Rainbow Birthday Theme - Childrens Birthday Party Theme for Boys & Girls

Rainbow birthday party theme...
For a vibrant, colourful birthday party look no further than nature's own spectacular phenomenon - the rainbow.

Rainbow-themed birthday parties offer plenty of inspiration for all sorts of colourful foods, costumes and decorations. We had six children at our party so we dropped indigo from our rainbow palette and gave each of them one of our six colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Each child was dressed according to his or her colour and then ate food that matched that colour. (This was actually quite handy in a practical way, as we could instantly tell whose food belonged to whom and who was stealing someone else's!) If you have more than six guests just add to your palette, with indigo, pink etc.

Invites
Our invitations (which are free to download here) featured our specially-created rainbow labels (also available to download here) and invited each child to dress in an assigned colour from top to toe (if possible!). The party label was also used for the drink, food, fun stations, juice and goodie bags.

Food and drink
We had lots of fun creating party treats playing on all the colours of the rainbow. Jelly boats, made in orange peel quarters, of course, were a must, and we had coloured cupcakes, fruit kebabs (with nearly all the rainbow colours) and mini meatballs with cheese pieces skewered on top.

To make coloured drinks we added food colouring to lemonade. Fortunately, there's a range that contains natural ingredients (Queen Natural Food Colouring) so the kids weren't bouncing off the walls.   

The pièce de résistance was, of course, the birthday cake that was created by making six separate cakes (using a butter cake recipe). Each one was coloured a different shade using food colouring. The cakes were then stuck together with butter cream icing, which also covered the entire cake.

We tied six coloured ribbons around the outside and attached the ends in the icing.
The recipe of this amazing cake can be found here.



Decorations
Rainbow-hued balloons and bunting were our only decorations for the food table and party venue. However, the multi-coloured food, plates, cups and goodie bags were decorations in themselves. We deliberately made the rest of the room and table cloths white to make the rainbow decorations stand out.

Party favours
For simple but effective party favours we used plain cellophane bags from Spotlight and filled them with lollies in coloured layers. Then we added labels that we printed from the computer and attached to the bags. We used leftover ribbon from the birthday cakes to tie up each bag. 

How to make coloured play-doh
Play-doh in eye-popping colours was the chief attraction at our "fun station". You can ask your party guests to make their favourite animal out of their play-doh and the others must then guess what it is.

You will need:
Six bowls
2 cups plain flour
1 cup salt
2 tbsp oil
4 tsp cream of tartar
2 cups of water
Food colouring - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple

How to make:
Heat all ingredients in a saucepan, stirring until the mixture forms a firm ball. Leave to cool. Divide into six balls and in six bowls add one colour per bowl and knead until the colour is spread evenly.
Store your play-doh in an airtight container in the fridge. Often it's best to get rid of it after it's been used, as it doesn't last long. 

Kids' clothing

• Supplied by Pumpkin Patch (www.pumpkinpatch.co.nz) and 
• JK Kids (www.jk.co.nz)
  

Partyware:

• Cupcakes from www.missmelicious.com
• Bunting, cups, balloons and plates from Poppyseed (www.poppyseed.co.nz)
• Plates and balloons from Jazabaloo (www.jazabaloo.co.nz)
• Glass bottles, www.poprocparties.co.nz
• Lollies from Sweet Indulgence in Mt Eden, Auckland