Olivia themed birthday party for Emma!

pig pops and sippy cups

Pinata time

Layla coloring

running crazy

exhausted B-day girl

I am a HUGE Olivia fan and have been since I walked past a Walden books window display ten years ago and purchased my first Olivia book. I fell in love with this little piglet that loves art and ballet and just has a lot of energy. Ten years ago I had no idea how I would one day have my own little Olivia in the form of Emma. They really are one in the same, Emma loves to read, dance, explore and get into trouble. She especially loves to wear me out! I knew I wanted to throw my little girl an Olivia themed party back in January when she started fawning over the Olivia books and the TV show. I started looking but no place made any type of Olivia product, so I decided to make most of the decorations either by hand or by transforming an already preexisting item. Of course I looked to my many blogs including Amy Atlas and Sara’s Party Perfect as well as the wonderful world of Etsy to find inspiration. For the water bottle and candy labels I googled "how to create label templates + free" and found really basic, easy to use templates. It is amazing what one can do simply in Word and with basic mailing labels.
THE TABLE: I knew I needed to present a table where food and drinks would be laid out in a stylish manner-nothing short of what Miss Olivia herself would want. I stuck to the red and white theme/color palette and I now realize that her table bordered on a "circus flair" which is fine with me as the second Olivia book has her saving the circus.
I ordered a majority of the table ware, table cloths, bunting through Oriental Trading. I made individual sized meals for the little ones and pizza and fruit for the adults. I wrapped each sandwich in a cellophane bag and adhered one of Emma's stickers which I made on a PC using Word and regular mailing labels. The mac n cheese were put into little containers I found at the Container Store and I attached small wooden spoon with bakers twine to each container so each child would have their own and feel somewhat "grown up". They really were the hit and kids love being able to feed themselves and feel special. My friend Claudia Sanchez helped me with her amazing calligraphy by writing the name tags that went on each sippy cup and treat bag as well as the food labels. I then made sticker labels to go on the lids of the mac n cheese that said Lunch with Emma! The image is from one of her books, Dinner with Olivia and I simply changed the text in Photoshop.

I would like to mention that I got the wooden spoons through the lovely website Garnish, along with the baker's twine and red paper straws. They are an amazing source for party ware and have incredible customer service. I also wanted to mention the paper “popcorn” vases that held both the flowers and the straws were ordered through Hicks Paper Goods. The images for the straw toppers and the treat bags were downloaded through the Nick JR site which has great printable images for all their shows in case there are Yo Gabba Gabba or Wonder Pets fans out there. I could go on forever talking about this and if there are more questions please feel free to contact me. It was such a delight planning and making all of this for my little girl that I am already planning her third birthday party. She and everyone had a great time and thought I feel I can’t wait for next year, I really can as I don't want miss E to grow up too fast...she is still my baby!!!

**Note** I somehow forgot to mention my favor bags so to see them click on this post called Loot. http://emmawillcutyou.blogspot.com/2010/10/loot.html