The Rainbow Party

Rainbow was the name of the game this year.

And to be honest, I had so much fun planning and decorating for this party! I was able to tap back into my 6 year old self and remember how much fun rainbow colors are. I will say though how much I MISS TARGET!!! Trying to find simple things for this party turned out to be very difficult since I just don't know the stores very well. I carted Jonas around with me all over town until I gathered enough of what I wanted and decided that other things were just not important.

Clara decided she wanted a party at home which meant we were able to invite all of the girls in her school class plus some good friends from outside of school. She was sad that Leah and Rhys couldn't come though!!

Here is our attempt at a balloon archway. I have some mothers guilt over not ever letting Clara play with balloons since Jonas is allergic to them. As a result, I had fun buying mylar balloons in rainbow colors for her party. When I got home from an outing the morning of the party, Devin had put this together. It was so perfect - except one little thing - the balloons were not in the rainbow order I had envisioned. So after a good eye roll, he rearranged them for me.

When the girls arrived, they decorated their goodie bags using colorful craft items and some of my older stamps and ink. While doing so, they were able to guess how many skittles were in the jar.

Then it was on to Rainbow musical chairs - but without the chairs. Instead we used different colored paper and called out a different color when the music stopped.

Next was the barnyard animal game that didn't go over as well as I had hoped. They were divided into teams and supposed to use an animal noise to call the team captain over when they found a Laffy Taffy in the garden. Instead I heard names being called and I was constantly reminding them to "snort like a pig" or "neigh like a horse" - I gave up and let them collect the candy however they chose.

After this game, it was time for some food. The day was beautiful so we thankfully ate outside on the grass. Good thing since I had a variety of colorful Kool-Aid that wouldn't have matched well with our white carpeting.

Devin had planned an elaborate scavenger hunt next that took them through the house and back outside. Here they are reading the first clue.

At the end they found the pot of gold (or rainbow treasures).

Certain birthday traditions differ here in England. One I really like is that the birthday child waits until after the party, once everyone has left, to open her presents. One tradition I don't really like is that they don't eat the cake at the party, instead they wrap it up in a napkin to take home. Gross smooshed cake in my opinion.

So we varied from tradition partly and had them eat cake and ice cream while here. The candles wouldn't light since it was breezy so Clara only got to blow out one candle - but she seemed happy enough.

Lastly, we had to have our birthday pinata. I couldn't find the pull-the-string kind I prefer, so thankfully the scaffolding on the back of the house actually came in handy. After multiple turns, the pinata just wouldn't break so finally Devin had to tear it apart since parents were already here to collect their children.

The head of the pinata became the new game, as pictured here.

To try and stick with tradition, we did send home each child with a cup of rainbow jello (minus the blue) which Devin lovingly stayed up way too late creating the night before.

I think everyone had fun. Clara said she loved all of it (except for the scavenger hunt). Three hours later, the house was cleaned up, presents had been opened and Clara had enjoyed a very successful birthday weekend.

And this is my favorite picture of the day...