Our DIY Rainbow Party

Last Thursday, my daughter turned four. We had her party on the 14th, as it was the only weekend we had to do it all month! Lucky for me, my little asked to have a Rainbow themed birthday and I was pumped. There were about a million options to choose from for what I could do, and even more fabulous, it wasn’t going to cost a lot. Here’s some pics of how I threw together a rainbow party for my little miss, with lots of help from my tall hubs!

The rainbow ceiling was by far the biggest challenge of the decorations. It wasn’t that difficult to actually do, it just took a lot of time. But totally worth it. It’s still up in our kitchen! We used streamers and white balloons from the dollar store, and that’s it! In fact, including the plates, cups, and plastic tablecloths, the total cost of the party stuff was less than $20.

We decided to have a rainbow brunch for everyone attending, simply because it sounded like fun! The top image is the table area (pre-food) and next is where the main food/drink area was located. The menu consisted of sausage, turkey bacon, rainbow waffles and rainbow pancakes. Drinks included ‘Birthday Punch’, OJ, and water & milk for anyone that wanted any.

Rainbow waffles are so fabulous. I had a picture of the pancakes too, but apparently I deleted it in the shuffle. Poop.

For the table spread we had a fruit rainbow and a veggie rainbow. Fruit consisted of strawberries, oranges, mango, green grapes, blueberries, and blackberries. The veggies had cherry tomatoes, carrots, yellow pepper slices, broccoli, and what SHOULD have been purple cauliflower. BUT, all stores in my area decided they all had to be out of stock of purple cauliflower just in time for this party!! So we substituted blue corn chips instead. You do what you can.

For the ‘centerpiece’ if you will (besides the cupcakes) was the yearly birthday photo I make. I use my favorite photo of her from the family photoshoot, and list her favorite things all around. Below is the actual image. I blurred our her name as I never use it online. I’m aware that in reality, that probably doesn’t do much ‘protection’-wise, but it makes my mom brain feel better. 🙂

The rainbow cupcakes (a necessity at a rainbow party) are actually super easy to make – click here for the tutorial!

I spiffed up our entryway chalkboard sign with a fun little rainbow birthday message!

And of course, the obligatory OM NOM NOM cupcake shot. She got this winter hat as a gift and loved it – kept it on the whole party in fact!

Overall, it was a super successful party! I like to do a lot with decor and such as my little’s birthday is so close to Christmas. Which means that every year, the house is always decorated fully for the holidays, and I never want her to feel like her birthday gets the backseat to Christmas! Therefore, she picks her own theme and we accommodate. Plus, now we have a fabulous rainbow kitchen ceiling for awhile! 🙂

 

 

It’s Party Time!

My baby girl turn three today! She’s certainly not a baby anymore. . .not even really a toddler. I can’t believe how much she’s grown this year, both in her knowledge and literally her height. We’ve hit some big learning milestones this year and this was also the first year she has done an ‘extra-curricular’ activity – gymnastics class! It’s been really successful, and I’m amazed to see how much her gross motor skills have improved from day one. In January she is ready to move up to the next level of class too – she’s really excited! It’s been a big year full of so many wonderful things, and her party this past weekend was just another thing on that list.

Cookie favors for the guests.

She requested a ‘pink dinosaur’ theme this year (she loves dinosaurs!) and then amended that to ‘pink and purple dinosaur’ theme, so that’s what she got! I decided to go the route of making all (or as many as possible) of the decorations myself this year and I am SO glad I did!

The full spread. . .before the food was out.

I think the two food signs were my favorite decorations!

I made her invitations, banner, cupcake toppers, dinosaur danglies, and table signs in Photoshop and printed them out. The only things I spent money on were some plastic dinosaurs and the balloons and streamers – all in all it cost me $10.00. I’ll take that!

Every year for her party I put out a photo with her name, age, and her favorite things! It’s nice to be able to look back and see the changes as she grows. This year’s favorite things:

• Pink Blankie (her special blankie she got for Christmas when she was just one week old – it’s been with her ever since!)
• Dinosaurs
• PB&J Sandwiches
• Taking walks
• Coloring and Painting
• Berenstain Bears books
• Making ‘Line-Ups’ (she takes her toys and builds them in lines across the house – see this post for an example!)
• Littlest Pet Shop toys
• Playing with her cousins
• Gymnastics
• Sleeping over Mimi’s house
• Sunday Brunch at Grandma’s house

 
A terrifying T-Rex cousin, and her new tutu (which had to be worn immediately!).

