Thriving Parents

shifting Parenthood from barely surviving to thriving

Rainbow Birthday party

Kate’s birthday party was this past Saturday.  And thanks to all the family and close friends that love her so much, it was a HUGE success!  This rainbow theme was so fun to do.  I can’t imagine anything being easier or having more options. 
I tried to think of very colorful things for our menu.  A rainbow veggie tray (tomatoes, carrots, yellow pepper slices, celery, and broccoli)
and a rainbow fruit tray (strawberries, mandarin oranges, green grapes, blueberries, and purple grapes) were easy enough. 
I had bought yellow apples too, but never got around to cutting and slicing them up. 
We also served stromboli with sauce, blue tortilla chips with hummus, and the standard chips/ dip and pretzels.  The chips and pretzels were served in these little colored buckets that I got from Party City.  For dinner we served lasagna.  It was the most colorful food I could think of!  Also, since Matt went out of town the week before Kate’s party, it was something I could make ahead the weekend before – when he was home.  We made about 8 strombolis and the lasagna the weekend before and I put them in the freezer.  This way they were still fresh when I took them out and cooked them before the party.
I didn’t find any cute rainbow plates so I went simple.  I bought plates, napkins, and cups in every color of the rainbow and then gave the girls a project.  I had them put all the plates and cups in a pile and organize them by alternating color.  They had so much fun doing it.  It was just the right project to keep them entertained!
I didn’t do too much in the way of decorations.  I made these cute rainbow poms using tissue paper.  We hung them on the ceiling in the kitchen and a few on the walls of the family room.  We also put one on the wall of the bathroom.

Also, remember the rainbow wreath I said I wanted to make out of gumdrops?  Here it is:

We hung it on the outside of the door the day of the party.  It looks so cute, I thought I’d leave it up until Easter.  However, on Sunday it rained buckets.  Buckets, people.  And the rain on the wreath broke down the gumdrops a bit.  Thankfully Matt noticed it when he let the dog out and brought it in.  I think I’ll be able to put it back up but will need to remember to bring it in the next time it rains. 

The cupcakes and cake were my favorite things to do.  I used a white cake mix and separated it equally into 6 different bowls.  Then I added Wilton’s icing gel (the one that comes in a little bottle, not the tube) and mixed it together.  I started layering the cupcake liners with a bit of purple first (I wanted it to be on the bottom), then blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.  I wasn’t meticulous about it.  I just kind of dabbed it in.  When they baked, they mixed together perfectly. 

Here’s a picture of a cupcake that was cut in half:

One thing I tend to do for birthday parties is not ice my cupcakes until they are going to be served.  This is so I can let the kids put the sprinkles on themselves.  If cupcakes get iced ahead of time, the icing gets a little hard and then sprinkles can’t be added later.  I bought a bunch of colored bowls at Target for the sprinkles.  I bought as many different kinds of rainbow candies/ sprinkles that I could find.

The cake was huge!  It was six layers (one for each color, obviously!).  We put rainbow colored Twizzlers around the outside for some decoration.  I wanted the outside of the cake to be a bit plain so that the inside would be a bigger surprise.  (Side note:  rainbow Twizzlers don’t taste very good.  I wouldn’t use them again.  I’d do some rainbow sprinkles instead.)

Favors are usually my favorite things to do.  Not so much this time.  I decided to do homemade rainbow playdough.  I have an awesome recipe from my friend Jenn (who really should have her own blog).  I think by the time I got to the favors, I was just exhausted.  I put the playdough in Mason jars (I am sure every parent will curse me if the jars get dropped in their home!) and put them in a rainbow bag that I made with Do A Dot markers.  I filled the bag with a piece of candy that represented every color of the rainbow too and tied each bag with a rainbow ribbon.

Here’s a picture of our birthday girl who will be 4 this Thursday:

There were so many other things I could have done with this birthday theme but I didn’t want to go too overboard.  After all, we’re only doing family parties at this point.  And now I am on to planning Rebecca and Caroline Grace’s birthday parties.  Those parties will be 2 weeks apart.  If I don’t get started now, I may lose my mind!

And as a bonus, here’s a family pic of all 5 of us.  We don’t have many pictures of us and I probably should have had it taken earlier in the day. 

–k

Kristina Grum is a Certified Parent Educator who has over a decade of experience working with children, including being a classroom teacher. She currently teaches parenting classes in her local area and writes about shifting parenthood from barely surviving to thriving.

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Rainbow birthday party

I’ve been gearing up for what is known in our house as birthday season.  Birthday season starts in February.  Not that it’s anyone’s birthday in February, but that’s when the planning gets serious.  I actually start planning before Christmas.  I have to.  Kate’s birthday is in March.  Rebecca’s is in the beginning of May and Caroline Grace’s birthday is 2 weeks later.  It gets crazy if I don’t plan ahead. 

Kate has decided she wants a rainbow themed birthday.  Secretly, I was thrilled.  There’s so much to do with a rainbow theme!  My friend Susie, at Announcements by Susie, designed Kate’s birthday invitation for us.  We told her what we wanted and she put our vision on paper. 

I LOVE it!  It’s exactly the way we pictured it.  If you need anything related to invitations or announcements, please check out her site.  Susie is so easy to work with, too.  She’s amazing! 

I’m in the process of making some decorations for Kate’s party – with her help, of course!  We might be working on something like this.  And something like this.  I also bought the biggest bag of Fruit Loops I could find for some rainbow necklaces.  We may have a few more surprises up our sleeves, it’s just all a matter of executing them (and having the time!).  

Stay tuned as I’ll continue to update what we’re working on. 

Kristina Grum is a Certified Parent Educator who has over a decade of experience working with children, including being a classroom teacher. She currently teaches parenting classes in her local area and writes about shifting parenthood from barely surviving to thriving.