Olympic Party Food Ideas

 

Are you planning to watch the summer Olympics when they start this weekend?   If you plan on viewing with family and friends and having a party, here are some easy food ideas to help you get into the spirit of the games.  

One easy treat you can make it so make cookie Olympic gold medals.  Use a package of Golden Oreos and attach  some fruit by the foot as the ribbon. A bowl of Bugles also make a super easy snack.   An easy way to make an Olympic torch snack is to fill ice cream cones with Cheetos. 

If you are looking for other options, you can make they Olympic Ring Snack Board.  The three rings in the back are blue, black and red.  The two in the front are yellow and green.   Blue and black do not have as many choices as some of the other colors blueberries and blackberries work well.  Red has several fruits and veggies that you can use, such as strawberries, cherries, cherry tomatoes, and red peppers. Yellow also has many choices like pineapple, bananas and yellow peppers.  You might also for some cheese and crackers that would be good for yellow.   Some food ideas for green are kiwi, green grapes, honeydew, avocado, and green peppers.

Since the Summer Olympics are in Paris, France another idea is to use French inspired food.  You could serve a plate of macarons, mini croissants with chocolate, or baguettes with cheese.   "French" fries or a charcuterie board are also options. 

If you want some treats to root for team USA, how about a Red, White and Blue dessert.   You can find even more red, white and blue inspired ideas here.

Be sure to check out my post How to Throw an Olympics Party for more easy Olympic party ideas. 

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How to throw an Olympics Party

 

A few years back, well in 2018, I threw a Winter Olympics Party . With the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris right around the corner, I though it would be a good time to revisit my Olympic party ideas. One of the things we did was make an Olympic Flame Cauldron out of a bowl, crepe paper and craft foam.  It become the centerpiece of our table. 

** this post contains affiliate links 

A lot of our party supplies came from Oriental Trading, and still available on their site. 

The square flag plates, and cups are still available, but the napkins and tablecloth are currently out of stock.  

The table top flag fountain centerpiece looks a little smaller than the one in my picture, it is an interesting decoration.  

In the cups on the sides of the tables are the 72 flags of several nations  They are many ways you can use these flags as decor, or while cheering on your favorite athletes.  

While the medals I had bought for our party are slightly different, there are similar party favor medals available here. 

A fun backdrop that would make for some great photos is this Podium Door Banner.

If you want to have a feel of Paris at your party, how about this 88" standing Eiffel Tower.

If a smaller tower is more your style how about a tabletop version.

Look for another party post in the new few days with Olympic Party food ideas.

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Kick Off to Summer

I hope you had a Happy Memorial Day! 

As you may have noticed, there was not a Dare to Share party this past Friday. I did not mention it at the last party, but I have been dealing with a pretty strong respiratory virus for the last two weeks. (yes, I caught it from one of the kids at work)  It started out as a normal cold the first week, and then last week it turned into something more. I have been congested and coughing for several days. I have been medicated, but it did not help that much.  During my time off work, I was resting a lot and not on my computer during that time. Since I was not using my computer, it was not until last night (Monday) that I wondered to myself if I posted the party this weekend.  When I am out of my routine, I find that things occasionally slip my mind like the party did this weekend.   I am finally starting to feel better, and this week will hopefully find things back to normal.  

Since it is almost June, I thought I would share what I will be up to in the next few weeks.   We will be attending a wedding, a celebrity softball game, and a concert.  June is turning out to be a very busy month, not only will we be getting ready for another outdoor market, but I am also planning a baby shower for my bonus daughter that will be in early July. 

I created this summer bucket list for my Etsy Shop a year or two ago.  I just printed out a new copy to fill out this summer. It is a lot of fun to see how many fun things you did over the summer months.  

Our June market is going to be beach themed.  I originally made these beach party marshmallow pops for my daughter's Beach Bash Birthday Party  many years ago.  It was one of her favorite parties, and fun was had by all. Hopefully we will have much better weather for the next market.  

Another memorable treat I made for her beach bash birthday were these crabby chicken sandwiches.  They were not that hard to make, and a huge hit with the kids.  They could make a great addition to your summer party.  

What are your summer plans this year?  

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St. Patrick's Day Party Ideas

One of my favorite St. Patrick's Day projects over the years has to be my Leprechaun Marshmallow Pops . Not only were they easy to make, but they taste good as well.  

 My favorite way to display my leprechaun pops is in the Pot of Gold I made with a cauldron from Halloween, and some Dollar Tree craft items.  If you do not have one already available, I found this one on Amazon.

Isn't this a cute way to display the pops for a St. Patrick's Day party?!

A fun St. Patrick's Day favor box are these Leprechaun Treat Boxes  made from cardboard tubes, paper, and a little bit of paint.  I filled the with "gold candy".  

Lucky Cupcakes served in plastic Leprechaun Hat are a fun festive dessert that is perfect for a party.  

 Looking for some party games?  I have two St. Patrick's Day hunts in my Etsy Shop.  In this one, the clues lead you to find the Pot of Gold,

In this St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun Hunt you actually search for three leprechauns, which is a lot of fun. 

Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?  

 

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Our Candyland Party

 

As I mentioned during the Dare to Share Party yesterday, we had a Candyland party at work yesterday.  As the days lead up to the party, I helped with a lot of the prep work.  I created games and decorations online, I crafted several crafts and games, and helped decorate for the party.  While I did get some pictures, I was too busy during the party to take more than a couple of pictures while the party was taking place. I will share what I have so far, with more to possible come early next week, because we plan on leaving the decorations up for a bit. 

