I went back and forth about buying it, because it was ten bucks, but in the end I got it and I’m glad I did. I duct taped some batteries in (why do we have a thousand C batteries on hand?) and the sucker works! Push the green button and the conveyor belt moves, slide something across the scanner and it beeps, and if you push the yellow numbers a bunch of times the receipt pops up.

On the conveyor belt: bananas, a calorie counter book (really, why?), gouda, asprin, toothpaste, cookies and shoe polish. This is definitely an old man’s shopping list–a slightly overweight old man, in the eighties with a hangover. Meet the toy designers of the past.

When we were thinking about what food to have at the party, my kids and I made a list of all the rainbow colors and the foods that matched. Turns out an assortment of rainbow foods makes for a pretty fantastic sandwich. So we had salami sandwiches, fruit, and chips. And I bought some grape jelly for pb&js too.  My daughter wanted to know where the blueberries were, but they are very much out of season and at 4$ for half a pint I opted for blue chips instead, which are pretty much purple. Oh well. You try and think of a blue food that isn’t jello.

So the food was easy, the cake on the other hand was a pain the in ass, but I knew it was going to be.  The cake is what started the whole rainbow thing in the first place, so we had to have it. My daughter was sitting next to me while I was on the computer one day and spied this rainbow cake. That was sometime in the summer and she has been talking about it ever since.

So I knew I had to make a six layer cake filled with buttercream and covered with piles of fluffy white frosting.  I’m sure she must have told her friends she was having a rainbow cake, but it looked like a plain old white cake, so I’m guessing they just didn’t believe her. But when we cut the first piece everyone lit up. And it was an awesome surprise–sort of like a cake pinata (except this is a cake pinata–do not let your children see this, or you will be cursing me the night before their birthday).

If the cake weren’t a rainbow honestly it wouldn’t be a very good cake. It’s tastes a little like a wet sponge, but you are eating a rainbow so your brain tells you it tastes like a rainbow. It’s virtue lies in it’s dye-ability,if I were to make it again (ha) I would use a different recipe. The frosting is a swiss meringue buttercream with some lemon flavoring thrown it. The recipe calls for an obscene amount of butter. I used less than half and it was delicious.

For the favors we made rainbow glitter playdough. After cranking out six batches of playdough I can make it at the drop of a hat now. Why I didn’t make a big batch and split it 6 ways, I don’t know. Whatever, it’s a good recipe for a mom to have memorized anyway. We packed it in jars and I wrote the guest’s names on paper rainbows for the top. Luckily my daughter got an awesome playdough kit for a present, because I forgot to make any playdough for us.

There were definitely a lot of projects for the party, but my kids helped with all of them and none were really all that complicated. I’m not usually an all out crazy birthday party mom (or at least I didn’t think I was), but I had fun with all the projects. And the anticipation make the actual day even better I think. But rainbow fever has not abated–my daughter now wants me to make her a rainbow costume for halloween. Any ideas?

the rainbow birthday party: part one

Almost every party we’ve been to recently has had a pinata, so of course my daughter asked (and asked and asked) to have one at her birthday party. But those pinatas are impenetrable! After about 10 rounds of the kids taking turns whacking the thing (and after one burly dad tries, and fails) someone has to get the scissors or and ax or some sharp object and pry the damn thing open, by which time the kids have lost their minds waiting for the candy. So I thought I’d make my own, which took a lot more time than I bargained for, but a lot less tissue paper than I imagined. And after everyone got three turns, one kid smacked it to pieces.

With all the leftover tissue paper I made some martha poofs for above the picnic table. I forgot how easy these are and how pretty. My daughter gasped when I she saw them!

Inside, we hung rainbows and clouds from the ceiling. We were going to make raindrops too, but somehow forgot. Both projects were very simple and clever and the kids helped with both. The rainbows are made by cutting paper into progressively shorter strips and then stapling them together at the ends. I found the directions for the paper rainbows via the crafty crow.

The clouds are so awesome I can’t get over it. They are made by winding a piece of wire into a corkscrew shape and then twisting into a floof of polyfil. Ingenious. You can find the directions to make your own clouds on ohdeeoh.  These will definitely stick around for a while, maybe even become the long overdue mobile above the baby’s bed.

Enough for now, I’ll be back tomorrow with rainbow food and rainbow favors!

rainbow birthday party: part two

We had the much anticipated rainbow party this weekend and with barely any melt downs from the birthday girl, so I say it was a success! These cupcakes aren’t from the party, but don’t worry there will be much party posting this week. I made them on her actual birthday and I was pretty excited that they worked out. I made plain old chocolate cupcakes and some cream cheese frosting. Then I painted the inside of a pastry bag with stripes of food coloring going up the bag from the tip and carefully spooned the frosting into the bag. When I piped the frosting on, voila! rainbows! Just like a unicorn pooping, or do they barf rainbows? Whatever they do, one came and did it all over my house.  And I’ll show you tomorrow.

Please excuse the crappy photos. It seems it is difficult for me to focus before I’ve had coffee–the camera and otherwise. But hey, a rainbow dress! Finished and on time!

My little girl is five today. It seems a long time ago that we took a tiny little baby home to our Chicago apartment. She’s grown into a very organized kindergartener, prolific artist, helpful big sister and a beautiful little girl. Her favorite colors are pink and rainbow, so of course I had to make a rainbow dress. I had a bunch of ideas about how to make the rainbow all cool and modern, but in the end I just went for straight forward and simple. And she loved it.

The pattern for this dress came from this japanese book (sorry I have no idea what the title is). It’s a clever design: the top has buttons sewn around the hem and the skirt has buttonholes all along the waistband. And now that I’m thinking about it, this would be a great way to repurpose a button up shirt. I might buy a long sleeve shirt and sew buttons on the bottom to turn it into a winter dress, but it will be a while before I have the urge to sew 18 buttons on anything.

How does one accessorize a rainbow dress, you ask? With rainbow tights of course (and red high tops).