The party was great – lots of family and friends, laughter and food! Just how a party should be. She got an army of new books, half of which are ALL dinosaur books (of which we are thrilled – both my husband and I adore reading and have already passed that on to our miss; she loves books!!) and at least 15 new puzzles!! She’s on a huge puzzle kick lately so she was a happy camper. Also, one of my favorite presents she received:

This pink dinosaur stuffy HANDMADE by my best friend!! It is so fabulous. And handmade?? How can you go wrong?! Yet another toy for her to treasure.

Three already. . .

Being swept up in party hosting, friends, family, laughter and food, I totally forgot to take a picture of her cupcakes I made. Whoops! But you can see one here. . .just picture ones with purple frosting too and there you have it.

CHOMP! True dinosaur style.

After the party that night our best friends stayed overnight (we were snowed in!) so we spent the night playing board games, laughing, and drinking cocoa. Is there a better way to spend a weekend?

Connect With Me

Game Nights

I love games. Board games, video games. Even hide-and-seek with my toddler is hilarious (mainly because she giggles every five seconds and it’s just so stinkin’ cute!!). This past weekend me and my wonderful friends had a game night. It was fantastic. It had been SUCH a long time since we’ve been able to get together and have one, especially since we used to do it every week. But you know, that was three years ago when we lived next door to one another, didn’t have children, and had half the responsibilities we do now! So needless to say, it was unbelievably great to spend a whole night with friends, pig out on some junk food, and play tons of board games, and in general spend the whole night having fits of hysterical laughter. Plus we’ve now decided to re-initiate a game night – though on a monthly, not weekly basis. Score!
And since I never go anywhere without my camera, mingled in this post are a few of the most hilarious best shots from the night. My friends are awesome.

What we played:

I had never played ANY of these, which was awesome because I love to learn new games! We started with Ticket to Ride, which I had really wanted to try. I’d seen the Table Top episode (a show on the Geek & Sundry Youtube channel – check it out!) where they played it, and both me and my husband really wanted to try it ourselves. It’s AWESOME. Extremely easy to learn, and not too long to play! Highly recommend it. Oh and yes, in case you were wondering, I do sing “She’s got a ticket to ri-ide. . .” every. single. time I read the title of the game. And not always in my head.

You know it’s time to get serious when D’s Jayne hat comes out. (Game pictured is Ticket to Ride).

Fluxx, and it’s alter version Star Fluxx are very fun, but not great for long periods of time. The games are (generally) very short – ten to twenty minutes – so they make a really nice filler game in between longer board games. We played a total of about five rounds in throughout the night. Bonus: if you’re a sci-fi geek, you’ll get a kick out of the Star Fluxx cards. Jam packed with references to Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and tons more.

I learned I’m capable of making a Muppet Face. This is what happens when I’m not getting the cards I want! Oh and also, the shirt I’m wearing is totally from Krmball Clothing – click the link, or go to my shops page to check her out!

Tsuro was awesome as well. It reminds me of the game Carcassone (another great one) and though the gameplay is similar, the concept and ‘point’ of the game is different. This game is pretty quick too – we played multiple rounds in a row just because it was fun!

After D busted out the Jayne hat, A. had to trump him with her epic motorcycle helmet. From then on, hats were required for game playing.

We wrapped up the night with some WiiU, which was also ridiculous amounts of fun. I can’t wait for our next one – we plan on teaching our friends Ascension, and maybe busting out some Catan!

My hubby (left) and D after tying for the win in Ticket to Ride. My favorite picture of the night!

Oh, and just in case you were thinking it, I’m not in any way associated with the companies for these games, and I am not getting paid to say awesome things about them – I just truly enjoyed them. It they were total poo, I’d tell ya that too!
Do you enjoy gaming (of any kind)? What are some games you like to play? I’d love to hear it – I’m always looking for new things to try.