Come Join the Rainbow Fun, Sarah is Turning One

Our little rainbow baby turned one last month, so I thought it fitting to throw her a rainbow themed party.  For those of you not familiar with the term rainbow baby, it is a living child born after loss such as stillbirth or infant loss.  Just like a rainbow in the sky, it is a bright spot that emerges after the storm.  Some might argue that Joseph is also a rainbow baby, and in a way he is, but it's a little different.  A friend (and fellow angel momma) and I talked about it and decided that since the kids are so close in age and came into our lives in such different ways, we're just going to call them a double rainbow. 

Anyway, on to Sarah's party.

I went on etsy and found adorable invitations super close to the image I had in my head.  All I had to do was supply the artist with the details and a picture of Sarah and it was ready to go.

 

I made Sarah an outfit to wear that day that included a rainbow "necklace" onesie, hairbow, and skirt.  Since I was very specific about how I wanted the skirt to look, I ended up piecing together six pieces of solid colored fabric then making a simple skirt as if they were all one piece of fabric.  

 

The décor wasn't anything too fancy, mostly just lots of rainbows.  Instead of a wreath, I hung a cloud and rainbow on the front door (since my handwriting looks like that of a 12 year old boy, I had a friend come over and write on the sign :).

One of my favorite decorations was the backdrop.  It was so simple (just crepe paper and white balloons, obviously), but I think it turned out awesome.

I also loved the pool noodle rainbow in the hallway... too bad I never got a decent picture of it.  When I decided to make this, I had no clue how hard it would be to find pool noodles in primary and secondary colors (everything was pastel this year).  I might have resorted to taking the last one from a friend's backyard the week of the party (with permission, of course).

Rainbow candy was a must although I was surprised how many "rainbow" candies exclude blue. 

Since they had the same color scheme, I reused some decorations from Joseph's first birthday including the '1' canvas and the colored pom-poms (although this time they were arranged in rainbow order).  Her monthly pictures were simply placed on colored banners and displayed on the mantle as well.  Since she wasn't technically 1 yet, I didn't have a picture for E.

I even used my St. Patrick's day garland to decorate the bar outside.

As people were arriving, we had jalapeno popper dip, bacon wrapped little smokies, and vegetable pizza available.

And, of course, a fruit rainbow (Joseph loved helping me choose all the fruit for this) with dip.

For the meal, we served brisket, pulled pork, baked beans, seasoned mashed potatoes, cole slaw, potato salad, corn on the cob, homemade rolls, and pickles.  If you went home hungry, it was your own fault. 

Since, like every good Stillwater resident, we have an abundance of Eskimo Joe's cups, I decided to place stacks of them in rainbow order for people to use for drinks.  I also added a pack of rainbow straws and napkins left over from Joseph's party to the desert table (seriously, why do I hang on to stuff like that).

I also attempted to make rainbow cupcakes since that's what I wanted Sarah to use as her smash cake.  After about six, I decided to just pour the colored batter into the cupcake liners and have solid colored cupcakes.  Rainbow cupcakes are a lot of work.

Most of the kids spent a majority of the time in the backyard playing in the bounce house (that we borrowed from a friend) and sandbox.  Sarah loved the bounce house!

Have I mentioned that my husband is awesome and finished the sandbox he had designed for the kids in the week leading up to Sarah's party?

As you might have noticed, the invite requested that people wear their favorite color of the rainbow (and I have zero pictures to show you all the awesome colors present, someday I'll get my act together).  I couldn't help but laugh at the anti-rainbows as I called them all day.

After dinner, it was time for everyone's favorite part of a one year old's birthday party, the cake smash. 

Sarah daintily fingered icing off of her cupcake at first.

But once she realized she could tear into that sucker,

she did.

By the time she was finished, there was very little left.

After she got all sugared up, it was time for Sarah to open her gifts. 

In true Sarah fashion, she was often more concerned with what Joseph was doing than opening her gifts.

 

Although I have to admit he was playing with a pretty cool light.

Thank you to everyone who came over and celebrated Sarah's birthday with us.  I can't imagine life without our sweet rainbow baby!