Rainbow Birthday Party

Miriam with her guests

When it was time to celebrate Miriam's sixth birthday with her friends, I wondered what theme to go with. Then, I asked her to draw a picture on the invitations we were sending to her friends. She drew a rainbow on each of them and a theme was born! I had a lot of fun coming up with activities and it was a really inexpensive party to put on.

Decorations

I bought crepe paper streamers in every rainbow color I could find and used them to decorate the dining area. We gathered up everything "rainbow" we could find in the house to decorate the mantel. If the girls had been a few years older, we could have played an "I-Spy" or Kim's game (the game of trying to remember all the things you saw) with the items on the mantle: hackie sack, juggling balls, umbrella, kite, badminton birdies, puzzle, flower lei's, quilt, frog decoration, ribbons.

There is no way I was taking my favorite picture down, good thing it's colorful!

 Rainbow Food

skittles, rainbow twizzlers, M-and-M's, colorful paper goods

Miriam's favorite cake (Chocolate Chip) "rainbowed up" with sprinkles and colored sugar

rainbow jello

a few of her guests enjoying the licorice, can you see how many the girl in pink is holding?!

Rainbow Games

When we have a party, I always like to have a good mix of free play time and activities.  In the past, Miriam has gotten really upset when her friends didn't want to do what she wanted to do.  Games have been a good way to bring every one together and soothe hurt feelings.  I usually wait until things aren't going smoothly before calling every one in for a game.  Miriam didn't cry once this time but we still did a few of the games I'd prepared for.

Catch a rainbow:

I bought rainbow spinners from Dollar Tree. I tied a different colored ribbon to the back of each of them. I told the girls that it was their job to reach into a cloud, find their part of the rainbow, and then go capture a rainbow.  The girls were blindfolded and set in front of a bowl of rice. (I'd used Miriam and William as my guinea pigs.  Paper clips were way too hard to find.  Pieces of ribbon were impossible to find.)  They ran the rice through their fingers until they pulled out a coin with a colored sticker on it. I was really pleased that the weather cooperated because I set up a table outside and put the cloud there.  Then any "raindrops" (pieces of rice) that escaped the cloud didn't make a mess inside.  Every girl found a unique color and had to wander around the yard looking for the pinwheel with the attached ribbon that matched their color. They squealed with delight when they found theirs and starting running wild around the yard making them spin.

They looked very festive scattered throughout the yard 

Find the pot of Gold:

I wanted to do a scavenger hunt but knew the girls were too young to read clues. The day before, I went around the yard and took photos of different areas and printed them up. I mounted them on different colored papers so they'd be part of the rainbow. I placed them around the yard before the party started.  I made sure the last clue led them to the "gold".  As they went to each location, they found a photo of where to find the next photo clue. The last clue was on gold colored paper with a photo of the final location.  At that location, I set a basket I spray painted gold with fancy sunglasses inside.  I made sure there were extra sunglasses so the last girl to choose didn't get stuck with the only pair left.  (They were 8 for $2 at Wal-Mart in the party section.)  I had to laugh while they were running around.  One of the girls was far behind the pack but had no idea.  Each time she'd find the photo, she'd excitedly call out, "Guys!  I've found it!  We need to go...."  She never caught on that the other girls had left her in the dust and happily completed the hunt without ever getting discouraged.

 

looking for their next clue

Two games I'd planned but ran out of time for

Walk the Rainbow (think Cake Walk):

I was going to set out colored squares in a circle.  The girls would walk from square to square while listening to Over the Rainbow. I would spin a spinner. If they were on the color the spinner stopped at, the would receive smarties candy (a rainbow in a wrapper). To make it more fun, I made a dice to instruct them how to get from square to square (jump, skip, twirl, backwards, while clapping hands, tip toe)

Rainbow, Rainbow, Gold:

A version of Duck, Duck, Goose substituting Rainbow for Duck and Gold for Goose. The girl who was it would say "Gold!" and drop a beaded necklace over their head. There were enough necklaces for everyone to get one.  I thought this was a perfect way of playing Duck, Duck, Goose because there would be a visual clue for the girls of who'd been picked and who still needed a turn.

Rainbow Craft

At every party, we have has some kind of craft activity.  I didn't want to do the traditional paper plate rainbow cloud combination.  I decided rainbow hand prints would be too messy.  (It's a good thing too because Miriam made those on Friday in her class at school.)  Miriam had really loved her Dollar Store ribbon spinner until it broke and I decided they'd be easy and inexpensive to make. (Mine are much  more durable too!)

I bought dowels and fishing spinners from the Hardware Store. It took three employees at the hardware to figure out how I could pull off what I wanted to do.  Dode attached the hardware ahead of time. The Isaacs, Elizabeth, Dode and I helped the little girls select curly ribbon in assorted colors to attach to their spinner. They helped pull on the ribbon while their buddy held it against a scissor blade to make it curly.

dowel + screw+ fishing swivel=fun and pretty

The Standby's

No activity at our house would be complete without the standby's.......

Jeep Rides

Lawnmower rides

zip line rides

trampoline mayhem

getting dirty

I'm sure her mom was thrilled to get her back in the car!

Miriam had told her friends ahead of time to wear dresses because they'd be dancing at her party.

As the first guests arrived, she brought them into the living room and played the demo songs on the piano while dancing with her friends.  Knowing how dirty kids can get at our house, I'd have told them to wear old play clothes!

The Verdict

Miriam and her friends had a great time.  There were tears when moms came to pick up their children.  I overheard one of the girls tell Miriam, "You have the BEST parties!"   I made sure to label everything I could and a half hour before the party ended, I set everything the girls were taking home on the kitchen counter and tied their swag up with a twist tie.  Each girl brought home their pinwheel, rainbow ribbon wand, silly sunglasses, and a bendy straw.