Lucia's Rainbow Party

My big birthday girl

We just finished up Lucia's birthday party last week. I still can't believe she is a year old! But that's another story.

Callie getting a squeeze in!

I decided to do a rainbow/st. patrick's day theme since her birthday was so close to St. Patrick's Day. We held the party the day before St. Paddys. I scoured that oh so dangerous place, pinterest, for months for ideas.

First, the food! I found a ton of ideas online for sugary treats but I wanted at least a few healthier options. About an hour into the party we also had tacos from our favorite taqueria. They went fast of course!

We had popcorn in a black kettle for our pot of gold

And a rainbow of fruit with fruit dip (marshmallow cream and cream cheese)
This tray got demolished multiple times by the kids so I'm glad I took a picture before the party really started! We also did a tray of veggies with colorful bell peppers, tomatoes, celery and carrots. 

Also had a rainbow plate that I found on sale at Pier 1 where I put a collection of dried fruit (lots of nice colors!). I found a rainbow of licorice from Sprouts, and jelly beans from Costco. We had pita chips and hummus. And of course a rainbow feather boa for decor!

I found some solid colored melamine bowls at Costco that were perfect! 

Then of course there were the cupcakes!

Callie trying so hard to be good! 

I'm ready mama! Cupcake me!

Callie showing us how big girls eat cupcakes: just eat the frosting! 

The top of the cupcake was covered in gorgeous glitter! They were amazing!  Seriously, if you need cakes, cupcakes or donuts check out Kathleen DeManti's  FB page. She did our wedding cake too! She creates the most beautiful goodies!!




The Outfits:)
I found Lucia's tutu and onesie on etsy in a shop called Chic Somethings. The tutu was nice and full. The onesie came with another tutu that we bought for the invitation picture from a shop called TickleMyTutu. She makes incredible tutu sets. But be warned, if you are going to order from her make sure you have lots of time! Her lead time was 4 weeks but I would definitely order from her again. Great stuff.

Lucia gets a little help from the Grandmas to model her new outfit!

Callie's sparkle rainbow shirt is from an etsy shop called Spunky Sparkles. It was $20 and Callie was SOO excited about it! Her St. Patrick's skirt was $12.

Decorations

I found a lot of rainbow decorations on Oriental Trading Company's website as well as at Party City. The great thing about doing it close to St. Patrick's Day is that not everything had to be rainbow. I found some inflatable balls and other decorations. I used black kettles with gold candies for centerpieces. The rainbow floral garland was one of my favorite pieces. 

We also did a lot of balloons! A cool trick I found on pinterest was to tie the strings around a golf tee and stick them in the ground. It looked very cool! 

For the tables we did a bunch of solid tablecloths with beads, mini hats and gold chocolate coins. The mini hats were a little bit of a let down, they were adult sized not kids sized, but I just tied a loop in it and they fit ok. 

Activities

We had lots of active possibilities for all of the toddlers at the party, so we had our slide

And of course the trampoline was a hit as always...

 a rainbow tunnel, 

a craft table and a pinata. 

The pinata was ridiculously huge. Thank god we had a bigger kid come to the party or it would've taken all day for the 3 year olds to pop it open! I filled it with bouncy balls, beads and other toys.

After what seemed an eternity, it was open! 

We also had a parachute, 

multi colored cones from Melissa and Doug (which were ridiculously popular! Who knew?) and twister. 

No one really played twister, but it sure looked good! Maybe next year:) 

Keeping lots of outdoor bikes and toys was helpful to keep all the kids entertained

For our craft the kids made rainbow crowns. 

Big sister Callie and her friend took it very seriously! 

They had a blast! Before the party we cut out the center of plain white paper plates. The kids used small glue sticks and attached tissue paper to the crown. 

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They were so colorful and some kids made more than one! 

Callie showing off her crown. Excuse the blood coming out of her nose, but that's Callie! Smacked her face into the bar on the trampoline!

I kept some fun items for the kids to play with like this hat and glasses. Found them in the dollar bin at Target. 

There were other things I had planned to do but they just didn't happen. I bought a white tablecloth and I was going to have the kids do potato stamping. Also planned to set up a photo background with St. patricks and/or rainbow fabric. But all in all, it was a huge success! The kids all had fun and so did the mamas and papas! 

Last but certainly not least...The Treat Bags

I had a blast ordering goodies from Oriental and Party City for the bags. There were clappers, rainbow sunglasses, head boppers, St. Patrick's activity/crayon packs, beaded necklaces with shamrocks (these also made great pinata filler). I put everything into tie dye bags. And what's more amazing? I actually remembered to pass them out this time!! Unfortunately I did not remember to take a picture of them, but they were super cute! 

So there you have it. Our rainbow party in its entirety!