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Thought I’d share few photos from my daughter’s 4th birthday party.  We had decided on doing a rainbow birthday which I was happy about because it could be very simple to pull off and look cute. I prayed a ton for the weather to be nice since we’d have about 14 kids and having them outside running around would be much less stressful than being crammed in our house.  Thankfully, God was gracious and the weather was pretty perfect.  And crazily with the high being 80 that day, the next day it was wet and the high was probably 40.  It seems it is like that every year for my kids’ parties since they are in the spring and fall…one day it is lovely the next it is miserable…some years we get the good day and some years we don’t.  It makes it hard to know how to plan things.

Because we were doing rainbows, Audrey kept mentioning it was a Rainbow Dash party (which is a character from My Little Pony).  So, it morphed into being a pony party too.  I kept that part minimal or pretty non existent for the decorations but the Monday of her party I did see a picture of a child riding a pony on Pinterest and wondered why the idea of renting a pony to ride had never occurred to me.  I think it is because no one in our circle of friends has done that before so it wasn’t even on my radar.  Because it was unusual, it felt a bit indulgent, but really it cost about the same as doing a party at a jump house place which people do all the time around here.  The people we ended up using were great and very professional.  The pony was a little bigger than my original vision but it did allow for some of the older kids to ride which a shetland pony wouldn’t because there is like a 45 pound weight limit..or something like that.  This pony had over 100 pound weight limit. I just wanted something that wouldn’t be too huge and intimidating.  There were quite a few kids who were very scared at first but then loved it and the littlest ones seemed happy to avoid it.  But it was definitely a hit and worth the money.

To make it rainbow-y I hung streamers from the trees in our yard.  Our poor yard is pretty bare in March since everything is just thinking about waking up from winter so this added some nice color and was super easy.  Plus Audrey was able to help me with some lower areas.  We did this 20 minutes before the party started since it was super foggy and damp in the morning.

I had also made 3 of the easiest mobiles to hang from our pergola. I bought 3 embroidery hoops from hobby lobby and then just hung streamers in rainbow order from them.  The two hoops are what held the streamers in place and after the party was over I just pulled them out and can now use the hoops again for something else.  I tied yarn to the hoops and quickly hung them to the top of the pergola.  It was very simple but was very pretty blowing in the breeze.

I also used some foam core I had and drew a big 4 on it and cut it out.  I found tissue paper at The Dollar Tree that came in all the colors of the rainbow.  I cut the pieces in squares but didn’t worry about perfection and then hot glued them on.  Oh, and I figured out how big each stripe should be to make them equal and then measured that out and drew on the board since it would be covered up.  I did get burned a few times from the glue but it was a lot faster than trying to use regular white glue and I worried I wouldn’t have enough of that glue anyway.  I was very happy with how it turned out.  I ended up hanging it by a suction hook from our back window that had the table with presents, favors, and other stuff.

I also found a cute horseshoe game set at Hobby Lobby in their summer section.  It was originally around $6 or $7 but was on sale for 50% off.  All the pieces were different colors so it added to the rainbow and pony aspects!  And since it’s made from plastic I didn’t worry about anyone getting hurt from a rogue horseshoe!

My kids got a trampoline for Christmas and that was actually I think the biggest hit of the party.  The kids loved the pony but would have probably been equally happy just jumping the whole time.  We already had blueish/greenish ball years ago and I bought two more from Walmart for $2.50 each that were nice and big.  There was a yellow one with white polka dots and then a pink and orange one with a chevron pattern.  I threw them all on the trampoline to be bright and cheery while the kids jumped.

I almost forgot about the cake!   I kept it simple and bit of a surprise by buying a mix at the grocery store that had everything you needed to make it.  You could totally do it without it though by using your own food coloring.  I also ended up making two cakes so there would be enough for everyone.  I used my bundt cake pan so that when each slice was cut it’d be the shape of a rainbow.  After you make the batter you make six separate bowls of colored batter and then spoon them in one layer at a time.  If you don’t mess with it they stay separate and have nice bright rainbow colors inside.  I just frosted it white on the outside with some candles.  So it was pretty plain until I cut it and wowed everyone.  I had thought of putting one of her plastic ponies on it or next to it but ran out of time and decided it was fine simple.  I tend to mess things up, especially cakes, if I try to do too much.

 

And that was about it.  Some years I’ve gone a bit crazy with all the food options so this year to really try to keep it simple we went with pizza and some fruit.  The fruit was of course laid out in rainbow order of colors.  And somehow I didn’t take a picture of it.  I seem to always have grand plans of taking pictures and enjoying all the moments with everyone there but spend most of the time running around making sure it is all running smoothly.  Oh well, as long as everyone has a good time, then I am happy.  And I did leave out the pictures of all her friends because I hate to put them out on the internet without permission.

Next year’s party will definitely be more low key (or at least no horses). But it was fun making some great memories with the kids.

So, do you do birthday parties for your kids with friends and go all out?  Or maybe just a couple special friends?  Just family?  Have a favorite party that you’ve done in the past?  I’d love to hear!