In my previous post I mentioned this party was months in the making. I was not kidding! But it all paid off, the party was a hit! The kids were just amazed and so excited and all thanked us for the wonderful party! Awwww... what a bunch of sweet hearts! It just made me absolutely melt.
Everything turned out just how I had envisioned and I loved every minute of the preparation just as much as the party it's self. All the happy little faces, the constant activity, even the fact that my little one year old had no idea it was all for him. And I could not have done any of it without the help and support of my wonderful family.
Rainbows are pretty easy to work with. They are everywhere, but I didn't want to just use a whole lot of tacky ready made decorations and party supplies. So I started with Billy's invitation. My own design. Postcard style. Printed in bright rainbow colours on a textured heavy weight card. Then I created party treat bags to match. These were made of bleached calico and rainbow fabric, tied with a red ribbon and thank you message iron on transfer. I also drew a rainbow scene and printed out a little leprechaun for each guest to colour and play "pin the leprechaun on the rainbow". I completed all of these in "my spare time" and received many an imploring look from hubby doing so.
 |
Clockwise from left: Pin the leprechaun on the rainbow colouring in cards.
Rainbow fabric treat bags. All the kids opening the treat bags filled with rainbow goodies. |
Decorations on the day were really quite simple. Rainbow coloured streamers and balloons - a no-brainer. Miniature table was made by my handy Dad. Surrounded by little colourful chairs just right for little bottoms. Table was set with a bright purple table cloth (my oldest sons favourite colour) and a rainbow coloured bamboo table runner I got for $5! I can't even remember where! Plates, hats and napkins (and streamers, balloons and piñata ) were bought from a local party shop. Like I said, the market is flooded with brightly coloured and rainbow themed supplies, and since I am time poor I opted to just buy these elements. It also made it a little easier to toss everything in the recycling after knowing I didn't spend a lot of time painstakingly making little hats too.
 |
Clockwise from left: Table set and ready for guests.
A single row of balloons in order. Ceiling of streamers. Rainbow piñata! |
The food was loads of fun to prepare! I got most of my inspiration from Pinterest totally kidding myself that it would be some what healthy. Two rainbow fruit platters with Toblerone dip was barely touched. Layered rainbow jelly cups were prepared a few days in advance having to with for setting, and well hidden in the back of the fridge from hungry little boys (and husbands). Topped them with whipped cream on the day. I searched for giant swirl lolly-pops and found them for $2 each at K-Mart. In hindsight I should have found some half the size, as my 2 1/2 year old licked the colour off the tip and that was it. But all the cousins kept them for their interstate flights home two days later (Good thinking Mum's and Dad's).
I separated the coloured popcorn and put them into little ice cream cones. The cones were not consumed. I'll probably put them into little paper cones next time, they will fit more in and not waste unnecessary food. As for beverages; I didn't really want to serve soft drinks to a bunch of kids (kind of outweighed by the giant lolly-pops, I know!) so I found some different coloured juice poppers and made little cloud shaped sleeves for them. Then added bigger bendy straws and little colourful paper ribbons to them. Just because there wasn't enough colour on the table already!
 |
Clockwise from left: A rainbow food explosion! Poppers in sleeves.
The birthday boy digging in. Rainbow fruit platter and Toblerone dip. |
Now for the pièce de résistance... The cake! This is what spurred on the whole rainbow theme in the first place. Originally spied on Whisk Kid months ago, I set about acquiring all the necessities to make said Super-Epic-Rainbow-Cake. My making-of details can be read here and I have to say, this was the funnest cake I've ever made! And that says a lot because funnest isn't even a word! Not only was it fun to make but super fun to see peoples reactions when one seemingly plain white birthday cake is sliced open to reveal seven layers of rainbow awesomeness! The cake was devoured and everyone thoroughly impressed.
 |
Clockwise from left: Seven layers of rainbow awesomeness!
Make a wish Billy! Waiting patiently. One little candle.
|
More on the activities of the day and some fun photos of the kids can be seen here.
All-in-all; a perfect birthday party! Happy 1st Birthday my darling baby boy! xx
The rest were courtesy of my husband Tim.
Thank you both!
