Scarlett's Rainbow 4th Birthday

I love birthdays! I always have. I think they are a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the individual and make them feel special. So ya, we go all out for bdays!  Scarlett turned 4 on March 9. We started a few weeks before with a birthday chain - it was her favorite thing to do every morning.

A few days before her birthday party we made the cake.  I didn't want to stress about getting it together last minute.  She wanted a Rainbow cake - inside and out!  I used so much food coloring!  Especially the red, red's such a difficult color to make - it look like 3x as much dye.  My arm was sore from all the stirring!

I borrowed my friend Gina's cake tips so I wouldn't have to wash my since star tip between each color.  Scarlett was helpful at mixing (and eating) the frosting.  We have been learning a lot about Rainbows lately.  In fact, at night she requests "three rainbow songs".  I used to sing a rainbow song I learned as a kid, but she has me re-write the lyrics so the colors were in the right order "Mom, Violet goes at the end!" So ya, we sing ROYGBIV.  In fact, Scarlett really loves the color "digoviolet" now.  I finally convinced her that it's "indigo and violet" so now she says violet is her favorite color.  And pink.  And blue.

The day before her party I realized that we had 18 kids coming!!!!  EIGHTEEN!  We invited her Sunbeam class plus all her other friends.  18 kids!  I have always felt that it is more important to include everyone than have hurt feelings.  I am just grateful that we are blessed with so many wonderful friendships!!!  But I was still a little stressed.  I thought that there would be some people who just couldn't make it for whatever reason, but every. single. person came!  How fabulous!  I decided to save her cake for her actual bday and make cupcakes for the party - better for a large group.  I had seen these on Pinterest, and *tender mercy* I bought the stuff for them just in case.  Then Jami and my mom helped me brainstorm some games ideas cause I realized that "free play" with 18 kids would probably turn into "free crazy".

Scarlett woke up the morning of her party and went downstairs. Jake and I heard her looking at all the decorations and talking to herself: "oh wow" "it's so beautiful" haha!

Her bday party was "I Like to Look for Rainbows" (no James, she's not getting baptized.)  She just loves this song and it just seemed to fit (Somewhere Over the Rainbow didn't seem to work as well).

Waiting for people to arrive:

When the kids first arrived we made Rainbow Fruit Kabobs.  I was going to make them ahead of time until it dawned on me that the kids would actually like assembling them.

The real stars of the party were the parents that decided to stay.  The invitations said "Parents Optional" but a few of my friends stayed and I seriously don't know how we could have done it without them!!! I had games planned and I made it so we went go back and forth between rooms.  The adults would hang behind and clean up the mess from one activity and set up the next.  It made all the difference!

Pin the cloud on the Rainbow.  I made the Rainbow out of crepe paper and a glue stick.  You can't really see it, but I was so excited that I realized I had a rainbow shirt - Pink Floyd to the rescue!

Rainbow Walk.  Kind of like a cake walk, but with Rainbows.  We played music and whoever was standing on the Rainbow carpet when it stopped got a Rainbow sticker from Cassondra (PS - I am sooo glad she came!  I haven't seen her in forever since they moved and I love her guts!  I am so jealous of her turquoise hair - and now it's all hot pink!!!  And even though her daughter hasn't seen Scarlett in ages she was giving her hugs and being seriously so sweet!  If you ever need a custom order knit or crochet item - she can make it!  Check out her FB page Unicorn Yarn Shop.)

This game didn't go exactly as planned, the music wasn't working so we had to sing.  Finally Ashley had the brilliant idea - why not use the piano that's right there?  The kids didn't seem to mind, they just liked their Rainbow stickers.

Taste the Rainbow Skittles.  They used straws to vacuum suck the skittles from one cup to another.

Balloon Blowing.  The kids went in the living room where Jake had blown up a huge pile of balloons.   The grabbed one then used their straws to blow them around.  Then they had a little race - there was a lot of cheating from the birthday girl who really wanted to win... we let it slide since, it was her party after all. ;-)

Cake Time.  (side note: Ashley and her sister took the photos and they did such a great job!!)

See our babysitter Abby in the pink hoodie in the back?  She came early to help me set up then she stayed for the party.  She took care of the twirls the whole time and she did a great job!

I love watching little kids "help" their friends blow out the candles!

After the kids ate we opened presents then I turned on the Rainbow episode of Bubble Guppies while the parents arrived.  Scarlett was exhausted toward the end.  She woke up super early and was SO EXCITED all day that her energy ran out - about half way through opening presents haha!

Things went so smoothly and the kids were really fantastic and well behaved!  It has been such cold weather that I think the kids were grateful to get out and do something.  Jake and I both kept saying that night how fun it was and how much less stress it turned out to be than we thought!  I really do think we are blessed with framily (friends+family) out here in Michigan.  I

The Furness's stayed for dinner that night.  Ashley's sister and her little girl were in town visiting, so the evening turned into a little girl tu-tu dance party!

And we all loved on baby Farrah!!!  Nice to get our newborn baby fix - then send her home with her mom while we slept soundly!  

The next day (Sunday) Scarlett enjoyed playing with her new toys - especially the lite brite (way cooler than when I was a kid).  I showed her how to use the prism we got her to refract the light and make a rainbow on the wall. 

Ribbon and Coco made a special appearance the morning of her birthday.  I woke up to Scarlett yelling "Mom!  I can't get out of my room!"  I got up just in time to see her army crawling under the streamers.  haha! 

Scarlett was so excited it was her actual bday, the twirls were extra sweet to her too:

We got to video chat with Grandma & Grandpa Glauser - in Russia!  Then Kaylie and Amber came over for lunch.

Scarlett got to open one present - a fish tank!  Then my friend Emily came over while the twirls took a nap so I could take Scarlett out on a bday adventure.

We went to the pet store and bought her a fish for her new tank.

Then we went next door to Claires and Old Navy to look around.  I bought her some Rainbow Jewelry.

We put together the tank. Scarlett picked out the decorations - she even found a Rainbow for it!  She decided to name her fish "Rainbow Dash" like the pony.  Technically the Betta is a boy, but Scarlett's decided to raise her as a girl.  So ya, the fish is pretty confused.

The twirls LOVE the fish!

Scarlett is very responsible.  She asks me every morning "today do I feed my fish?" I finally had to make a chart (the pet store told us to only feed her Mon/Wed/Fri).  One day Scarlett told me "see my fish isn't dead cause I'm taking good care of her."  Which is true.  In fact, I learned - as we were paying for it, mind you - that Bettas can live up to a few years!!!  I was sure that it was only going to be a few months!  Before we bought the tank, Jake made me ask the Sawayas if they would watch it while we were on vacation - he didn't want to go into this without a game plan!

Scarlett finally got to have her cake and eat it too!

These candles are sparklers.  They were so much fun that we kept relighting them over and over!

Rainbow on the inside!

Facetiming the Daniels.

 Rainbow toes.

Opening presents (with the Seaver's).

Trying out her new goggles from Kaylie while Facetiming James and Hailey.  Thank goodness for technology!!!  We also got to Facetime Parker and got phone calls, emails, and texts from cousins and friends.  Thanks everyone for the love and support!

Right before bed she got to stay up and help mom and dad assemble her new solar system.  I think it was a very happy birthday for our sweet Miss Scarlett!