Sunbeams and Rainbows - 1st Birthday Party

I struggled to come up with a theme for Jelly Bean's 1st birthday party, there were just so many lovely options. With Curious George we did a ball party because he was obsessed with balls but Jelly Bean has never been all that into toys she's more of a social butterfly. One day I was thinking about what a little sunbeam she was and how she makes every one's life brighter with her big smile and that is how the theme came about. In the end the rainbows took over a bit (partially cause I'm not that partial to yellow) but it turned out very well. As usual I made a Pinterst board with ideas which you can see here.

This is my absolute favourite shot of the day.

The outfit

Being a girly party I had to go all out on the outfit. She had a onsie with a sun and rainbow design which I painted a 1 onto. Then I made her a rainbow tutu. She looked super duper cute. I also made her a crown which she refused to keep on her head but she had lots of fun looking through it.

The Cake

As we weren't really going to be having games the cake became the focus. I decided on a cloud cake with a stand-up rainbow and a sun. To make the cloud base I made one round cake and made one flat cake in a rectangular roasting pan. Then I cut circles out of the big flat cake using a cookie cutter. I stacked these pieces in different formations to made the cloud appear 3D on the round base cake. I had watched a Cake Boss episode where they made a cloud effect using butter cream icing, to which I added an idea my cousin gave me to use candy floss (cotton candy) for the cloud as well. A little tip is to only put the candy floss on the cake just before you bring it out as the moisture in the icing destroys the candy floss over time. For the rainbow I decided to make a rainbow shape biscuit which was something my mother had made for me as a child. I then iced the biscuit in rainbow icing. Each colour comes from a tube which goes on thick, does not drip and dries hard. The sun I created out of cardboard which I painted gold.  The final touch was adding the three fairy godmothers (from Sleeping Beauty) which I had kept from JB's baby shower cake.

Blow out your candles Jelly Bean.

Mmm those fairy godmothers look yummy. The bigger kids loved the candy floss.

One of my favourite moments was this one of JB trying the birthday cake. She took one bite and handed it back to me. She certainly knows what she likes and doesn't.

Here mommy you take it.

Come on mommy take it already.

The Decor

I created a gazing umbrella for the little ones to sit under. We put out our big umbrella and draped the under side with coloured organza and balloons. I also made some hanging chandelier streamers out of tissue paper and embroidery rings.

We created a 'gazebo' effect over our front patio with strings of coloured paper lanterns and streamers. In the garden we had bunches of clear balloons stuffed with coloured tissue paper confetti (unfortunately we didn't get a pic of these).

 

The Games

At first I wasn't going to have any extra entertainment for the kids seeing as it was a 1yr old's party. Our garden has a sandpit, swing, slide and ball pond which I thought would be more than enough. But in then I realised that we were going to have a lot of older siblings at the party. So I decided to add a few games for them.

Seeing as the jumping castle was such a hit the week before (and was so cheap) we decided to hire it again. Jelly Bean had an absolute ball because there were fewer 'big' kids this week.

I also put out painting with rainbow paints (thanks to my aunt for bringing these from the preschool). All the kids tried their hand a painting on our big outdoor easel.

Bouncing with great granny (visiting from the USA) cheering JB on and making sure she didn't fall off of course.

 Lastly I created a rainbow pinata. This I made out of cardboard and tissue paper. I added ribbons through the base for each child to pull  it open (instead of hitting it open).

Sparkle confetti and sweeties. Yay.

We made a big number 1 out of photos of JB's first year similar to the one we did for Curious George's party. Everyone had a wonderful time. Thanks to all our friends and family who made it such a special occasion.