The Adventures of Grace, Ella and Sutton: October 2011

We celebrated Grace's 6th birthday with a rainbow art party, and it was so much fun! She's very interested in art right now--painting, drawing, coloring, etc. So, I took that initial cue and turned it into something cute and fun for Grace and her friends.

The invites set the theme for the whole party, and I loved incorporating the rainbow colors into all the decorations.

Grace's guest book this year was Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and I'm happy that she continues to build her birthday book library.

We had 25 guests (all girls), and we started the party with a watercolor lesson from sweet cousin Alexa. Here is the "studio" before the guests arrived--each placesetting held a canvas, painbrush and personalized apron, and the tables were stocked with palettes full of liquid watercolors and bowls of water for cleaning the brushes.

Here is the studio during the lesson...

Alexa was so cute and patient with the girls, and it was so neat to see their different rainbows.

After we cleared the tables and cleaned up a bit, it was time for lunch--Pot of Gold juice (aka white grape juice), water (complete with fun wrappers), rainbow goldfish, rainbow fruit kabobs and veggie cups, cloud sandwiches, Skittles and cotton candy clouds. Delish!

The biggest hit of the party was definitely the cake. It looked so inconspicuous, and I didn't tell Grace about the surprise inside.

It is so hard to believe that she blew out SIX candles!

And now for the big reveal....

A rainbow party wouldn't be complete without a rainbow cake! I completely enjoyed making this, and it was so worth the effort. Grace was thrilled, and the entire room collectively gasped when they saw the inside. One little girl said it was the best cake she'd ever had :)

I made cupcakes as a backup plan in the event the rainbow cake didn't turn out. Luckily, everything was fine, but we ended up needing the cupcakes because the girls devoured the entire cake!

Grace had a fabulous time, and I think her friends did, too. I loved putting this party together!

Sources

Printables (invites, banner, signs, cupcake toppers and wrappers, labels): Three Little Monkeys Studio

Canvases and palettes: Michael's

Brushes: Amazon

Aprons: Amazon

Watercolors: Blick Art Supplies

Straws: Sweet Shop Lulu

Rainbow ribbon: JoAnn's

Favors: Bubbles from Dollar Tree and Lollipops from Amazon

This little guy wasn't interested in painting with the girls--which is probably a good thing. He did, however, enjoy all the sweets...

We waited until after the party to open gifts--first from family, then we took a break for our second Christmas card photo shoot (which was necessitated by Sutton's lack of cooperation during the first session), and we ended that evening. Grace certainly has generous friends and family--I hope they don't mind waiting a couple of weeks for their thank you notes!