Keziah's Rainbow Party

I'm pretty sure Keziah's been planning her 5th birthday party ever since her 4th one was over last year. And she's changed her birthday theme several times over the past 12 months. As November crept nearer, she was really leaning towards a princess fairy theme. But since we've done either princesses or fairies for the last 2 years, I hoped to convince her to change her mind. After she saw a few of the rainbow party ideas I had pinned on Pinterest, she started to see my vision and get excited!

There were so many great ideas, but I decided to pick just a few ones that were do-able. The first being this rainbow pennant banner. I used scrapbook paper that I already had on hand (thanks to the big Costco pack of paper I bought several years ago) and used this free printable template to trace them. I bought some ribbon at the dollar store and then stapled the paper on in a rainbow pattern. Very easy and super cute. I think I'll hang it in the kids' room now that the birthday party is over.

With the extra paper from the pennant banner, I had an idea for the invitations. (This was an idea I came up with on my own - no Pinterest needed, thank you very much!)


I cut up the coloured paper into strips and glued them onto a piece of folded card stock. Then I free-handed a cloud shape on a piece of white card stock, glued it on the paper and cut any overhanging edges. It was a bit time-consuming since I had to make about 10 for all the little girls Keziah had on her list of party guests.

But I think they turned out pretty cute! I purposely didn't worry about cutting the strips all the same width or lining them up evenly (which was also nice since Keziah wanted to help with the gluing and she didn't have to be too careful). I think it turned out better that they were intentionally a bit crooked.


I also let Keziah address all the envelopes. I suggested writing all the names in rainbow colours and Keziah decided to draw a rainbow on each one.


I found a really cute idea from here for rainbow cupcakes. I made the cupcakes (using rainbow bit cake mix of course!) a few days ahead of time and then froze them. On party day, I died my white icing sky blue, warmed it up a bit in the microwave and let the kids help me with the cupcake dipping. This technique is SO easy that they were able to do all my cupcakes and they all turned out great!


Then came the decorations. I found these sour rainbow belts at my new favourite Dollarama in Aldergrove. I decided to try to make the clouds out of marshmallow cream because it seemed like it would make the clouds extra fluffy and creamy. But it turns out that marshmallow cream = a BAD idea. I should've just stuck with white icing (and I would've had plenty leftover from the icing that I already had, except that I had died it all blue), but you live and you learn, right?


After making a few cupcakes I quickly realized 2 things.

1. Marshmallow cream is really sticky. And I had about 5 different spoons and knives going to try to get the goopy stuff where I wanted it on the cupcake.

2. My rainbow belts were too long. I ended up cutting about an inch off of each one so they wouldn't droop. (But that was OK, because the kids and I were happy to eat those extra inches :)

The finished product:


Another downside to the marshmallow cream was that by the time we got around to actually eating the cupcakes, it had all sort of melted down the sides. Of course the kids didn't notice one bit - and I was just happy I'd thought to take some pictures before they got all melty and drippy.


Rainbow goody bags.


Party snacks.

Another idea I found was a rainbow drink. The week before the party, I made different colours of ice cubes from Kool-aid packs (omitting the sugar that it calls for).


Then you just serve them in a clear cup with clear pop and let the ice cubes melt and make the drink all rainbow-y. It's also nicer than just food-colouring because each ice cube had a different flavour as well.


I also decided to make rainbow fruit skewers. The kids LOVED these. I forgot to take a picture of the ones that I made. (Honestly, they got gobbled up so fast I didn't really have a chance!) But this was my inspiration picture (from here).

Erik totally thinks I went overboard with the party. Like, how much do 5 -year-olds really care about whether their drink and their fruit and their invitation look like a rainbow?

I know, I know.

But I just couldn't really help myself :)