Goodness, I really can’t believe it’s already September. I guess that’s what a trip to the beach, two birthdays (hubby’s and our oldest’s), two first days of school (big kids and the Mace), an eighth birthday bash, a week of painting kitchen cabinets, and a visit from my parents and sisters will do to a month—August just flew right on by. I’ve got loads of things to share (photos of most of those items in the last sentence are sitting impatiently on my hard drive as I type), so I thought I’d start sort of chronologically and go from there. Makes sense, right? No? Too bad.

Anyway, Bailey turned eight! On August 13! We swap years of doing family birthdays and friend birthdays, and this is the friend year for both of my older girls. Natalie decided last minute to take a friend to Chuck E. Cheese (and meet up with eight cousins) instead of having a party at home, so all my plans for a backyard beach party went by the wayside, but Bailey was unwavering in her determination to have a friend party. We settled (after AGONIZING) on a rainbow/art theme and picked a date, only to realize that the Saturday before school started was when most of her school friends went on a last hurrah family outing. Thank goodness for local cousins and the few friends who could make it! Bailey had seen me browsing through another blogger’s post about her daughter’s art party and wanted to replicate it exactly. I don’t have many original ideas in this post, just lots of fun for us.

So, rainbows=super easy decorations, food, favors, and activities.

Following Design Mom’s instructions, I made the rainbow balloon arch the evening before and enlisted my mother-in-law’s help to make the rainbow flowers. I had aprons for each girl to wear and take home (we were painting, after all!) and I embellished those with a rainbow I ironed on with fusible webbing then topstitched down.

I also made a poster from eighteen25’s subway art birthday printable for the food table—rainbow colored food was so easy to prep ahead of time and just pour into my white serving dishes—watermelon, cheese cubes, bananas, cucumber, blueberries, and grapes. Piece of cake.

The cake, on the other hand, was not quite as simple—six rainbow-colored layers stacked together with white frosting and Skittles embellishments. I followed Cassie of Hi Sugarplum!’s tip of freezing the layers before stacking, which made it a little more simple to get nice and straight. Then when I was frosting I did a thin crumb layer (lightly frost the whole cake and don’t worry about getting cake crumbs in the frosting) then chilled it overnight. The next morning I put on a thick coat of frosting over the top of the crumb layer and the exterior was nearly perfect. A rainbow of Skittles later and it was done! The candles I picked up at Target that had different colored flames were a big bonus, too.

Of course, now I’m a bit ahead of myself. To welcome each girl, we set up a little rainbow makeover station on our entry desk. Rainbow decorations on their cheeks and a colorful hair accessory and the girls were all set. Bailey and Natalie were eagerly anticipating friends and cousins arrivals—aren’t my girls adorable?

Next up was the “art” portion on the rainbow/art party—the guests donned their aprons and painted a ceramic treat figurine (purchased in sets of 6 at Hobby Lobby) and a canvas for their rooms.

And here is a peek at the finished art—isn’t it lovely?

(Clearly we held the party before I decided once and for all to paint my cabinets.)

I loved seeing the different ways each of the girls painted their projects. Naturally there was some, ahem, inspiration going on at the art tables, but I think they all turned out lovely. Later this week I’ll show you where we hung our party art.

To say thanks and goodbye, we had a little candy bar set up at the end of the party. I gathered assorted glass vessels I had on hand to keep it simple and helped the girls each fill a goody bag to take home.

Mmmm, those orange slices are looking mighty tasty right about now.

What do you think? Does the birthday girl look happy?

Another successful party down! Now I’m off-duty until Macie turns 4 next May and has her very first friend party. That gives me six good months to relax, right? Right?