Rainbow Birthday Party

Hello friends! Our Rainbow themed 8th birthday party was a big success and fun to put together. I promised that I would share, so be warned of lots of pictures forthcoming! I actually love planning parties for my kiddo, and although the guest list for this one was small (8 girls), I'm starting to think that maybe I would rather pay more and have the party elsewhere??? Terrible, I know...BUT...it's not because I don't thoroughly enjoy planning a themed party. It's mostly because I put so much pressure on myself for everything to be "just right" that I then sometimes forget to enjoy it. So...food for thought for next year, I guess!

My just-turned-8-year-old loved it, and that's what counts. I put everything together relatively cheaply, which I always strive to do. (Which is why the above mentioned pay-someone-else idea goes COMPLETELY against my grain.)

We handmade the invites this year, which I like because my kiddo got to help with them. Plus, it's lots cheaper!

 

We created these in Word, on a 4x6 card, then I rounded the corners with my paper punch. The kiddo added the rainbow at the top.

Each girl took home a small favor bag, that again, my kiddo added a few little touches to. Each bag included Skittles, 3 rainbow markers, and a unicorn rainbow lollipop.

I had a clipboard near the front door where parents could leave a contact number if they were dropping off. This worked really well, and I didn't have to keep up with numbers.

I  whipped up this rainbow pennant....

...and we hung it over the room where she would be opening gifts and playing a few games. (This is the day before the party, so party stuff was still cluttering up that room!)

When each girl arrived, she was directed to write down her estimation of our Skittles jar. They dropped their guesses into a little rainbow box from the Target $1 Spot, and then I went through them during cake/ice cream. Our Skittles jar was actually a pickle jar from our recycling bin. I spray painted the lid with primer, then red spray paint. I tied a scrap piece of fabric for the ribbon, leftover from the pennant project. The girl with the closest guess took home the jar. (There were 300!) :)

 We added mini water bottles to the red bucket, as well as napkins in the front. My kiddo decided to have rainbow iced cupcakes for her party with friends, and a rainbow cake for her party with family. I added the paper pennant triangles to the cupcake stand with simple scotch tape. I cut each of them with a Stampin' Up pennant die.

 We played a few indoor classic games (like Limbo and Hot 'Cloud' ...it was 102 degrees outside), then headed out under a shade tree to make rainbow sand bottles.

I bought the colored sand at Hobby Lobby, and we cleaned and prepped Propel bottles from our recycling bin. We labeled the lids with each girl's name ahead of time, and stocked up on funnels and measuring cups from the $1 store. The girls LOVED this activity! They were all pretty serious about it, too.  Apparently layering sand is serious business.  :)

They all turned out lovely, and I think every girl was proud of her creation!

After cupcakes, ice cream, and gifts, we finished off our fun with a rainbow pinata (a special request from the birthday girl). 

For our large family gathering, we opted for chocolate cake, and added the Skittles rainbow ourselves. My kiddo added all the Skittles (her fave candy), and really loved how it turned out.

Lots of fun, a cute theme, and pretty cheap, too. Although I'm an avid scrapbooker, we've made it a tradition the last few years to create a bound photo book of each birthday party (one with family, and one with friends). I always wait for a discount, which happened to be right after the parties, so both books should be arriving soon. They are so much fun to make and are wonderful keepsakes, too. I use Snapfish, and actually store all of my photos there as well.

Hope you enjoyed our rainbow themed party ideas!

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the web,