Here's what we did....
INVITATION:
I always design my own invites and just have them printed at Walgreens to keep costs down (I make them in a standard size...5x7). I wanted something that reflected the rainbow theme, but was also just simple with a fun little saying on it. Here's what we ended up with:
"As colorful as a RAINBOW from her head to her toes...
Let's celebrate the 6th birthday of our sweet Ally Rose!"
CAKE:
I absolutely LOVE making things in mason jars and have tried many recipes in the past, so when I stumbled across this recipe for Rainbow Cakes in Mason Jars and just HAD to try it!
I will say that like everything else that I bake/cook, I tweaked it just a bit. I just used regular food coloring, not the neon ones that they called for, instead of regular sprinkles on top I used rainbow chip crunch sprinkles (I liked the look of these better) and I adjusted the cook time to about 38-40 minutes (it obviously depends on your oven...just cook until a toothpick stuck in the cake comes out clean).
Here are some pics of my process...
(Note: these will sink a bit after they cool)
(What they look like if it scooped out...if someone wants to share :o)
(We served with rainbow serbert...cake is VERY moist)
FOOD:
A rainbow theme has ENDLESS possibilities, so I tried to find a way to encorporate as many "rainbow" themed foods as possible.
RAINBOW LAYERED JELLO
Warning: This was a VERY time consuming task, so make sure you allow at least a FULL day to accomplish this.
My kids, like most, LOVE jello, so I when I was trying to think of some rainbow foods I thought, hey, maybe I could layer up a bunch of different colors of jello? It ended up great, but it took many hours because of the "set up" time.
First, select a flavor of jello in each color of the rainbow. Then, starting with the lowest level first, which would be purple, begin making the jello (using the quick set instructions - that includes adding some ice cubes to cool it down, but make sure that the cubes are completely dissolved before adding to previous layers), letting each color set until firm before adding the next layer. NOTE: this is where patience comes in handy...sometimes I run short of that. LOL
After several hours of chilling and adding...this is the final product! It turned out really cool and the kids LOVED it, so I guess it was all worth it :o)
(There were some bubbles inbetween layers because of the ice and stirring that had to take place to do the quick set)
Some other food items:
RAINBOW FRUIT PLATTER (strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, green grapes, blueberries, purple grapes)
RAINBOW VEGGIE PLATTER (cherry tomatoes, carrots, yellow pepper, broccoli, cauliflower...note, blue & purple veggies that I knew that people would eat was pretty hard to come up with ;o)
(Fruity Pebble treats)
DECOR:
We decided to make our own BALLOON ARCH...which was SO incredibly easy...and inexpensive!
I started by buying this balloon decorating strip from the party store for around $5.
(All you have to do is insert the ends of the balloons into the circles on the strip)
(I had 12 balloons of each color, but you could have as many or as few as you would like)
(The finished product)
MISCELLANEOUS:
I found some M&Ms BY COLOR at our local party store, so thought that would make a fun and yummy addition to the party!
PINATA'S are ALWAYS a good time! I found this great rainbow butterfly that went just perfectly with the theme
RESULT:
When it was all said and done, I feel that we achieved the RAINBOW theme that we were going for...and most importantly, we ended up with one VERY happy little birthday girl! :o)
