SUMMER OLYMPICS AFTER spending 3 weeks in Greece, my daughter Marianna chose an Olympic themed birthday party. She was starting Kindergarten so we invited all the children and parents so it could be also an introduction party. Kids who play together are not afraid of each other ;)   AS families arrived they were given tags for their backs with the child's name or the word "parent". The party colors were the same as used for the Athens Olympics...blue and orange.  We copied a lot of images from the Olympic web site to decorate. EVERYONE then grabbed dinner at the buffet tables decorated with posters of "fun facts" about the Olympics.  THE first thing to do was a craft. At one table we laid out strings of plastic ivy so parents could make wreaths for their children's heads out of them. Yes, most children did wear them. It helped having just seen the Olympic winners wear the olive tree wreaths. After that we then began the games! WE started off with having 4 older siblings carry in the Olympic flag purchased reasonably from eBay. They marched the flag over to 2 other flags poles bearing the American and Greeks flags. We played offical Olympic music during all of this part. Most Olympic songs can be purchased and downloaded from legal music web sites.  THEN we began the Torch Relay Race. Since we had the party inside the school's gym (many can be rented VERY cheaply) each child got to run one lap with the torch (made from papertowel roll and aluminum). The last child was Marianna who ran to our homemade cauldron. As she "lit" it, Daddy plugged it in. (Cauldron was orange and yellow crepe paper taped to a box fan. Fan was wrapped in posterboard & sat on top of a garbage can. Aluminum foil was wrapped around the whole thing.) OUR games consisted of soccer-kick around cones, hula hoop contest, discus throw (spray paint those frisbees gold!), scooter relay race (different sizes for different ages), and two parent-included games: the famous Mommy Calling Contests (Mommies were all giggles!)and Daddy Piggyback Relay Races (Dads loved this as much as the kids). MARIANNA then had her cake brought out. It was a simple LARGE white cake bought from BJ's Warehouse. They really do have great affordable cakes! We made 5 Olympic rings on the cake out of mini M&Ms. We placed 2 paper copies of the Olympic mascots on popsicle sticks in the circles. Marianna loved it since she loves the Olympic mascots. FINALLY we called each child up to stand on a little stool where they were presented with a "gold" medal and a homemade Olympic Tshirt. Their faces were truly beaming.   SCHOOL started a week later and the children were all familiar with each other. Marianna, a very shy girl, knew everyone's name before school started since she had looked at the party photos repeatedly.