TIME TO
PARTY!
A Rainbow Party by Christine Humphreys When you just can’t decide on a theme, you can’t go past colour! A rainbow theme suits every birthday boy or girl, and you can turn the cheeriness of colour into a fun and amazing party! My daughter’s 4th birthday party revolved around my desire to have a go at baking a six-layer rainbow cake. At the end of the day, the long anticipated rainbow cake nearly reduced me to tears and ended the life of my mixmaster. Thankfully, although the cake was a bit of a flop, the rest of the party turned out great! INVITATIONS Have your birthday boy or girl draw their own version of a rainbow on one side of a postcard-size white card. On the other side, glue a basic invitation with all the details. I chose to get a bit snazzy and make each word a different colour – see how you go for time! COSTUMES A fun (and easy) costume idea is to ask each guest to come dressed in his or her favourite colour. DECORATIONS A rainbow theme makes for easy party decorating! We picked up a rainbow piñata from Spotlight and some tissue paper pom poms. I also made a simple backdrop for the food table out of bright fabric hung from a curtain rod. We have reused this backdrop for a few parties since. We bought a set of inexpensive reusable plates and cutlery from a discount store, and they’ve since been used for other parties and picnics, as well as in the play kitchen. 32
FOOD Rainbow-coloured food is such fun! • Rainbow jelly cups. Just set and layer one colour at a time. You need a day to finish these but they look wonderful and are a big hit! • A fruit platter in the shape of a rainbow • Fairy bread…the original rainbow party food! • Rainbow cookies. Check out this tutorial – the trick to the bright colours is to use professional icing colours such as Wilton www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTXETy8BhnU • Rainbow marshmallows. Courtesy of my sister…it’s a great idea to outsource some catering. GAMES AND ACTIVITIES We are fortunate enough to have a very talented face painter in our family but you can easily DIY or outsource this. We also had the dreaded traditional pass the parcel (never again!), piñata fun and a treasure hunt where each child had to find six different coloured balloons…once found they earned a bubble wand! PARTY FAVOURS Each guest was given a kaleidoscope from the party girl at the end of the party and went home with a party bag filled with goodies from the piñata.
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