Sylvi's Rainbow & Unicorn themed 4th Birthday Party
*This Blog Post has been updated w/ helpful links for party supplies as of 2019
I can’t believe another year has come and gone and my oldest is now 4…time really does fly! And I feel it flying faster ever since I started having kids. I ABSOLUTELY love everything having to do with kiddie parties and celebrations! Having a boy and a girl, I definitely get to play around with different themes and ideas, and love a fun challenge.
For my daughter’s 3rd birthday last year and since my son was turning 2 (and knew all about Disney from his older sister and school), we decided to take them to Disney World for the first time. It was also my 1st time going with my husband and as a family…it was wonderful!!! I’m soo happy we waited for both of them to understand and appreciate the trip. It was a total blast and the kids were troopers. My husband and I felt like kids ourselves. It really is the “Happiest Place on Earth”!
Being that my kids have been in school since I went back to work after both pregnancies and that we went to Disney last year, I thought it would be fun to have a birthday party at home where she could celebrate with some of her friends and classmates. Boy, was she happy!!! I have a group of close girlfriends, in which most of us already have 2 kids each, so that list of “friends” grows pretty quickly. I told my daughter, Sylvi, she could invite 5 friends from school and right away she named them. It amazes me how at such a young age, they have their “best friends” at school…too cute!
I started thinking about a theme or character she likes, but she likes everything from Mickey to dinosaurs, so the possibilities were endless. Whenever I envision kid parties, I always picture lots of color. Kids are happy and bright and full of energy. I started thinking about how she’s been drawing a lot of rainbows lately and how “Santa” brought her a pink unicorn that she loved…bam! I told her, “Sylvi, would you like a rainbow and unicorns party?”…she got soo excited and started saying that she wanted a “big” rainbow cake and began saying all of the colors. She also started drawing even more pictures of rainbows over the next couple of weeks that soon took over my fridge. I knew I had picked a winner!
Right away, I started a private Pinterest board and began searching for ideas for Sylvi’s party. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money since it was an “in-between” birthday, but I wanted the house and yard to be colorful and full of fun for all of the kids. My top picks and focal points for the party were:
lots of color around the house and yard through balloons, flowers and tablecloths
“pot of gold” giveaways
rainbow made out of crepe paper throughout the house leading to the backyard
rainbow backdrop for the cake made out of plastic tablecloths and balloons
“pony tail braids” made out of yarn for all of the girls to wear
“big” rainbow cake (as per Sylvi’s request)
I decided I didn’t want the traditional rainbow colors, but preferred the brighter tones with lots of pink. I absolutely LOVE balloons! They are fun, colorful and depending on what and how many you buy, they can add a lot of depth and are always a great filler. A girlfriend told me about this AMAZING balloon site a couple years ago (www.bargainballoons.com) and I have been buying there since. Right away, I went to the site above to see what I could find. Knowing my color scheme and depending on what balloons I could find were key to setting the tone for the party. I found these huge unicorn heads (which has gone down recently in price on Amazon) and rainbow balloons, along with all different color stars and a big number 4 in hot pink. Let’s just say that I paid a small fraction to what I would’ve paid if I would’ve bought them at Party City or Etsy, not to mention, I’ve never seen these balloons in store.
Disclaimer**
I’ve ALWAYS rented helium tanks from Party City since I buy balloons online rather than in the store. I called almost every store in my COUNTY and they only rent the jumbo size for $99, as of a few months ago!!! They basically want you to buy the smaller one-time use tanks that are $40. I was so upset and decided to buy the small tank. Long story short, I ended up buying 2 small tanks and it still wasn’t enough. The $99 sounds crazy, but considering that one of my big balloons costs on average $10 alone and I didn’t even spend 4x that for all of the balloons I bought (including shipping), the $99 jumbo tank would’ve been a better deal! Oh well, next time! I will also be sure to ask around other party places just in case they rent the medium size tanks.
Sticking to my budget, I checked out Party City, Dollar Tree, Michaels, Target and Walmart to compare what they had within my bright-colored color scheme. I found the bright plastic tablecloths, plates, napkins, utensils, clear goody bags and weighted balloons at Walmart. All for $.97 apiece! At Walmart, I also found sets of 6 big rainbow bubble wands for less than $4. I bought a couple sets for the tables so the kids could play with. At the Dollar Tree, I found all of my bright-colored serving bowls and trays, bubble machine liquid and some big rainbow-like pinwheels I placed throughout the yard and the mini terra cotta pots and paint brushes I used for the giveaway. At Party City, I bought a great bubble maker (total investment for me since I know I will reuse), bright-colored crepe paper and a small bag of white balloons. At Target, I bought 2 Happy Birthday banner in the colors I was using and found these cute rainbow star wands that I ended up for the powdered donuts. At Michaels, I bought different colored yarn, black acrylic paint, modge podge and gold glitter with multiple coupons I was able to use. Now that I had bought everything I needed, I also checked my personal “party inventory” box I have for a couple other items: bright colored fake flowers, mason jars and chalkboards.
