The Rainbow Party...

Many thanks to all of your well wishes for Little Flower as she turned 4! Her birthday weekend was full of fun, and thankfully, everything went smoothly and she is happy as can be.

The festivities began on Thursday, her actual birthday, when we brought rainbow cookies to pre-school.

These were very well received and not terribly fussy, if you enjoy baking.

Sugar cookie dough, divided equally into six parts, dyed with gel food colouring, rolled out into rectangles, stacked, cut, baked, eaten! 

I made a few big rainbow arcs for her birthday cupcakes, which the four of us enjoyed that evening.

You'll remember these from my last post, but I wanted to show a closer image from above - I piped on the buttercream frosting in big cloud-like dollops, then dusted them with icing sugar for an even cloudier, powdery effect.

And the hidden secret was coloured sprinkles in the batter, for more rainbows inside!

On Friday I started to prep for Saturday's birthday party. Let me tell you, this was definitely one of funnest parties we've ever had. Nothing is cheerier than rainbows! The weather was miserable and grey, but I was pottering away inside with the brightest, sunniest decorations and baking ever! 

The rainbow theme is so versatile, it can suit any age, many occasions, and the sky is the limit with the creative elements...

We had a total of five party goers, including the birthday girl. I find a bunch of helium balloons has such a big impact on a room, the atmosphere is suddenly more festive, even if there aren't many more decorations. And each child can take one home at the end of the party. The console table behind the sofa was turned into a snack buffet, with swathes of rainbow organza fastened on and covered with a rainbow feather boa (which now resides in the dressing-up box, though I am so tempted to wear it on the school run...). 

The snack buffet included the rainbow cookies, some rainbow-coloured cracker snacks, and a rainbow fruit platter.

Loads of colourful fruits, and marshmallow clouds!

I bought the rainbow decoration and made a "Pin the Cloud on the Rainbow" game (I'm stitching something to fill that gap on the wall, btw...).

They had a mini-disco in the sitting room, then it was time for lunch.

This is the kitchen table before it was laden with lunch, juice and children! I had 10 pom poms total, the other four were hung in the sitting room windows (and one went home with each child). I am really, really reluctant to take these down! 

I'm sure you saw this coming...rainbow vegetable platter, complete with purple-sprouting broccoli and mozzarella-ball clouds!

Then it was time for cake...

Thank you for the personalized cake bunting, Jooles! 

I am rubbish at slicing cake, but you get the idea...

We ended with a treasure hunt around the house, with cloud clues eventually leading the little ones to the girls' bathroom: 

Bunny listened to the clue from upstairs and turned on the shower on cue to make the "rain".

And at the end of the rainbow:

A pot of gold! (Well, gold chocolate coins, rainbow chocolate coins, goodie bags full of rainbow-themed sweets and treats, all nestled on "cloud" toy stuffing!)

I had as much fun at this party as the kids! If you've made it this far, thank you for reading, and I hope this brightened some of the grey skies around the UK this weekend!

Chrissie x

PS Please feel free to link up your Stitching Sundays projects - I'll be posting about mine after I clear up all this party stuff...