Lailey's Rainbow 4th Birthday Party

My baby girl is FOUR! Phew. Time flies. That should be the name of this blog. I'll be honest (I usually am), I start thinking about Lailey's birthday party right after Christmas? Am I obsessive...or do I really love party planning. I'll pick the latter, but you can decide for yourself. This year, I let her come up with the theme. Don't know where the inspiration came from, but it was definitely going to be a rainbow party. Awesome! Colorful, fun, vibrant, and bright - fitting for Lailey. So the brainstorming begins...and where do I go? Pinterest of course! This is how I do parties:

1. Pick a theme (done)

2. Go on Pinterest for inspiration

3. Check out pictures of other parties that are WAAAAAAY too expensive for us.

(Since when did a child party need to be $500 and up? Seriously.)

4. Find ways to do an awesome party on the cheap

5. Start making DIY decorations well ahead of time

6. Make lists, shop, decorate

7. Enjoy it! It goes way to fast.

I admit: I went overboard with this party. I don't mean I spent way to much, it was just the most involved party I've planned. But one fun rainbow idea led to another, then Lailey saw a picture of rainbow cake pops and asked for them, and before I knew it I was up to my elbows in rainbow stuff! But that's okay. Like I said before, I find cheaper ways to do stuff. Except the tutu...

These tutus can be easily made for under $5 or $10...if you have one or two colors of tulle. Yeah well, a rainbow tutu necessitates 7 colors of tulle. I should really be making these and selling them with all the tulle I have leftover. Geez.

When it came to food, I was SO EXCITED when I realized how easy it is to have rainbow food! Fresh fruits and veggies! Despite my terrible sweet tooth, we usually don't do a ton of sweets at parties. This was the perfect way to have yummy, healthy, AND pretty food. Davey helped with the fruit kabobs. The party bags had some rainbow stickers, Skittles, and crayons (a rainbow of colors), and I decorated them with Lailey's dot art markers. I told myself once I'd never decorate water bottles, but I did. I had enough paper after cutting letters for "Happy Birthday Lailey" and it just made them so pretty on the table. Never say never.

And now to the cake pops. Of course, I saw these on Pinterest and showed them to Lailey before I thought about it. Big mistake. She loved them. And asked me to make them. What have I gotten myself into?

 Here's the short version of how I made these (for the full instructions, go to Munchkin Munchies):

1. Make cake mix

2. Separate batter into SIX different bowls and color them

3. Bake cupcakes

4. Crumble, add icing, knead until mixed.

5. Repeat FIVE MORE TIMES FOR EACH COLOR

6. Seriously wonder "What have I gotten myself into?"

7. Roll each color of "dough" into tiny balls (this equals over 150 balls)

8. Smoosh one ball of each color together to make a rainbow ball

9. Dip in candy coating, add mini M&M's and halved, smooshed mini marshmallows

10. Sigh in relief that you never have to do this again...

until your child wants cake pops again next year!

It was not too bad because I paced myself and started two days early. I wasn't up half the night like last year with Ladybug Pops since I now knew how much time it can take for these. They were yummy though! And of course the birthday girl loved them.

 In addition to the tutu, I sewed felt flowers on a shirt as well. When I showed the shirt to her the morning after I had made it, she calmly said "Mommy, there's not a pink flower. Pink is my favorite color." Oooooookay, you can have a pink flower. That didn't get done until 10 minutes before the party! But she got a pink flower.

 For a fun activity, I bought 3 $1 packs of multi colored beads and separated them by color to make rainbow bracelets or necklaces. A cheap and fun activity, and also a GREAT sorting and fine motor activity for Lailey prior to the party since I had her help me separate all the colors.

 We had quite a crowd in our little backyard! Thankfully the weather was nice and the rain held off.

Cousins Sadie and Lailey - I was tying on her bracelet that I made her
since she was having too much fun to sit still and make one.

Ready for presents!

Time to sing!

Opening presents - thanks, Dad (Grandpa Jim), for taking some photos
so I can actually be in one for once!

We were definitely at capacity.

I had a blast doing this birthday party, which is hopefully evident by this post. I felt like it flew by! I didn't even get all the pictures I wanted but we were having so much fun enjoying the party. Oh well. Can't have it all!