Easy Rainbow Birthday Party Theme

So I'm about a year late blogging Kyn's 4th birthday party, but better late than never, right? Kyn wanted to have a birthday party for her 4th birthday and I didn't want to plan one. I was pregnant, uncomfortable, tired, stressed with my job, and a bunch of other stuff going on. She wanted to have a few friends over and I just didn't have the energy to plan a huge party. 

I took the advice of my Mom. She reminded me that all parties don't have to be like the ones found on Pinterest and kids enjoy simple things. I swear I make things way more complicated than they need to be. 

Kyn was obsessed with rainbows at the time and asked for a rainbow birthday party. Unlike her 3rd Brave birthday party, this would be much simpler. Honestly, I have to remind myself that most of the amazing birthday parties that I love reading about have a huge staff of people to pull them off: cooks, bakers, decorators, professional photographers, etc. And not that I don't love planning birthday parties, but sometimes I just need simple. I am not super mom and I'm okay admitting that. 

The party was SO fun! It was fun and easy to plan, I bought most of the decorations from the dollar store, and the kids had a ball. I appreciate that children enjoy simple things. This party was a blast and the kids had so much fun. I literally planned and executed everything in a day and it was all last minute. She got fun gift and we all enjoyed our friends and family that came to wish her a happy birthday. My baby is getting so big. Where does the time even go? 

Here's what we did:

The decor: I went to the dollar store and went to the party section and bought plastic rectangle table coverings in all of the rainbow colors. I bought a package of balloons and made a little bouquet of them for the top of the backdrop. I taped all of the table coverings to the wall and then let them swoop down and secured them to the floor. I placed the balloon bouquet at the top and placed a "Happy Birthday" banner underneath the balloons. I bought a birthday balloon table covering for the main table and accented with balloons of all colors. 

The cake: Kyn really wanted a rainbow cake just like her 3rd birthday. As a surprise I made a pinata cake filled full of skittles. I got the idea from this YouTube video. The concept is really simple: you make 3 round cakes. The middle layer you cut out a hole, fill full of skittles, M&Ms, etc., place the top layer and frost. I decorated the top with Skittles and made a rainbow. I used marshmallows for the clouds. It was so fun to cut into it and Kyn's face when all the candy fell out. :) I made a marbled rainbow cake and the kids loved it. I used the concept from Hub Pages. I loved how colorful in turned out! The marbled cake takes time to do, so if you are in a pinch, you could do 3 different colors and it would still tie into the theme. 

I also make rainbow cupcakes using this idea. They turned out super cute and were perfect for one of the planned activities. 

The activities: We let the kids make Fruit Loop necklaces. We had several bowls of cereal on the table and pieces of yarn cut ahead of time for each guest. Smaller kids sometimes have a difficult time stringing the Fruit Loops so we made sure to put a piece of tape at each end.

The second activity that we did was let the kids decorate the rainbow cupcakes. We had all sorts of rainbow colored candies: Skittles, M&Ms, sprinkles, rainbow Twizzlers, marshmallows, Pixie Sticks, Gummy Starbursts, and SweetTarts. If you have a bulk store in your area (I LOVE Winco) you can probably find all sorts of fun colored candies for decorating with. We made each of the kids a little bag with candy so that it was easier for them to decorate and helped control the candy chaos. I used the leftover frosting from the cake and we let the kids go to town. I think more candy ended up in their bellies than on the cupcakes, but hey, that's what parties are for! 

The favors: I bought the rainbow Twizzler licorice, marshmallows, and snack-sized zip baggies. I put some licorice in the bag in the shape of a rainbow and put marshmallows for the clouds. I stapled a cloud with each guest's name on it in rainbow colors. This was a really fast and simple "thank you" for each guest that came. I loved personalizing them, too. 

Kyn had so much fun with her friends and family. She got an Anna doll, a Hello Kitty spa set, some movies and a bunch of fun toys.