Rainbow Birthday Party

Hello friends!

My baby turned 3 last week.

um.....what?? I don't remember signing off on that.

I wanted to have a big party for my big girl this year. Last year we had just moved and most of our life was in boxes, so I didn't have party planning in me. We had a day at the park and a Cars cake, and it was great, but this year I really wanted to do it up!

This was my first time doing a "theme" party, so I went with something that I thought would be pretty simple, and threw Abbey a Rainbow Party!

The first thing I found was this tutorial for rainbow cake at Omnomicon. I showed the picture to Abbey and she told people for weeks that she was having a rainbow cake! No turning back now!

Let me just say...this cake was awesome! I might just make this a birthday tradition. The tutorial was easy to follow, and while it's a little tedious, it is totally worth the effort.

I made some cupcakes too.

I went super simple for the food table. No fancy decorations, just some simple rainbow balloons.

I thought the cake was so pretty on the inside that I kept it simple on the outside. White frosting. Done.

I used my Valentine's Day Treat Tray did double duty as a cupcake tray. I put some rainbow candies in the bowl at the top.

 I was inspired by QuickDish's rainbow fruit skewers. Aren't they pretty?! We made a stack of these, and then a huge bowl of fruit salad with the rest of the fruit. Again, easy peasy.
p.s. apparently taking pictures of your messy rainbow batter bowls is mandatory! haha!

The backyard was where all the fun happened.  Decor was simple. The only thing I hung up were these pretty rainbow twirlies I found at JoAnn's for half off!

They're really pretty. I think we're going to leave them up for the summer!

We knew it was going to be a hot day, so we planned on lots of water play. At this age trying to do anything structured is like herding cats, and since simple was the name of the game, we just didn't bother. We set up a whole bunch of simple activities under the shade of a tree, and just left everything open in a very invitation-to-play style.

We had an art table, which got lots of action!

There was a wading pool with rainbow squirters and sponge balls. I used the tutorial at One Charming Party to make the sponge balls, and they are so much fun! 

The kids had tons of fun. We had a hard time getting them to stop playing so they could eat!

We put the sprinkler under the trampoline. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it!

This might be one of my favorite pictures from the day. This guy found Abbey's Paper Jamz guitar and would not put it down. I'm not sure why the trampoline was his spot of choice, but it was. He's a Worship Director's kid, can you tell? Haha!

All of Abbey's friends got to take home a goody bag. Again, simple stuff. A mini-notebook, some crayons, and some rainbow candy. They also got to pick out one of the squirters from the pool.

Anyone who follows me on Instagram (@heather_kate) saw this picture:

I had this great idea to put Tootsie Roll of each color in the bag to make a rainbow. Um...about that. There was one blue in the whole bag! Rainbow fail. Rainbow Twizzlers it is!

I think the party was a success. Don't ask me, just check out this face:

Be blessed!

Heather