Logan's Rainbow Colored (and 3) Themed Golden Birthday Party!!!

My big boy turned 3 on June 3rd, and you cant let a golden birthday slip by, so I decided we were gonna make it a 3 themed party.  Well as I started looking at things online and found some awesome candle holders in the store, I decided to make it rainbow colors too!!  Plus this party was mainly family members and I really didnt want to spend a whole bunch (especially since now that we have Amelia too I am gonna have to scale back on birthday party decor), so I decided I was gonna use all the old party supplies we had, and I did, I didnt have to buy any plates, napkins, cups, plastic silverware for this party at all!!!

 

his awesome invite from etsy (seller was kottage on 5th), she was great to work with and very fast.  i whited out my address and phone number on this one since im posting this to pinterest.

the birthday table!!!

i filled 3 jars with his favorite candy (jelly beans, m&ms, and red licorice pieces) and put a 3 candle in each one.  originally i saw this and it said to then put balloons on them, but i didnt mess with that.    i also got the 3 shaped candles at walmart, they had lots of colors and were covered in glitter and were only $0.97 each, score!!!

when looking for pretty 3 shaped candles at walmart I found these awesome rainbow candle holders that spelled out Happy Birthday and just had to have them, and again, since it was at walmart it was dirt cheap, I think it was only $2 or $3, cant remember exactly, but i loved them and the pick that goes in the cupcake is plastic so you can wash and reuse them.

i love jello, i know a lot of adults dont eat jello anymore, they should, and i do.  logan doesnt eat it, but he doesnt really eat much so if i only made things he would eat for his party we would have had only m&ms, goldfish, and cheese-its.  anyway, i had seen on pinterest where you can make little layered jello treats in the disposable chinet glasses.  i thought since it had 3 colors that would fit well into the 3 theme.  well I ended up using blue on the bottom and red on top (because i like those flavors) but wasnt sure what to use in the middle.  i ended up going with yellow (pineapple flavor, who knew) and i am so glad it did because it ended up looking like a rainbow since the yellow kinda merged with the other colors.  i started these 2 days before his party to make sure each layer had enough time to set before i poured the new layer on, and they took up quite a bit of fridge space, but so worth it!

for his 2nd birthday I made a banner for each month of his life, but I wanted pictures out somehow, so thanks to pinterest I made a giant 3 out of pictures.  It took far less photos than I thought (I think I printed around 50 or 60 and used around 35) and it was a good size 3, so now I have a bunch of extra printed photos laying around and have no clue what to do with them!!

to really play up the 3 theme (and the rainbow theme) I made a bunch of 3s out of construction paper.  i made 3 of each color, so I had a lot, i just put them all over the house but i made sure to put more right around the birthday table and the back door since that is where everyone would be (to eat or play outside in the water).  now i could have very easily made a fun rainbow banner but with a new baby i decided to just buy one this year, it was all the colors and each one had a different pattern, so it was great, and at $5 was honestly one of the most expensive items I got, but there was no way I was gonna get around to making one this year, and im sure ill use it again!

the birthday boy a little overwhelmed by all the snacks (or perhaps very hot from playing outside in the crazy texas heat in his new trampoline).  you can really see my table runner in this picture, yes, it is large (i mean large) yellow napkins that I got from IKEA, it added just the little bit of extra color the table needed without too much distraction.

this cake is perhaps what i was most excited about for the party.  i love to bake but havent made anything cake wise more complicated than a basic round layered cake.  but i really really really wanted a 3 shaped cake.  i found a lot of things (actually all of them) to make the 3 using a bundt cake, but once i decided to do it rainbow inside i knew that wasnt gonna work because it needed 4 small layers.  so i just made 2 round cakes and shaped them to look like a 3, which was super easy.  i was gonna try to make the icing either super smooth or cover it with candy, but in the end i decided it didnt need more color and that i just didnt have the patience for smooth icing, plus its for a 3 year old, so who really cares!!  Since I dont have a 3 shaped cake stand I covered a piece of cardboard in wrapping paper and then covered the entire front in clear packing tape, that way the paper stayed dry and i could wipe off icing as i iced the cake (seriously, how did i ever survive before all these helpful tips from pinterest)

I made 4 layers: blue, green, yellow, red.  I got gel food colors to try and get a really vibrant color but they were all still kinda pastel like.  I probably need to just keep adding more color but I was afraid (since I had already added a bit) so I left it lighter than I wanted.  To get the 4 layers in the entire 3 i made 2 round cakes (just used a box mix and added some stuff, since a box mix makes 2 round layers) and then before baking it I separated it into 4 round pans, so each layer was pretty small, especially after i went and leveled it off, but we like icing in this family so there were no complaints about the icing to cake ratio.  I stacked all 4 layers (so ended up with 2 rounds of 4 layers) and then cut it into the 3 shape.  I found that the best way to see if it really looked like a 3 was to take a picture and then look at it, it was hard to look at it in person and decide.

My friend Rachel back in Indiana (who often makes cakes) was helping me via text with the cake.  So after I shaped it I froze it for a bit and then did my crumb coat (i hadnt cleaned the board off yet).  It was also hard to clean the icing off the board in the inside circles of the 3, then my mom said to use a q-tip, such a smart lady.

the final product, turned out pretty and yummy!!!