a rainbow party {Henry turns 8}

My first baby turned 8 last month. He is a vibrant little boy who loves art and drawing, creating with and wearing bright colors. I found cute chevron rainbow color paper plates at wal-mart (.98!) and the rest of the party was planned from there. I should mention that he called this a "color" party. Rainbow is too girly maybe. So color it was. 

*photo credit: Sara {thank you so much!}

Lots and lots of vibrant color. Just as bright as vibrant as our dear Henry boy. Lots of color bunting, made from tissue paper and string (thank you Sara for this brilliant idea!). I found tissue paper that matched the wal-mart paper plates almost perfectly, cut out the flags and taped the flags to the string. One package of tissue made enough bunting for the entire house. There was a rainbow platter of fruit, sugar cookies frosted in rainbow colors, rainbow party popcorn (a party staple) and the rainbow cake. I first saw this on a blog I read and loved it and have since pinned it and seen it on many pinterest boards. My mom and I talked about the idea and she offered to make the cake. She came a night early for the party and we ended up baking it together. She stacked and frosted (with delicious homemade buttercream) each layer. It turned out even better than I hoped for. {thanks, mama!} It looked so pretty on the cake stand and was super fun to cut into. Each little chevron paper plate of cake was like a slice of the rainbow. So colorful!

My favorite part was having our house filled with family; grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. It was the first party with our entire family that we've had at this house and I loved it. I loved having everyone fill the living room when Henry opened presents, and spilling out onto the patio for lunch. It just feels like home.
********************************************************************************

P.S. To my future self for party planning, please remember that it doesn't have to be extravagant to be special. Simple will be just as special and memorable. And even more so, because when I'm not running lots of extra errands or worrying about cooking up lots of extra things, I'm happier and more relaxed. We made salad and cut fruit for this party, but ordered pizza. I settled on just a simple sugar cookie for the favors and decided that one cake would be fine (we didn't need an ice-cream cake too!). It's all about striking a balance. Finding that happy middle place where the birthday boy feels super special and loved and my creative self finds its way to the hot glue gun and ribbons without going to extremes and feeling overwhelmed. This party felt like a happy balance to me, so I want to remember and remind me!