A Fun Rainbow Party

As I have been perusing blogs and websites over the last few months, I have noticed rainbows everywhere…on food, craft projects, bookshelves, parties. Rainbows are really in right now…I wish I still had my cool stretchy rainbow belt from sixth grade! So, I had been saving rainbow ideas until I had no more room to save and I decided I needed to have a rainbow party. I picked a time when my sweet lawyer husband and most of the other guys I know would be here, and I planned a mother-daughter rainbow party for a few of my favorite mother-daughter combinations. Here’s how it went down:

1. Invites

I made some DIY paint chip invitations, with the help of my favorite “project girl.” We asked each mother-daughter group to dress in a specific color and bring a treat to share in the same color. We had two groups bring their grandmas, and one mother-daughter group brought their five new foster children.

2. Decorations

I used ideas I had gathered from other blogs and came up with a few of my own. I also stuck with the 6 classic rainbow colors, and used a lot of stripes. Here are some of my favorite decorations:

-Pretty primroses in goblets with paint chip signs to show where food should be placed.
-Plastic tablecloths cut into strips and used everywhere: in the windows, tied around the napkins, as a photo backdrop.
-Hands down my favorite decorations were the mobiles I hung above the buffet area! They are easy to make and very festive. I love them so much, they are still hanging up.

3. Food

I decided to focus on the decorations and have the guests help with the food. I did make some rainbow cupcakes, though. They were a bit time-consuming, but I was so happy with the results! I peeled off the cupcake wrappers and then topped them with a cloud of whipped cream. Here is some of the other fun food we had:

red—licorice
orange—peppers & dip, butterscotch candies, oranges, cupcakes
yellow—pineapple, banana shish kabobs, lemon cupcakes
green—limeade
blue—blue chips & salsa, blueberry-topped cheesecake, lemon-blueberry cupcakes
purple—grapes, purple Peeps

4. Activities

We started with a group photo shoot and individual photos of each mother-daughter group. Then we had a few activity stations set up:

-rainbow headband--I had strips of fabric and elastic ready ahead of time and the guests braided and my sister and I sewed.
-pipe cleaners—I cut the pipe cleaners in half ahead of time and just set them out with some rainbow-colored finger puzzles. The younger girls seemed to really like this and they made lots of flowers and bracelets. Halle made a super cool horse-drawn carriage.
-DIY cards—I set out crayons and white paper for everyone to write a note of appreciation to the great men in their lives who were at a church meeting while we were partying.
-Lots of talking, eating, and laughing.

5. Party favors

Everyone went home with a headband or two, a pipe-cleaner sculpture or two, and some cards. I am planning to print some fun photo collages at Costco to hand out to the guests.

If you want to host your own rainbow-themed party, I will share my favorite inspiration and instruction sites…

Inspiration: here, here, here, and here
DIY Paint Chip Invitations: here
Rainbow mobiles: here (note: I used a crystal gem instead of fish weights at the bottom of my mobiles)
Rainbow cupcakes: here
Rainbow headbands: here

…and here are some other ideas if you don’t run out of time, energy, and money like I did.

Rainbow Stuffed French Toast: here
Mosaic jello: here
Incredible rainbow streamers: here (I might have to have another rainbow party so I can make these!)

Now that I have rainbows out of my system for a while, it is time to move on to my next obsession…pale gray walls!