When we were thinking about what food to have at the party, my kids and I made a list of all the rainbow colors and the foods that matched. Turns out an assortment of rainbow foods makes for a pretty fantastic sandwich. So we had salami sandwiches, fruit, and chips. And I bought some grape jelly for pb&js too.  My daughter wanted to know where the blueberries were, but they are very much out of season and at 4$ for half a pint I opted for blue chips instead, which are pretty much purple. Oh well. You try and think of a blue food that isn’t jello.

So the food was easy, the cake on the other hand was a pain the in ass, but I knew it was going to be.  The cake is what started the whole rainbow thing in the first place, so we had to have it. My daughter was sitting next to me while I was on the computer one day and spied this rainbow cake. That was sometime in the summer and she has been talking about it ever since.

So I knew I had to make a six layer cake filled with buttercream and covered with piles of fluffy white frosting.  I’m sure she must have told her friends she was having a rainbow cake, but it looked like a plain old white cake, so I’m guessing they just didn’t believe her. But when we cut the first piece everyone lit up. And it was an awesome surprise–sort of like a cake pinata (except this is a cake pinata–do not let your children see this, or you will be cursing me the night before their birthday).

If the cake weren’t a rainbow honestly it wouldn’t be a very good cake. It’s tastes a little like a wet sponge, but you are eating a rainbow so your brain tells you it tastes like a rainbow. It’s virtue lies in it’s dye-ability,if I were to make it again (ha) I would use a different recipe. The frosting is a swiss meringue buttercream with some lemon flavoring thrown it. The recipe calls for an obscene amount of butter. I used less than half and it was delicious.

For the favors we made rainbow glitter playdough. After cranking out six batches of playdough I can make it at the drop of a hat now. Why I didn’t make a big batch and split it 6 ways, I don’t know. Whatever, it’s a good recipe for a mom to have memorized anyway. We packed it in jars and I wrote the guest’s names on paper rainbows for the top. Luckily my daughter got an awesome playdough kit for a present, because I forgot to make any playdough for us.

There were definitely a lot of projects for the party, but my kids helped with all of them and none were really all that complicated. I’m not usually an all out crazy birthday party mom (or at least I didn’t think I was), but I had fun with all the projects. And the anticipation make the actual day even better I think. But rainbow fever has not abated–my daughter now wants me to make her a rainbow costume for halloween. Any ideas?

the rainbow birthday party: part one

Almost every party we’ve been to recently has had a pinata, so of course my daughter asked (and asked and asked) to have one at her birthday party. But those pinatas are impenetrable! After about 10 rounds of the kids taking turns whacking the thing (and after one burly dad tries, and fails) someone has to get the scissors or and ax or some sharp object and pry the damn thing open, by which time the kids have lost their minds waiting for the candy. So I thought I’d make my own, which took a lot more time than I bargained for, but a lot less tissue paper than I imagined. And after everyone got three turns, one kid smacked it to pieces.

With all the leftover tissue paper I made some martha poofs for above the picnic table. I forgot how easy these are and how pretty. My daughter gasped when I she saw them!

Inside, we hung rainbows and clouds from the ceiling. We were going to make raindrops too, but somehow forgot. Both projects were very simple and clever and the kids helped with both. The rainbows are made by cutting paper into progressively shorter strips and then stapling them together at the ends. I found the directions for the paper rainbows via the crafty crow.

The clouds are so awesome I can’t get over it. They are made by winding a piece of wire into a corkscrew shape and then twisting into a floof of polyfil. Ingenious. You can find the directions to make your own clouds on ohdeeoh.  These will definitely stick around for a while, maybe even become the long overdue mobile above the baby’s bed.

Enough for now, I’ll be back tomorrow with rainbow food and rainbow favors!

rainbow birthday party: part two

We had the much anticipated rainbow party this weekend and with barely any melt downs from the birthday girl, so I say it was a success! These cupcakes aren’t from the party, but don’t worry there will be much party posting this week. I made them on her actual birthday and I was pretty excited that they worked out. I made plain old chocolate cupcakes and some cream cheese frosting. Then I painted the inside of a pastry bag with stripes of food coloring going up the bag from the tip and carefully spooned the frosting into the bag. When I piped the frosting on, voila! rainbows! Just like a unicorn pooping, or do they barf rainbows? Whatever they do, one came and did it all over my house.  And I’ll show you tomorrow.

I know birthday crowns are not a new and exciting thing, but I never made one before so it was new and exciting to me. I think this might be my new birthday gift for kids. It’s quick, it’s customizable, it’s cheap and it’s actually fun to make. As an added bonus, this crown was made completely from my stash. Of course it ended up to big, but cut me some slack it was my first try.

For some reason I used to think sewing with felt was cheating, which is totally ridiculous and I’m done being snootie about felt. Lately, I’ve been trying to convince my daughter that just because something is difficult doesn’t mean it isn’t fun, but I think I need to learn that just because something is easy doesn’t mean it’s necessarily crappy. I tend to think the more difficult the thing is to make, the better it is.  But that is just silly.

The birthday party turned out to be pretty fantastic. The birthday girl is related to Smarty Pants–a balloon art genius of sorts–and everyone went home with one of his awesome creations. Well, the kids did at least. I was a little bummed I didn’t get one. He really was amazing and it looks like he can make pretty much anything from balloons: oscar the grouch, a dragon, abe lincoln, cruella da ville. Makes my little felt crown look pretty wimpy.