rainbow birthday party

and now, pictures. as promised, the balloon garland + the highly-anticipated rainbow cake!! we celebrated dani's third birthday on a typical grey afternoon in june in vancouver. typical this year, anyhow, ugh. but that's another story.

my sweet kiddos under the balloon garland. colours inspired by my little lady's favourite hues -- she is all about pink + purple + turquoise, as most little girls are. i had to throw in the yellow, to avoid it being too sugary sweet. balloon garland tutorial found on design mom. i was delighted by how super easy + quick it was to make! i also embellished the party hats, following instructions from oh happy day.

[a little aside, do you see the turquoise vinyl table cloth peeking out in the corner there? that is a cloth my mom has had since my siblings + i were kids. it is present in every single one of my childhood birthday party photos. awesome nostalgia. also, i swear my mom is not a hoarder.]

cake, stage one. the night before the party, i baked sixteen mini loaves of cake. yes, sixteen. each one a different hue. four colours, with four shades of each. i was surprisingly excited watching the coloured cakes bake, it was pretty fun! time consuming, but fun.

cake, iced and ready to go. candy-coloured rainbows, of course [i am terrible at drawing with icing. i know, the rainbows just look like a big 'm']. dani didn't know that the cake underneath was a rainbow of colours -- she loved the icing, but was completely enthralled by what was underneath!

cake, after cutting the first layer. i LOVE how this looks! it is so much fun. as long as it took to bake each piece, i will definitely do it again. all of our guests were delighted by it, and it just looks so darned pretty.

my one tip would be to chill the cake for a couple hours right before slicing, to make sure it has a bit more integrity. i didn't have the chance, and you can see we had some crumbles in the middle. i would also recommend not dragging the knife through the centre, but rather slice down and lift straight back up, to avoid smearing the icing between the layers.

cake idea + inspiration came from this photo, which i found via the delightful molly.

all in all, i think the party was a colourful wonderland. a super simple theme that is easy to carry out with everything [favours were also colour coordinated, as were napkins, plates, and drinks.] i'd do it again for sure!

the other thing i learned saturday, i am pretty terrible at taking pictures at a party. these photos are rather awful i think. i don't know, maybe it's that i feel rushed, don't bother taking the time to stage a nice photo, or snap a bunch of pics too quickly? whatever it is, i will try better next time. my apologies for the poorly photo quality of this post. so poor, in fact, that i didn't even edit them, so you are seeing them in all their raw glory. so sorry.