Babycake's Rainbow Birthday Party

This weekend we celebrated Babycake's 3rd birthday. I had a great time planning and setting up the party. It was by far much more than we have done for either of her other birthdays, and my husband asked if all her parties after this are going to be as "extravagant." I responded by explaining that no they will not all be as big a deal as this year, but this is Babycake's last birthday as a single child. I wanted her to feel special. We only have a few weeks left before her world (and ours) will be rocked with the arrival of her baby brother. Because he is such a good man, the hubs quickly agreed in understanding.

My husband and I did most of the set up the night before, so when Babycake awoke and came out of her room the first thing I heard was "Oooooo I like that!" as she spotted the chain links and rainbow sign in the stairway. I then listened as she tiptoed down the stairs to touch the streamers. She then noticed through the streamers that the kitchen had been rearranged and descended the remaining steps to investigate. There was a squeal of glee when she say the streamers and balloons followed by her pitter patter into the living room to see if anything else was different. She found more chain links there as well as another birthday sign. She then scrambled back up stairs to wake my husband and I exclaiming "Momma! Dadda! Come see come see!" She was so excited to show us all the new and colorful decorations. Then as we finished the final preparations through the morning she danced and sang outside the front door awaiting the arrival of her party guests... in her pajamas ;-) We did change into her party outfit before anyone arrived.

Happy Birthday sign I printed out and hung on wall.

A few months ago I asked her what theme she would like and gave her the choice between a Rainbow party and a Frozen party. I honestly expected her to pick Frozen despite the fact I've been secretly researching rainbow party ideas on Pinterest for the last year. I was pleasantly surprised when she chose rainbows over Frozen. I asked her a few more times to choose between the two themes just to make sure she would be happy with the rainbow theme and not melt down that I had done the wrong one the day of. She consistently picked rainbows :-)      

Here are the decorations and party games we did. All supplies were either bought at the DollarTree or on sale at Target. I don't think I spent more than $20 for decor including goodie bags as well as plates and cutlery.

  

Front door welcoming sign,  chain link decor (which Babycake did an excellent job helping to create), Happy Birthday 'Babycake' Rainbow sign in stairway. 

All the kids (and adults) enjoyed walking through a rainbow.

Rainbow colored goodie bags, cupcakes, rainbow jello cups, and ice pops.

The most expensive thing bought was all the food. We had hot dogs and mac and cheese as well as fruit and veggie trays with each color of the rainbow represented. (Strawberries, clementines, bananas, green grapes, blue berries, purple grapes, red bell peppers, carrots, yellow bell peppers, broccoli, and blue corn tortilla chips b/c I couldn't find a decent blue/purple veggie) 

I had three activities prepared for the party, though we only did 2, some kids did 1, and some did none. As with any group, some of the kids liked the games, some didn't, Babycake loved it all and that's all I cared about. I knew that not all the kids would enjoy craft activities but Babycake is all about crafts and loved it all and having the birthday girl love her party is all that matters.

 

When guests first walked in they were greeted by the excited birthday girl, and invited to make a Rainbow necklace. This consisted of yarn, a name tag cut to look like a cloud, and fruit loops. For those kiddos who attempted to make a necklace (including Babycake) it quickly went from stringing the loops on the yarn to just popping them in the mouth :-)

Once all guests had arrived and settled in as much as is possible at a toddlers birthday party, we launched the second activity- a Color Hunt. This Color Hunt consisted of the kiddos walking around the backyard searching for stickers to put in their Color Book. Each page had one color of the rainbow and they needed to find the correct color sticker to put on it. I placed bowls around the yard with signs says "Hooray! You've found (color), good for you! Here are some stickers, take a few." To hunt for these stickers each child had his/her own set of rainbow binoculars. I, along with grandparents, had saved toilet paper rolls over the last month to make little binoculars which I wrapped in construction paper and hung with yarn.

The third activity I had prepared was Rainbow streamers which consisted of ribbons of each color of the rainbow and shower curtain rings. The kids would have been able to run around flying rainbows. However, our party was only 2 hrs long so there wasn't time to do it and that's ok. I think Babycake would have enjoyed it, but she's still just as happy not knowing or having done it. 

I think overall all the kids, family and friends who helped celebrate with us had a good time. I know I did and Babycake was over the moon all day. We are so lucky to have such wonderful people as we do in our lives and we're so thankful they were able to join us in celebrating my big girl.