In the weeks leading up the party, my hubby and I really tended to our yard. This was going to be the backdrop of our party so I wanted it to look extra special. We bought and planted new ferns, shrubs and flowers and I found some great tiered planters at Big Lots for cheap!! I also found a lot of outdoor clay pots online from a local fb page of people who buy and sell any and everything that’s still in great shape and for a great price. Total win-win! As the party approached, the first thing I worked on were the “pot of gold” giveaways. This was super fun and EXTREMELY EASY to make..and inexpensive! Once I had the final headcount, I made sure I had enough mini pots. The Dollar Tree sold them in sets of 2, so basically $.50 a pot. I laid out an open trash bag over the dining room table along with all of the materials. I broke up this mini project into 3 days:
Day 1 – paint the pots
Day 2 – modge podge & glitter
Day 3 – fill & wrap
My sweet hubby helped me, and it really didn’t take long at all. It took less than an hour to paint 32 pots, which only needed one coat. Same went for the modge podge and glitter, less than hour. For the day that I planned to fill and wrap, I made the labels with Word, printed them on cardstock and punched holes, while at work (on my lunch break..lol). That same night, I filled each pot with a sheet of colored tissue paper and covered the tops with Rolos chocolates. I put the pots in the clear goody bags and then cut multiple sets of ribbon to wrap and tie the labels. The ribbon cutting and curling took the longest, but made the difference and totally tied the rainbow theme together. The end result was adorable! For the day of the party I set up the “pots of gold” on a real tiered flower planter by the door as they “reached the end of the rainbow” and exited the party.
A couple days before the party, I made the crepe paper rainbow throughout the house and 2 crepe paper streamers. One went into the hallway to the bathroom and the other was for in front of our master bedroom. For the rainbow throughout the house, you will need a ladder, masking tape and someone to help you. I saw this hack on Pinterest and it really saved a lot of time. The only thing I did differently was secure the row of paper with another piece of masking tape. I also didn’t use a lot of rows of color for this part. I did that for the door streamers. This took less than an hour and was a lot easier than I thought it would be. You just have to be patient when you unroll the paper and put each roll down and go to the next because it’s a continuous flow of each color. We only had to move the ladder once when we were at each row of color.
For the rainbow backdrop, try to have someone help you. It goes by faster with help. Again, this also did not take an hour. My sister and I laid out the plastic tablecloths on the floor. We folded the ends over and secured with tape to be safe. We then began bunching up each color (back and forth) as my sister took a needle and some twine through each colored tablecloth. We then hammered in a nail to each side of the wall, hung it up and voilà! We blew up 20 white balloons. Every 2 balloons, we would tie the ends together and then again at 4 balloons. We made five groups of the 4 balloons. Once we were done, we tied some of the same twine to the ends of the grouped balloons and then tied it to the string holding up the tablecloths…super easy!!! Also in our “party inventory” box, we had some strands of stars we’ve kept over time and can also be easily made with string and star cutouts.
PRODUCT LINKS BELOW:
I thought it would be really cute if the girls could wear some kind of “pony tail” throughout the party and also be able to take it home. I found some images on Pinterest and totally got inspired. I bought the yarn and hair ties and handed this DIY to my sister since I didn’t have a lot time between work and the kids.
CARO's PROCESS:
After Sylv picked out her four colors (Pink, Blue, Yellow, Rainbow), I grouped strands about 18'' inches long of each color, and about 15 strands of that color. It's best to do that length, because by the time you braid it will lessen to a foot instead. This part takes the longest (shout out to my boyfriend for speeding this process up!) After you have your grouped colors, mix and match three colors of the four. I easily secured them with tiny hair elastics (you can purchase at the dollar store) and began to make different braids. After they are done, grab anywhere from 4-6" inches of yarn and tie in on the top hair ties! It's fast, easy and simple! Sylvi's was extra special with flower accents.
As you can guys have already noticed by now, my sister is extremely talented with many things, especially when it comes to BAKING!!! She has made all of my kid’s birthday party cakes and their baptism cake. It was no doubt who our rainbow baker was going to be. Check out the gorgeous finished product! Sylvi went crazy when she saw it and couldn’t stop showing her friends. It was beautiful and perfect, not to mention delish!
I had about 30 kids rsvp to the party so I knew I needed a little entertainment. I rented a pink castle bounce house and hired a face painter and balloon artist to come at different times. I’ve used them before and they are always a hit! The adults love them too. If you are in the South Florida area, check them out on IG: BalloonExperts. For the food, I kept it simple and fun. I even asked Sylvi what she liked and of course, “Hotdogs!” were the winner. I set up a hotdog bar station with chili and toppings like chopped onion, relish and those crispy picnic chips. I ordered a popcorn chicken nugget platter and a Hawaiian bread sliders platter. I had different dips and chips, a colorful fruit platter and veggie platter. I also passed around mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce and pizza rolls..kiddie food, we adults love! Aside from the cake, I made rice crispy treats that were topped with colorful sprinkes, powdered donuts, “unicorn bark” and “unicorn chex mix” (goldfish, banana chips, pretzel sticks, pastel colored m&ms and marshmallows). I rented the tables, chairs, linens and chaffing dishes.
This party was soo much fun to plan and create and seeing Sylvi soo happy with her friends made it all the more reason to do! I hope you enjoyed the pictures and DIY tutorials. Now, onto planning my son’s 3rd party!
Lots of love,
Sylvia
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