Evangeline's Rainbow Party!

In honor of Evie's third birthday, we had a fabulous rainbow party!  After some coaxing (she wanted a Tinker Bell party; I promised her a Tinker Bell present instead!) we started researching the rainbow theme, and came up with tons of ideas!  I just love planning parties, and this one was definitely one of my favorites!

The whole idea started with a cake.  I found this cake online and I was just dying to try it!  I was sure mine wouldn't turn out quite so beautifully, but I was willing to give it a shot, especially since I wouldn't need to decorate the outside of the cake. (I love to bake, but I don't have the steadiest hand when it comes to detailed decorations.)

I began by doubling this recipe (it was delicious and easy!).  Then I separated the batter into six bowls and used Wilton concentrated gel food coloring to get those vibrant colors.

I also made cupcakes, just from a box mix (Funfetti, of course)!  To ice 24 cupcakes and a double-sized cake, I made 4 batches of Wilton's buttercream icing.  This is my go-to icing for my kids' birthday cakes, because it is really yummy and colors beautifully!  (I always add a pinch of salt to taste to cut the sweetness just a bit!)

The sugar rainbows on top of the cupcakes came from a local candy shop.  

They were great about helping me out with little touches for the theme, 

and they gave me these at a really good price.  It never hurts to ask for a deal!

Always test your icing bag for air pockets before you start decorating!  

The girls loved eating these little dollops as a pre-party treat!

Grace was bummed that she couldn't eat the batter.  

I always tell them Grandma would be mad at me if I let them eat raw eggs!

The rest of my ideas for the party came from a bunch of different blogs, and a few of my own original ideas.  

My dear friend Alicia helped me make Evie a beautiful rainbow ruffle skirt...ok, she totally made it, I just can't sew at all!

I asked the guests to dress in their favorite color of the rainbow, and most people obliged with a brightly colored shirt.  One excellent family, however, brought the concept to a higher level...

The fabulously rainbowed Harrs.  

  I always do a "Pin the...on the..." game, so we pinned clouds onto a rainbow!  We also played a game with different colored mats on the floor (sheets of foam paper).  The kids chose to stand on a color, I picked a colored candy from a bowl, and whoever was standing on that color won  a prize.  In my experience, you want to have plenty of prizes and quick, easy games that even the youngest friends can play (our kid guests ranged in age from just one to eight!).  We also made a craft, a multi-media rainbow.  Each color was made out of a different medium, including red pom-poms, yellow feathers, etc.  The biggest mistakes were the green pipe cleaners (they just don't glue down well) and purple puff paint (INDELIBLE FABRIC PAINT???  What was I THINKING???), but in all the craft was cute and fun.  We did the craft in shifts, since we had about 15 kids and not quite enough helpers for each kid!  

The food was also, of course, rainbow themed, which was only possible because of the "perfect party time" of 2-4 pm.  People eat lunch before they come and leave in plenty of time for dinner, so snacks and cake is enough!  We had a big rainbow salad, rainbow fruit salad, veggie chips, tortilla chips, and rainbow gold fish!  On the dessert table were mixed rainbow popcorn, rainbow candies, rainbow lollipops, and of course the cake!

Add some balloons, streamers, and a house full of beloved family and friends and we had ourselves a party!  

I have always wanted to try these "Martha Stewart Pom-poms." 

 I wouldn't call them super easy, but practice definitely helped!

This rainbow wreath was a bit time consuming, but fun to make, 

and we might just keep it up as a decoration in the playroom!

I bought these over-sized flowers at JoAnn Fabrics, and stuffed 

the vase with the left-over fabric from Evie's skirt.  (I told you I can't sew!)

Hair accessories courtesy of NoodleKnots!

My beautiful and talented sister Emily did the face painting!

Evie waving to her adoring fans during 'Happy Birthday."

This perfect shot is courtesy of Jessica Barakat.  I want to hire her as my life photographer.  

I was so pleased with the way the cake turned out!  I definitely want to try different variations of this idea!

Our totally gorgeous nephews!

The Aftermath...

I'm so grateful to my generous mother for letting me host this party at her house just a week after we moved in!  Jesse was such a huge help the day of the party, I couldn't have finished everything in time without him!  We are so thankful to God for blessing us with our intensely wonderful Evangeline!

Closing time...

"you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here..."

Tomorrow is our last day in this make-shift home of ours, and I am struck by how truly sad I am about leaving this place. A year ago today we were staying at my mother's house, still reeling from the news of the fire at our home, praising God for the safety of our family and neighbors, and praying for a temporary place to live over the next four to six months while our house was being repaired. Ha...ha...ha. So, now, a year later our house is (hopefully) six weeks from finally being finished, and we are about to move back into my childhood home once again! My parents are being really great, clearing out space and sacrificing their relatively peaceful home to make our young family comfortable and happy. My poor husband is trying to put on a brave face as he plans the next month and a half living with his in-laws. (He loves them, but really, who wants to live with their in-laws?)

But today I am surprised to be sorry to say goodbye to this apartment and the memories we have made here. It isn't home, but we certainly made something out of it. Evie doesn't even remember our house; she wasn't yet two when we left, and she will be three by the time we return. Grace is excited to go back home, but I think a lot of her first memories will be of this place. And of course, our little Adelaide has never known another home. I know she won't remember, but I will never forget my pregnancy that I spent as a bit of a stranger in a new place, from those first weeks when I thought I might lose her (after my miscarriage 2 years ago, early pregnancy spotting shook me to my core back in February), to bringing my sweet new baby home from the hospital. Birthdays and Christmas, laundry and dirty dishes have made this lovely little apartment in Mt. Laurel a place for our little family to weather this storm, to watch our children grow, and to learn about the Lord's great faithfulness to His children.

a few of my favorite memories from the past year~

In anticipation of time...

It has been a lifetime since my last post! As with many things in my life, my enthusiasm for blogging waned as the realities of busyness (and yes, laziness) got in the way. But this Saturday, our family will be moving out of the apartment that we have somewhat reluctantly called home for almost a year, and into my parent's house while our real home is finished being rebuilt. In anticipation of this move, and the free time that I hope living in another woman's home might bring (when I'm not freaking out about keeping my mom's perfect home clean), I decided to start this thing up again!
These past months have been filled with wonderful blessings. Adelaide's birth was a beautiful, rewarding, and of course painful experience. I'll write her birth story in a separate post. Since our littlest girl made her way into the world, we have seen our big girls grow and change in a lot of ways. Gracie is maturing and learning, she loves to read and play and is always using her imagination. I see a tendency in myself to put too much pressure on her as the oldest. I expect much from her, and I need to remind myself that she is still a little girl, growing and finding her way in the world. Evangeline is full of life, totally in love with her baby sister...and pushing every boundary she can find. She is both a joy and a challenge...but I hear that's what this motherhood thing is all about. Adelaide is a constant joy to us all! Her sweet little face makes everyone smile, and she is, as were her sisters before her, a wonderful baby. We love to see her change and grow more every day, but as her mother, I struggle with wanting her to stay small, helpless, and completely dependent on me. As for Jesse and I, we cling to each other and to the Lord as we move into this newest stage in our life. It is hard to imagine that just a little more than 6 years ago we were newlyweds...so much has changed in such a short time! We are older, stronger...weaker too, I think. But in love as ever, with each other, our children, and our God.