Olivia Fest 2012! (aka Sophia's Second Birthday Party)

The first cartoon Sophia and I ever watched together was an episode of Olivia.  Olivia was on a soccer team and was upset because she was going to have to wear a green uniform as opposed to the red uniform that the goalie got to wear.  She said, "Green just isn't my color." And as for Francine (the girl that got to be goalie and wear the red uniform) she said, "Not everyone can wear red, especially when you're pink."  I thought she was hilarious!  So full of sass and creativity.  And so that became our first go-to cartoon.  Sophia became familiar with the theme song - Olivia! Olivia! Olivia! Olivia! Oliviaaa!  Olivia! Olivia! Olivia! Olivia!  Oliviaaaaah!  O-LIV-I-AAAAHHHH!!!  When she was still crawling she would shake her head and and move her hands around dancing.  Now, she sings along with it and attempts to spell Olivia (A - O - A - Q - B - A - C...)


And so, when it came time to pick a theme for Sophia's second birthday party (WHAT?!! 2nd Birthday??!! More about my disbelief that my daughter is about to be 2 in my next post, this is just a party post)  Olivia was an obvious choice.


For those who don't know, 2012 started off more than rocky for the Elfleins and for me in particular.  In need of a distraction, I dove head first into party planning.  I had seen many Olivia themed parties online and borrowed ideas from them.  I made all of the decorations and attire except for the invitations and Sophia's embroidered t-shirt, which I ordered from Etsy.

So, the party was obviously in 2012, not 2011 but it totally slipped my mind when I ordered these in December.  Oops.


I went with entirely Red, White, and Black decorations.  There were some Olivia party goodies available online but they had a lot of blue in them.  What does Olivia have to do with blue?  I incorporated themes from episodes, some Valentine's Day decor, and of course...Olivia's Rules of Life.  Sophia owns many many books and dolls so I placed them around the house.

Cherry M&Ms, Cherry Twizzlers, Red & White Kisses

I made the banner, it's much cuter up close...

Olivia book for guests to sign.  We did this last year too and think it will be cool for her to see who came to her parties.

The favors consisted of several cute girly things like mirrors, combs, tiny purses, mini-tiaras, and (the best part)  a bag of seeds for a "Surprise Garden" a-la Olivia's surprise garden in which she grows a venus fly trap.  No traps included, only an assortment of lovely flower seeds.

Food table and one of two photo banners with pics of our girl from the last year.  I bought the circle banners at Hobby Lobby, then printed various sizes of photos from 1-2 years old.  I also embellished the banner with some red bows.

Loved this!  Giant Olivia holding balloons!  Printed a picture of Olivia, had it enlarged, then attached it to a foam board and cut it out with an exacto knife.  Of course I had to add real bows to her ears.  Sophia  LOVES this.  She shouts "Lihhh-Yeeee-Yahhhh!"  every time she sees it.

Daddy's idea to put the roses on the fireplace.

Some of the many books and Rules of Life we had around the house.

For food we mainly served finger foods.  I have two vegan friends and wanted to incorporate foods they could eat yet no one else would realize they were purposely vegan.  I marked the food cards with a red heart if the item was vegan.

And of course the cupcakes.  I go a little cupcake crazy for parties.  Typically I have my friends up with me until the wee hours of the morning making, stuffing, and frosting cupcakes the night before a party.  This year I was very efficient and had all of the cupcakes (about 4 dozen) done (by myself) by about 6 on Friday.

 Pre-Frosting

 How cute are these!  I got the recipe from the Nick Jr. Olivia website.  The ears and nose are melted candies drawn onto wax paper using a template underneath.  The rest is frosting.

I made half vegan red velvet (which were pretty awesome & definitely didn't stand out as vegan) and Cherry/Vanilla filled with Cherry/Vanilla creme.  Both frosted with homemade almond "butter cream" frosting.  

And now for the fun...

Sophia had a BLAST!!  She was dressed up so cute with a shirt I ordered from Etsy and a tutu that was actually my tutu that Sharla made me last year for Sophia's first birthday party (she made one for each of us since I put on the invites that girls were encouraged to wear tutus...lol).  I just shortened and scrunched it a little.  

She had many of her friends join her for the celebration, as well as many of Mommy and Daddy's friends and family of course.  We are always so thrilled and overjoyed to see so many people turn out to show our girl some love.  Nothing is better than seeing your daughter surrounded with love.

 Stella

 Cindy

Drue

Unfortunately we didn't catch any pictures of Taytum but we were so happy she made it :)

I made coloring books for the kids to color.

And Uncle Greggy and Aunt Shauna brought a bounce house, which was of course a huge hit with the kiddos.

 She tried to bounce herself, but mainly enjoyed the ride as others bounced.

 We kept it up the next day and did some private Elflein Family Bouncing :)

For some reason, the singing of the birthday song makes me cry.  Both years as we were singing my feelings about her birthday culminated in overwhelming emotion.  Sophia also cried during the birthday song.  We've been practicing sing it so that she would be used to it (and maybe sing along with us) but each time she would yell "No!" and cry.  The real deal was just the same.  She's crazy I tell ya.  So funny.  

Just like last year, since my dad was unable to attend the party we had him on Skype right in front of her to sing.  Obviously we wish he could be there but since he can't, this is an amazing substitute.  He sat and watched her eat her cupcake too :)

All in all it was a truly wonderful day.  Sophia was showered with love and had a great time with her friends and family.  I have to give special thanks to my mom, Sharla, Mason, Uncle Bob (aka Tom) for helping out with the set up (I can be (ahem) a bit bossy when it's go-time before my parties and they are angels for not only putting up with me but continuing to come/help party after party).  Also thanks to Greg and Shauna for bringing the bounce house.  

We brought the party to a close in the same way we did last year, by showing her video for the year.  Both years I have used iMovie to make a compilation of videos and pictures from the year set to music.  Sort of a slideshow...but better.  It always makes me cry.  I'm still working on a way to share it.  It's pretty long and contains downloaded music so YouTube is giving me a hard time.

After everyone left, Soph was tuckered out.  She had a great day.  

A few people have made the remark that "She won't even remember this."  To me, that's not what this is about.  Whether she remembers it or not, I'll always know that put something wonderful together for her.  She'll have pictures, videos, and her signed birthday books to look back at and see all the people that love her.  The way I see it, she will have so many imperfections in her life so if I can give her this one perfect day, why not?

Tune in next time for a complete update of what Sophia is all about at 2 years old...including details of my utter disbelief that another year has gone by :)