Olivia Birthday Party

Miss P will turn 6 later this month. Since there is no way I can host a party at home during the first week of school, the miss celebrated a bit early this year. Last year's b-day (at a children's cooking school) was Pinkalicious. This year we went with Olivia. Once I, I mean we, chose the theme, I did a little research and came up with the idea for the cute picture above from this site.

Like my Real Housewives Party, I didn't quite get the photos of everything looking nice and ready. In case you are reading this post wanting to do your own Olivia party, here's a quick overview.

We had 10 friends - 7 girls, 3 boys. 7 were 6 years old, the other 3 were 4 year old sibs - so that's the age range we dealt with. By we, that was me, E, and two girlfriends willing to stay. I said 'drop off optional' and parents were more than happy to skedaddle! I did not blame them. I didn't want to do structured games, I wanted more of a free flowing station feel. As kids arrived, they could do coloring activities (from the nick jr. website - they have great paper dolls, coloring books, door hangers, and other Olivia themed crafts for free), or play on the play structure. My girl and her friends mostly chose to 'hang out' and talk. Shocker.

Once most everyone was there, I read an Olivia story and reviewed (teacher style) the activities. Because Olivia loves to paint, there was an art area, also a dress-up area full of red, black, and white boas and rings (and some special things for the boys), a soccer area (O plays on a team in one book), and a dollhouse with Olivia figurines. Also the beforementioned coloring activities and play structure. I scheduled the party a bit long, as I wanted it to feel like a 'blow-out' to P, and because we live further away from the other families (they ended up carpooling) - I wanted it to be worth their while. Anyway, we had lunch - food was a big hit, including pigs in a blanket and tons of fruit. Then came my favorite part of the party - the kiddos watched an Olivia movie while the grownups had a margarita in the kitchen and gossiped. : ) After our time-out, the kids played more, we had singing, cupcakes and present opening.
The dress up area - boy style.
If I were to do this party again, knowing what I know now, I'd add a lemonade stand, as that is another feature of Olivia's episodes. I'd stock it with lemonade, cups and a pretend cash register. I'd give all the kids a purse or wallet with play money and let them take turns being the lemonade sellers, servers, and buyers. The pretend play options, dress up and art were hits. Soccer - notsomuch.

Fun time was had by all!