my little pony party

We had Jillian's friends over yesterday to celebrate her 4th birthday! We went with a My Little Pony theme (which wouldn't have been my first pick, but you know, not my birthday!). But seriously, what happened to My Little Pony? Japanese animators got a hold of them or something and ..*shudder*.. I digress. BIRTHDAY PARTY!

My favorite part of the party was the giant rainbow pom! So cheap and easy to do!

I made a giant 4 from cardboard boxes, spray painted it silver then covered it in glitter. Now my backyard looks like a herd of unicorns flew over and had some serious diarrhea. Or something. But it made for cute porch decor!

  

Jillian was really excited to help me set up for the party. This was the first time I've done a designated kids table, so she loved setting everything out for her and her friends! I mean I did go behind her and straighten it all up, but you know. ;-) 

The centerpieces were another cheap DIY. The white metal buckets were from Target and I printed out the clip art, cut it out and hot glued a small wooden dowel between the two pieces and stuck it in some tissue paper. 

Rainbow color all the thiiiiiings!

It turns out shopping for rainbow party decor is pretty easy because you don't have to hunt down specific shades of anything. Except when the party store is OUT of one color- like the sodas. They were out of the blueberry flavor and my OCD was (and still is looking at this picture) off the charts annoyed. But then I couldn't just buy another brand because the labels wouldn't match...you know? Someone else out there totally understands this. 

This was my first time ever making a birthday cake. I usually spring for cupcakes or some other dessert entirely, but if you're throwing a rainbow party, rainbow sprinkles have to happen somewhere. So my goal wasn't so much to look like a professional cake as it was to just be yummy and keep the thing upright and not sliding off the table. Mission accomplished! I thought it turned out decent enough. Safe to say I won't be joining the Cake Boss crew anytime soon though. 

For a more unique party hat, I used printable photo booth props and instead of putting it on a dowel, I hot glued elastic to each end and wah-lah. The boys weren't super into that though, as you may have guessed.

^Don't be fooled about her accurate tail placement, she totally cheated.

Ponies catching on fire when James lit the candles was a legitimate concern. Fortunately they're all still alive to tell about it.

I loved the way she was looking at her cake when we were singing to her, like it was all so magical. Little kids are the best. I can totally do magic, and glitter, and rainbow sprinkles. Just stay little forever, k? 

(Because I'm secretly terrified of the teenage years).

Look at that cake standing there all in one piece! YAY! Seriously though...I did a practice run earlier in the week and it was a disaster. So I watched several Youtube videos on how to stack a cake and fortunately it all stayed in place. Thanks Youtube! The top was lemon cake with swiss meringue buttercream (seriously my new go to frosting- so delicious!) and the bottom was chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. What it lacked in stability it made up for in taste!

^In this picture Olivia had fruit on her tray, but saw the cake and was insistently pointing at it saying "ccoooookieeeee!" Cake > fruit, every time.

It was a great day and the kids all had a blast! 

Now to try to get rid of the glitter all over everywhere...