If you are a city-dwelling, busy parent like me, you’ve probably organised your kids’ birthday parties in food courts and fast-food restaurants, year after year. After all, who has the time or energy to throw a unique birthday party? Where will the ideas come from? And anyway, all kids adore those little Happy Meal toys. So what if they come attached with harmful and fattening junk foods. Right?

Wrong!

I’m a busy Mum of a 12-year old and a 7-year old, and my kids and I have attended our share of the usual ‘Happy Meal’-type kids’ parties. Even if your kids love fast food (“duh, Mum!”), after attending the millionth such party, they are probably whining, “Mum, can I please have a different kind of party for my next birthday?” How do you respond to such a request?

In fact, your answer should be a resounding “Yes”, because with a little thought and effort, it is possible to throw your kids a unique birthday party – one that excludes harmful fast food and includes plenty of fresh air and exercise.

How about an Olympics-themed sporty birthday party?

I threw one for my daughter Paehel’s 12th birthday earlier this year, and I found that it was not particularly difficult to organise (I swear!). Importantly, it provided the kids with plenty of fresh air and exercise, plus it was loads of fun for everyone! As a bonus for us parents, the kids lay off the junk food and didn’t even notice (yay!)

Read on for how I organized my daughters Paehelympics 2018 –  Olympics birthday party! 

#1: PICK A NAME, TIME FOR THE EVENT AND A GOOD LOCATION

A sports event naturally requires space (and preferably, lots of it!), so look for an open area that gives kids the freedom to run free. After all, isn’t that the point of the event – exercise and fresh air? For your purposes, school, club or city council grounds are ideal. You can easily find the administrator in charge and make arrangements beforehand. It could either be a 7 am – 12 pm or 4 pm – 7pm slot. I am a morning person so whether you like it or not, all others around me have to wake up early. I had many grumpy moms as I woke up them up at 6.30 am on a Saturday. LOL

I booked Karamveer sports complex, Andheri since I loved the look of the ground dotted with tall coconut trees.

Next, coin a cool name for the event. My daughter’s name is Paehel, so I very creatively (☺) came up with the name Paehelympics 2018 . You can try [YOUR KID’S NAME]lympics!

# 2: DESIGN LOGO, PERSONALISED INVITES AND BIBS FOR HER FRIENDS

For Paehelympics, I first started by designing a Logo for the authentic feel of games. I made a simple logo with the olympic rings and the name.

Next I designed invitation cards on postermywall website. This website allows you to choose from a wide variety of themes, templates, colour schemes, fonts, etc. However, if you are technologically-challenged, the good old pen-paper combination works as well! Use bold colours, funny cartoons, jazzy fonts, picture cut-outs in your design – the sky’s the limit! Be as creative as you can!

Bibs

I kept the dresscode white tshirt and tracks/shorts so that all kids looked uniform except the birthday girl and her siblings.

And why not involve the birthday girl in the creative process? She’ll have a blast (and so will you!)

# 3: DESIGN  EVENT BANNERS

For your event to imitate the look and feel of an authentic Olympics gala, banners are an absolute must!

 I made 3 posters using the same postermywall website. The main banner was the name with flags. Two posters were celebrated Olympic athletes Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps with their quotes and one was a discus throw arena poster. I got all of them printed at a local stationary shop.

We designed and got medals custom made alongwith bibs and tiaras made out of fresh leaves.

Remember when you designed bibs and invites for the event? Try to use the same themes and colors in designing the banners as well.

Hang your banners at strategic locations around the venue. Curiosity and applause from passersby – guaranteed! (I had a few random guest from the club come up to me and ask details about this theme party )

# 4: PLAN THE GAMES AND PREPARE A TIMETABLE

Paehelympics was a 5 hour event (7.00 am – 11.00 am). I shortlisted about 18 races. I had no break as the entire schedule would wrap up in 3 hours and kids had breaks in between their races. We had the classic lemon and spoon and also not so classic Tambi and Hawaiian races ..LOL

For Obstacle races you can creatively come up with your ideas.

Here is a description of the obstacle race I designed.

Run Tambi Run race: Start >>> go over first hurdle>>>wear lungi, pick up plate and glass, balance on 1 hand>>>>go over second hurdle>>>Finish

Hawaiian race: Start>>> go over first hurdle>>>wear skirt, hand bracelet, garland>>> go over second hurdle>>>Finish 

Here is my Event flow:

Sr No	Event flow	Apprx time	Medals
	Fun March past	5
	Paehel’s  speech	3
	Suryanamaskar/ warm up	10
	Paehel yoga display	5
1	Lemon and spoon race Under 12 boys	5	1 gold/silver bronze
2	150m flat race under 12 girls	5	1 gold/silver bronze
3	Lemon and spoon race Under 12 girls	5	1 gold/silver bronze
4	150m flat race under 12 boys	5	1 gold/silver bronze
5	Lemon and spoon race Under 10 mixed	5	1 gold/silver bronze
6	100m men flat race	5	2 gold/silver bronze
7	3 legged race under 10 mixed	5	1 gold/silver bronze
8	100m women flat race	5	1 gold/silver bronze
9	50m Hurdles under 12 boys	5	1 gold/silver bronze
10	50m Hurdles under 12 girls	5	1 gold/silver bronze
11	50m  Hawaiian race under 10	5	1 gold/silver bronze
12	50m Run Tambi Run Under 12 boys	5	1 gold/silver bronze
13	50m run  Hawaiian race under 12 girls	5	1 gold/silver bronze
14	Discus throw under 12 mixed	15	1 gold/silverbronze
15	Discus throw under 10 mixed	15	1 gold/silver bronze
16	Fun relay under 12	10	1 gold/silver bronze
17	Fun relay under 10	10	–
18	Fun relay men + women	10	–

