Our baby girl turned two on 1 July. To celebrate, we threw a rainbow birthday party. To decorate, we set up a dessert table, giant round balloons and a balloon garland.
The rainbow balloon garland was inspired by Design Mom and was one of my favourite elements of the party. The rainbow garland is still inflated and the children have had hours of fun playing with it since the party.
You can find detailed instructions for creating a balloon garland of your own on Gabrielle's blog.
We also hired a helium tank and inflated giant balloons from Little Sooti in rainbow colours.The giant balloons were a real hit with the children who attended the party.
They're so special that I plan to use them at every celebration we have for the forseeable future.
Inspired by Geronimo!, I tied ribbon, streamers and strings of sequins to the giant balloons. They looked so pretty! The party guests also wore rainbow party hats created from a printable from Alannah Rose.
The initial theme for the party was inspired by pretty rainbow bunting on an invitation from Tiny Prints. I loved that I was able to personalise the invite with a picture of Charlotte and edit and re-edit the invite until I was completely satisfied.
I always like to buy Hunter & Charlotte a special outfit for their birthdays, so Charlotte wore a gorgeous flower crown from Lorie Marie. It's even prettier in person.
She also wore a pink skirt tulle, tights from Seed and silver ballet flats.
No modern party seems complete without a dessert table and with the help of party printables from Alannah Rose, we created rainbow treats for everyone to feast on.
The table included hundreds and thousands milk shots (inspired by this image), vanilla cupcakes with rainbow toppers and marshmallow icecream cones topped with mini M&Ms.
The rainbow jelly cups featured six layers of different flavoured jelly and were by far the biggest hit amongst the children.
The party wasn't complete without a rainbow cake. This cake was inspired by Whisk Kid and One Charming Party's Art Gallery Party and I'm so pleased with the finished result.
The plain cake was decorated with two gold candles and strands of sequins hung around it's edges, suspended from the cluster of helium balloons above.
The reaction of our guests when I cut into the cake certainly made the preparation worthwhile.
Even my mother was impressed with the end result! (I think she secretly held her breath as I cut the first slice.)
Thankfully, guests filled rainbow treat bags from the dessert table before they left, which was a welcome relief - I wasn't sure what I would do with all of the leftover sweets.
The birthday girl had a wonderful day, which made it a great success.
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My fabulous friend, Mel Whelan, took all of the lovely party photographs. (It's so helpful to have someone else capture the day, I highly recommend it.) Thanks a million, Mel!
Wow!!! I love all of the details! Charlotte is one lucky little girl : )
Posted by: Amber | 12 July 2011 at 08:16 AM
You achieved RAINBOW HEAVEN!! One day your little sweetheart is going to look back at some photos and hopefully tell you how completely AWESOME you were to do this for her!
Posted by: Melissa@Julia's Bookbag | 12 July 2011 at 10:05 AM
Oh wow Khali - the dessert table is amazing! With the cake, did you have to convert all the measurements into metric or did you just follow the US measurements as is?
Posted by: Sugarandspice-and-allthingsnice.blogspot.com | 12 July 2011 at 10:54 AM
Wow girl!! Everything looks perfect. So bright and cheerful! Happy Birthday Charlotte!
Posted by: Melinda | 12 July 2011 at 11:01 AM
Oh, goodness. I just love all the details! Beautiful, wonderful job!
Posted by: Anna | 12 July 2011 at 11:12 AM
It looks like a dream!...a really fun and happy one. Great job!
Posted by: Klinkokids | 12 July 2011 at 11:28 AM
Shirleen - I followed the US measurements because I wanted to be as exact as I could. Hope this helps!
Posted by: Khali | 12 July 2011 at 01:02 PM
What a gorgeous party, so happy and bright, and magical.
Posted by: Elizabeth | 12 July 2011 at 01:33 PM
Amazing party! This year I felt like rainbow parties were all over the blogosphere, but you created some incredibly thoughtful details. Those milk shots with colored sprinkle rims? Yesssss.
Very inspiring!
Posted by: Ashlea Walter | 12 July 2011 at 08:23 PM
Wonderful and bright birthday party you hosted! Just lovely!
Posted by: Reagan | 12 July 2011 at 10:20 PM
Gorgeous website! I'll definitely be checking back. My daughter's 2nd birthday is coming up... :)
Posted by: Grace | 12 July 2011 at 11:11 PM
love it!!!
so fun and beautiful
well done
hugs
Betty Bake x
Posted by: Betty Bake | 13 July 2011 at 02:16 AM
i love the sprinkles around the rim of the glasses!!
charlotte looks beautiful in her flower crown ♥ xx
Posted by: lori marie | 13 July 2011 at 04:06 AM
Wow, your creative details are so cute - thanks for the inspiration. =)
Posted by: Kristin | 13 July 2011 at 04:43 AM
The colors and bright and cheery images make this blog the best I've seen. So fresh and so clean! I'm not a mom yet, but a sister to a mom to be, and I found you through Tweed's facebook page about the gift certificate for Mama Moderne (whose animals are meant for cuddling and I want to gift one to my nephew-to-be!). I will definitely be sharing you with all of my mommy girlfriends and my sister! Keep sharing your creativity; it is truly an inspiration!
Posted by: Mariel Heart | 13 July 2011 at 07:23 AM
thanks for the email :) it was such a lovely surprise... if you ever want to collaborate on anything let me know ... ofcourse i couldn't be sure what... food and little kids?
i have a 7 year old daughter :)
you kids are growing so cutely
Betty Bake x
Posted by: Betty Bake | 13 July 2011 at 10:24 PM
Just Amazing, from every little detail. Super impressed with this. My 4 yr old would love this!
Posted by: Jessica Trahan | 14 July 2011 at 02:08 AM
amazing!! the milk glasses are my favorite touch!
Posted by: Tsuki Fox | 14 July 2011 at 07:07 AM
Adore the ribbons on the balloons. I am the sprinkle + milk shot chick:) Astoundingly beautiful + charming party.
Posted by: kristy {the purple pug} | 14 July 2011 at 09:18 AM
oh, how I love. we are planing a rainbow theme for the beginning of August. you blew my ideas out of the water. I think I may have to try some. how did you get the sprinkles to stick to the cups? just water.
love your blog
Posted by: amy | 14 July 2011 at 11:17 PM
This truely was a beautiful 2 year old birthday party. I love the rainbow birthday cake, what a neat surprise when you cut into it. I will keep that cake in mind for my grand daughters next birthday.
Posted by: Ruth Pfeiffer | 15 July 2011 at 01:33 AM
Love everything about this party! The cake is to dye for! :)
Definitely going to try my hand at making the cake! Brilliant!
Posted by: Mary | 15 July 2011 at 07:06 PM
holy amazing! what a beautiful party...thanks for sharing :)
Posted by: sara | 16 July 2011 at 10:37 AM
I went through several blogs on this topic but you one seems to serve my purpose. It is well designed. You maintained the chronological order perfectly. It gives proper guidance about how the reader should approach reading it. The issues presented here are really relevant and contemporary.Hope to witness a lot of new things.
Posted by: baby monitors | 20 July 2011 at 01:30 AM
Please tell me how to get the sprinkles to stick to the glass??
Thanks!
Posted by: Brook | 20 July 2011 at 11:43 AM