Rainbow Birthday Party

Well in a LONG overdue blog update, here are some fun pictures and details from the kids' rainbow birthday party.  

Jon and I are on the same page on most things, and birthday parties are one of those things.  We have chosen not to make a huge production out of the kids' birthdays. We feel like birthday parties are more meaningful with family and maybe some close friends here to celebrate with.  We've done a "bigger" party for each of their first birthdays, but really we prefer to just make the rest of them a smaller celebration and make the focus more on the person than the party.  

We go to a lot of birthday parties for her friends at school and they are typically chaotic and not much fun for the parents.  Most of them are held at bounce house places or other retailers where the formula is usually the same:  let the kids bounce, jump, etc.. until they wear themselves silly (which is definitely my favorite part!), then cram all of the kids and parents into the tiniest of rooms while we dish out pizza and juice boxes as quickly as we can to all of the kids, climbing over each other just to help put straws in or reach napkins.  Then it's a quick birthday song and cupcakes or cake is dished out to all the party goers.  It's usually very hot and very crowded and very awkward.  Not my cup of tea.  

We were definitely on the same page for this party, but Jon really humored me with the things I wanted to do.  It was definitely a delicate balance to make the celebration not be all about the gifts and gimmes, but more about celebrating our precious children and another year of life we have been blessed to have with them.  Harper had been talking about having a birthday party for a long time and since their birthdays are only about 3 weeks apart, we scheduled it right in between and settled on a theme that could fit both of them:

RAINBOWS! 

Okay, so it was really more for Harper who LOVES rainbows, and the main theme was really all about rainbows.  But I managed to boy it up a little by incorporating Jasper's favorite building blocks into it, which come in primary colors.  It was a small something, but hey, at least it was something.  Hopefully it was enough to not make him hate me when he gets older for throwing him a rainbow party when he turned 2.  

I knew it would be a lot of work and I was right.  But I think it was all worth it.  I practiced beforehand on a few things I was unsure about, and a few other things I just tried to wing it.  I love to bake, but baking as a "presentation" and experimenting with making things pretty are not things I am comfortable with.  I don't ever use frosting that doesn't come from a can or piping bags, nor do I spend 3 nights trying to get a rainbow skittle trifle bowl to look right.  I didn't even own a trifle bowl before this party. Despite all of this, I think it all turned out great!!!  The things I was most disappointed with were their birthday cakes, but they tasted great, and it was such a small part of the overall party.  

We really wanted everyone to enjoy themselves and enjoy the food, and I think we accomplished that.  It was a lot of fun!

Here is the batter ready to be made into cakes.  This is one of the things I experimented with ahead of time.  I knew I didn't want a super tall cake, so the popular rainbow layered cakes was out of the question.  I made Jasper's block cake and Harper's rainbow cake with a kind of blobby tie-dyed effect.  It looked cool when it was sliced open. 

My mom came to visit and help with the party.  I get every bit of my creativity from her, which is basically nonexistent.  She was a really good sport and even though she didn't catch my vision for the party right away, she pitched in and helped with what she could.  She did awesome and we LOVED having her here!!!

These rainbow cupcakes were probably my favorite thing.  I found them on Pinterest of course.  I layered the batter into the cupcake liners and even though the blue turned out much darker than I had hoped, it didn't matter.  The rainbows were sour candy and the clouds were a happy accident.  On the couple of Pinterest posts I saw them on, they were thicker and fluffier.  I didn't have the tips I needed to do this, so I sliced a tiny hole into the piping bag and it came out much thinner than I wanted.  I started swirling and was loving how it turned out.  I kept going and it worked!!!

Jon was in charge of decorating the backyard and I loved it!  I purchased these lanterns from Oriental Trading and they were perfect to hang from the umbrellas and EZ Up.

The candy bar turned out so fun!  I had originally intended to make the garland, but once I saw this one on Oriental Trading, I decided to save myself tons of stress and frustration and purchased one.  

The rainbow cupcakes are on the top left.  I purchased the plates and silverware at Walmart in the colors of the rainbow and alternated the colors.  The polka dot napkins I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby and the striped tablecloth and napkins were from Walmart.  The jello cups took forever to make but were fun.  I think they were the most under appreciated aspect. ;)  I bought six flavors of jello and took an entire day of carefully layering the colors and chilling them - in and out of the fridge all day!  It was a little too warm for the whipped cream so it melted.  Oh well!  

The previously mentioned trifle bowl of Skittles is easier seen in this picture.  I first used the standard bags of Skittles, but didn't think about the fact that there were no blue Skittles in there.  I went back and found a newer kind called Skittles Riddles.  This had lime green, light blue, dark blue, pink and purple-- it was perfect!!!!  So I deconstructed the trifle bowl for the 2nd time (the first time was because it was too full and I didn't have enough room) and the third time of putting it together was the charm.  It looked great and tasted great.  It was a total hit.  Mom helped me make the rainbow fruit kabobs and she also made the "cake pops".  These were Jon's idea after he saw the rainbow sprinkled donut holes at Walmart.  They were devil's food cake donut holes, so all we did was put a stick in them and voila!  Cake pops without the stress!  Perfect! 

I got rainbow goldfish and rainbow Twizzlers.  Mom made the yogurt-dipped pretzel sticks and put rainbow sprinkles on them.  Everything really looked great and better yet, tasted awesome!  

A dear friend of mine made a custom-made headband and bracelet for Harper.  They were perfect!!  They went perfectly with the rainbow t-shirt I found for her.  

The favors were another favorite.  We have this awesome popcorn place near us and one of their specialties is Rainbow Popcorn.  It's flavored and all the colors of the rainbow.  We bought a small bag ahead of time to make sure it actually tasted good (fruit-flavored popcorn is not something you think of tasting good) and it was awesome!!  So we purchased an entire tin-full of rainbow popcorn and Mom yet again came to the rescue by putting it into clear bags to give to each party-goer on their way out.  In a perfect world, it would have had some cute rainbow ribbon tied to each, but some things just don't get done when it comes down to it.  The rainbow take-home boxes were great so each guest could visit the candy bar again before they left to take home some treats with them.  

We didn't tell the kids ahead of time that we had gotten a bounce house, so Harper took a front row seat when they unloaded it so she could watch it be blown up.  She was beside herself with excitement. (Jasper was at the tail-end of his nap so he missed the bounce house arrival).

Here are a few of the girls twirling their rainbow ribbons.

Hoarding her skittles with a fruit punch smile.  The punch bowl is one thing I never took a picture of, but it was awesome! 

Here is Harper's rainbow cake.  I used a bundt pan with the layered batter, and simply cut it in half to create a rainbow.  Again, the execution and final design of their cakes were not my favorite, but the point was understood.  

Here is Jasper with his block cake (and sporting his rainbow tie t-shirt made especially for him!).  I made several failed attempts at making a cake shaped like blocks, but when it was obvious it wasn't going to work the way I wanted it to, I decided a basic cake decorated with blocks would work just fine.  

Enjoying a blue Twizzler in the play room.

Harper and I after the guests had gone home and they had opened their presents.  Here she is with the Pinkilicious doll Mimi got her.