 # 5: ORGANISE DJ, TRACKER, PHOTOGRAPHER, THE EQUIPMENT (AND TEST EVERYTHING BEFORE-HAND!)

The very first thing that you would need for Olympics themed party is a tracker who would make the running tracks for you. ALERT: Remember if you have a morning party you will have to get the tracks done on prevoius night.

We went the previous night and got 14 tracks done as I had 12 kids at most running at the same time.

You will need a DJ if you want a microphone. So make that call according to your budget. I had booked a DJ. I gave him the tracks I needed to pay during Yoga display and march past.

Photographer could be an optional cost. Nominate one person (either your family member or another parent) to be the event photographer. Or hire a professional if you have the budget for it. Take lots of pictures and share them with the guests after the party! I had hired our family photographer who came for all our family events.

Depending on what games you have organised, gather the necessary equipment (racquets, balls, sacks, paddles, microphones, tables, etc).

I had a lot of props from other past events and so all I needed was hurdles and the winning stand.

I rented the hurdles from a sports store and the winning stand from a playschool. I customized it by putting Paehelympics logo on it.

And lastly very important – keep a first-aid box on hand.

# 6: ORGANISE THE REFRESHMENTS

Where there’s a birthday party for kids, food must necessarily follow ☺

Since a sports event involves a lot of running and playing (and paddling and bowling and enthusiastic yelling!), the kids are sure to be hungry by the end of it (if not during!). Provide plenty of food to calm those grumbling tummies. Also remember to keep water and some fruits/biscuits/chocolates on the ground. You can either arrange at the venue but the ground that I booked did not have good food options within my budget so I took all the kids to a nearby restaurant. I had booked a small banquet space in Shabari restuarant for a brunch.

# 7: ORGANISE THE PRIZES

What is a sports event without some cool prizes? Here are some questions you might ask yourself:

• Will you present winners with prizes at the end of each event, or have a single prize-giving ceremony at the end of the day?
• Will each child receive a participation prize or will you give prizes only to winners?

I was so confused and finally I decided to make 2 kind of medals – type 1 which said winners and type 2 which said participants. I wanted to make sure everyone takes a Paehelympics medal souvenier home. I also got custom fresh leaves tiara made for the prize ceremony.( pic)

This way, the children who won felt a sense of achievement, while those who didn’t win still felt included and acknowledged. My daughter the birthday girl was the guest of honour, so she handed out the tiaras and medals.

# 8: THE CAKE AND RETURN GIFTS

Birthday = Cake !!!

I like to design different cakes and my baker gets very amused with the kind of things I make him write on cakes.

For Paehelympics, I decided to make a winning stand and put small flags which my son made. We also put the Paehelympics logo on it.

For return gifts I made personalized caps with names of each child.

 THE EVENT DAY

We reached the venue at 6.00 am to decorate the ground. I had bought some simple streamers and ribbons. The brigade of aunts and uncles did a fantastic job.

The event started around 7.30 am( Always keep some buffer time as Indians are always late 😉

The birthday girl was seated in the stands along with other parents. The event started with a march past where all her friends alongwith her brother and cousin did a small parade for her. I chose a scottish music for the background. We made some placards for kids to hold during the march past.

She then greeted each one by giving out their personalised name caps. (Return gifts were given in the beginning instead of in the end).

 Next the birthday girl gave a short speech thanking everyone for their participation and hard work and declared the games open! This is a fabulous way to get her to develop her public-speaking and leadership skills. However, test the microphones first!

The games were declared open !! This was followed by warm up exercises and surya namaskar.

Next was Yoga display

Finally the races started and kids had a gala time participating in the races and adults had a blast equally.

Once all the races were over, we had a short archery display by a one of the kids who was learning the sport.

Once all the events were over it was time for prize distribution. The chief guest aka birthday girl had fun distributing the medals to the winners.

We made sure everyone got a medal- the ones who won got their respective gold, silver, bronze and the ones who didn’t win got their participation medals. Win win for all 🙂

After an exhausting morning it was time to feed their hungry tummies.

The kids were then moved ( friends and family cars)  to the banquet where we cut the birthday cake followed with a brunch.

Well yeah…

An Olympics birthday party is a one-of-a-kind way to celebrate your child’s birthday. It will not only bring her and her friends together in the spirit of competition, it will also get them moving in the most fun way possible. However, it requires some creativity, planning and organisation (and in my case – lots of lists!). You want the birthday girl to feel special and her friends to leave with a positive experience.

So, plan well, make lots of noise and have plenty of fun!

GET, SET, GO!! ☺