One of our parents is a talented balloon artist. She made the rainbow balloons in our entryway in the picture above, and at the entrance below.  

As you entered it felt like you were in a real Candyland. Each of the rooms were a different land. We had Lollipop Woods, the Ice Palace, Chocolate Swamp, and Gingerbread Land.

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I took these photos while I was setting up during naptime, so they are a little dark.  As you entered one of the preschool rooms Princess Lolli and several giant lollipops greeted you.  

In that room we had a cookie chair walk game.  It was a combination of a cake walk and musical chairs, but we did not remove the chairs after each round.  The kids and some parents walked around the chairs to the music, and when it stopped sat down in one of the numbered chairs.  If their number was called, they won a bag of cookies and some game tickets to use toward a big prize. 

The chocolate swamp mural was not completed yet in this picture, we were still working on it.  In the chocolate swamp room the kids had a chocolate matching game, and a maze.  

At the last minute I threw together this ice cream sundae.  We had hoped to play pin the cherry on the sundae, but ran out of time to finish making it. We will have the kids play it in class during a school day next week.  

In the second preschool room we had the Ice Palace. There was a big mural on the wall, and snowflakes all over the walls and hanging from the ceiling. 

In this room we had the punch cup game, and the penny toss game.  The kids won tickets and candy with both games.  I made these games by hot gluing regular size and mini red cups onto Dollar Tree foam board. 

I don't have pictures inside Gingerbread Lane room, but the kids who entered were greeted by Jip the Gingerbread man which I made for last year's party.  

In the center area, I play picture Candyland Bingo with a Bingo game I created that will soon be in my Etsy Shop.

At the end of the party the kids could turn in their tickets (hopefully they had a lot of them) for a variety of prizes.  Almost all of the prizes came from the Dollar Tree.  This is only half of the prizes.  There were just too many to get them all in one picture. 

Candyland is one of the parties we do for the kids yearly. We got a lot of good feedback on this year's party, so will have to wait and see what next year's party brings.   

  

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How to plan a graduation party on a budget

This past weekend, we held a graduation party for my bonus son. I was so excited about this party, because my own kids did not want to have one when they graduated,  which was such a bummer for this party planning mama.  I have been planning this party for the last three or four months, and almost everything used this party was from the Dollar Tree.  Buying the party supplies from the Dollar Tree definitely helped me stay on budget.  

There were only a couple of minor things that did not go the way I hoped, but over all it turned out to be a great party anyway.  It was too windy for some of our decorations.  I planned on having two balloon towers in front of the shelter house, and balloon sticks on the tables. The wind kept blowing the balloons over.  We also ran a bit late getting everything set up, because the graduate went to the wrong location when he was supposed to be picking up items for the party.  Oops!  The last thing did not go the way it was supposed to was when I pulled out the cupcakes to put on the cupcake tower, several of them had fallen over and were unusable.  Thankfully I brought some extra ones, so all was well. We just did not have as many cupcakes as originally planned.  

 ** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

The cupcake tower was one of just a few things not from Dollar Tree.  I found it at Target for $5.  It is really sturdy cardboard, and trimmed in gold.  Thankfully it did not blow over in the wind.  We are thinking of using it again at my bonus daughter's wedding in a few months. 

 

The original plan was to put our food on tables under a canopy, so everyone could sit to eat and talk at the picnic tables in the shelter house.  We ended up setting out the food inside the shelter, because of the wind. All the serving trays and utensils that we used for our food are from Dollar Tree.  You can find many of the trays here, and many of them are currently available in small quantities.  

One of the biggest hits of the party were our fruit and veggie cups with graduation picks in tumbler cups  The reason why servings were put into cups is, it was easier for the party attendees to grab and go.  l did not want to have all the fruits and veggies on a tray where they could be touched by multiple people. I had several people tell me that they really liked having the individual cups.

I did something similar for the kids.  Instead of everyone putting their hands inside the chip bags to get the chips, we displayed them in a large party tray from the Dollar Tree.  I found this white on in the party aisle, but they have a few other variations here.

There were green and white party plates, napkins, cups and plastic utensils to eat with.  I thought I took a picture of them, but I must have missed it, because I am not finding it in my pictures.  

At one end the shelter house I set up the party favors, games  and card box.  I LOVE my scalloped tray that I bought a few years ago from the Dollar Tree. I used it to hold our candy bar favors.  While I have not seen these trays in one of my stores yet, they are bringing them back!  They are available now on the Dollar Tree website here. They were very hard to come by a few years ago.  I had a lot of good comments about them at this party, we are now considering using them for the wedding.

Almost all of the favors on the table were from the Dollar Tree.  The bubbles and favor boxes are available in the store. The candy jars  and trays, are available in store and online. 

I bought this card box a couple of years ago for a graduation party that did not happen during Covid. It is really big, easy to put together.  I bought the graduation cap this year.  

We did not have a photo booth set up with the wind, but we did have photo props available for the graduate to take photos with his friends.  Both the sign and the photo props are from the Dollar Tree.  

I did take a photo of the balloon tower stand after the party, and when the wind died down.  It was so easy to put together and can easily be used again, and again.  

I did make a few printables for his party, a few of which are available in my Etsy shop.  

The graduation games were a big hit.  

While I customized our candy bar wrappers with the graduate's school colors, I have printable wrappers available in the shop. 

We also wrapped all the water bottles with printable wrappers as well.  They are not in the shop yet, but are coming soon. 

Everyone left full, and happy.  The graduate had a great day with his friends and family, which made it a fun and successful party.     

 

 

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