing!
I am on the edge of my seat reading each of your pre-party posts-- such awesome and fun ideas!!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!

Cassidy said...

How fun is this?! I love the invite and your necklace is super cute. How awesome that your boys got to see some of the training!