REAL PARTIES: “Olivia the Pig” Theme

Today’s Real Party feature is a wonderful example of how character-inspired kids parties can be both super cute for the kids and stylish enough for adults to appreciate too!

Jaclyne of Heavenly Blooms created this adorable Olivia the Pig themed party as a special Valentine’s Day celebration for her daughter Kate, but this theme would also work beautifully for a kids birthday party. And with creative details like gorgeous red pomanders, a makeshift “home theater”, and Oreo-dipped lollipops, there are some great party inspiration for all sorts of occasions!

Read on for lots more pics and all the details, as told by Jaclyne…

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“I have to start by explaining why “Olivia” was chosen for this party theme… My little Kate adores the cartoon and books but basically, pigs in general. With Olivia’s red, black & white color palette, It seemed fitting to host a Valentine’s Day themed afternoon of crafts and treats with Olivia as the inspiration!

If you are a parent and your kids love Olivia, you know there really isn’t very much out there. We made almost everything ourselves and stayed within a reasonable budget. We all had a fun and fabulous afternoon!

The feather boa hanging wreath, was so easy and inexpensive to make but received the most comments. This idea can really be used for almost any themed party or event! Get the DIY info here.

Another HUGE hit was the cut out of Olivia. We enlarged and printed the picture, pasted it on foam core, then cut it out with an exacto-knife. For the finishing touch, we added her trademark red ribbon bows!

I wanted the flowers for the adult’s table to be very clean and fun like the rest of the party. Three different styles of vases were filled with two different red flower varieties: roses and tulips,then I tied black and white striped ribbon knots and finished it with a red rhinestone center. After all, everyone loves a little bling!

Another fun idea – the infamous IKEA frame was used to take pictures of each of the guests when they arrived. The little girls LOVED this idea!

We attached white mailboxes (purchased at Target) to the back of each chair with fun ribbons.

The mailboxes also served as the party favor and were filled with candy, stickers and a little feather boa accent for added fun!

Since we were using the kid’s table for the crafts, we didn’t want to create a big, bulky centerpiece that would take up too much space. I created three red carnation pomanders and finished them with ribbon bows in coordinating colors. They looked fun & festive on the table and went with the theme perfectly!

Olivia loves theater and drama, so we created a mini theater using the TV and red curtains. We played episodes of Olivia in the background as the girls were working on their crafts.

Oh the Martha Stewart pom poms…they will be the death of me! I try to make them perfectly round every time and every time they come out oddly shaped. I have accepted this is my pom pom fate and put them up anyways…

We also hung red rose pomander and cascading rose petals for a finishing touch.

Food & Drinks
The party was in the afternoon, so we served light refreshments and yummy sweet treats. Olivia’s favorite color is RED, so all of our food and drinks featured RED!

We served mini heart pizzas, mini barbecue chicken sandwiches, mini pigs in a blanket, bruschetta bites, Parmesan pinwheels with RED peppers and sun dried tomato dip.

For the desserts, we served strawberries & cream, RED velvet cupcakes, heart shaped sugar cookies with RED frosting and RED candy galore.

We love LOVE love the Oreo truffles, but found a fun recipe for chocolate dipped Oreo lollipops. We wanted to try something different and the girls loved them!!!

Party Activities
When it came time to choosing crafts and activities, we had three requirements: the activity had to be easy, had to keep the little girl’s attention, and most of all – not be messy! We settled on 5 different activities…

We printed coloring pages and paper dolls off of the Olivia websites. We also purchased heart frames, turned them into mini chalkboards and had the girls decorate them with glittery stickers.

Another project was the chocolate candy necklace:

The girls squealed with excitement when they saw this project. (A little help from the adults was needed.) Basically, the necklace is made out of saran wrap, tissue paper, candy and ribbon.

I really enjoyed this project because everything was precut and ready, there was no gluing, stringing, or wiring involved. We used mini chocolate bars, but you can use any candy. Even the parents adored this easy craft idea and created necklaces for themselves!

Another activity was playtime with the Red Glittery Playdough – do I really need to tell you this was a favorite amongst the little girls? The playdough was homemade in our kitchen using this recipe.

We purchased small containers at Target for the playdough and added our own labels. After they played with the playdough at the party, they were able to take their little containers home for some more fabulous fun!!!”

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Such creative ideas, Jaclyne! Thanks so much for the inspiration!