Mollie's 6th "Rainbow Dash" Birthday Party

Mollie started her own blog yesterday, which motivated me to get caught up on mine. We've already done a lot of fun things this summer, with a lot more fun coming up. Last month, Mollie turned 6, marking the first of our Summer babies birthdays. I don't plan on going "all out" for every birthday, but it had been a few years since she had a themed birthday party, so I tried to make this party really special. She loves "My Little Pony", and especially one pony in particular, Rainbow Dash. A month or two before her birthday, I started a Pinterest board. For some reason I ended up showing it to Mollie, and she started pinning her own ideas to it :D. "Rainbow" is a popular theme, so we had plenty of inspiration.

 

I started off by designing an invitation using PicMonkey, a free photo editing and design website. It's a great (cheap!) alternative to personalized invitations you can buy on Etsy, Shutterfly, etc. To get the Rainbow Dash and rainbow graphics, I Google image searched for png files (for example "free Rainbow Dash png file), saved them to my computer, went to the overlay section in PicMonkey, and used the "Your Own" button to upload them. Here is the finished invitation (with the address and phone number blocked out, but you get the idea :D ).

 

 

I used this recipe and tutorial to make the rainbow cupcakes. I used the buttercream frosting recipe that's also in the tutorial, and it was amazing! I did so much taste-testing that I don't think I can eat any more frosting for a very long time :D The "6" candle was a regular number candle that I decorated with nail polish and stick on jewels. 

Inspired by a new trend on Etsy, I designed this "chalkboard" poster in PicMonkey, and mod-podged it onto a wooden plaque (from Joanns) that I painted.

After making layered jello for Lincoln's 1st birthday last summer, I knew I had to do this layered rainbow jello. It's super super simple, just time consuming. Tutorial found here.

My mom put together these rainbow fruit skewers for me. They didn't last long at the party!

I ordered these rainbow tulle pom-poms from this shop on Etsy. They sell the number sticks too, but I saved money by making my own out of cardstock.

For Mollie's dress, I used this pattern, in fabric from Riley Blake's Rainbows & Unicorns line.

 

 

For birthday parties, we tend to invite just family. I love having so much family close-by and the cousins are truly the kids' best friends.

One of Mollie's birthday presents from us was this "bubblegum" necklace from this shop on Etsy.

For a craft, we made "bubblegum" bracelets with supplies I got at Joanns.

We also had a nail polishing station with every color of the rainbow, as well as glitter body stickers of the Pony's "cutie marks".

 

And last but not least, the piñata. Mollie had one at her party last year, so it's become a tradition in her eyes.

 

Pappy had to get in there to get some candy for Dede before all of the big kids got it.

In case you were wondering, here's how the inside of the cupcakes turned out. Pretty cool!