The Rainbow Party - behind the scenes #tbt

March is just around the corner and that means Spring weather and St. Patrick's Day! Now that we have a St. Patrick's Day birthday to celebrate every year, the day has special meaning and I really look forward to the holiday. This post on Izzy's birthday is one of the most viewed on the blog (that cake just might be my favorite of Janelle's awesome creations - check out the inside!).

It's hard to focus on much besides Izzy's beautiful rainbow birthday cake...

But there were other aspects of the party that I really enjoyed as well.

I loved the idea of using baby food jars to decorate for Izzy's first birthday when I saw this post. In the interest of time and my waning energy, I decided to simplify this idea.

I found the self-adhesive felt borders at a paper store and they were just long enough to wrap around the jars. This approach was much easier and faster than using paint.

I was anxious to get rid of all the baby food jars now that Izzy won't need them, but I think I'll hang on to these. They would be perfect for a baby shower.

I purchased these shamrocks pre-cut (I'm craft-challenged, as you well know by now) and attached them to string for a banner on the mantel piece. I added the flower stickers to give them a kick of color. As with all these paper decorations, I plan to save these and use them again.

The paper starbursts came in a kit with pre-cut (that is the key!) pieces of paper that just needed to be folded and taped together. Turns out this is a really great task for a husband with an architecture degree. We're going to hang these in the kids' rooms  - Charlie has already claimed the pink one.

The photo banner. I've had this idea in my mind for the past year and was so glad to see it done. I did a simpler photo display for Charlie's first birthday that included a picture from each month of his first year (you can see it here). Izzy's banner had 12 photos on different rainbow colored paper, mostly in chronological order. I didn't worry too much about having each month represented and just picked some of my favorite pictures from her first year. The paper flowers were easy to put together and were leftover from the ones I used to make a wreath (shown here), which eventually went on the front door for the party.

It will be fun to hang the picture banner in Izzy's room now that the party is over. The pictures really emphasize how much she has changed in one year.

For party favors, the kids took home rainbow pinwheels and a treat bag filled with Lucky Charms cereal. We don't buy sugary cereal for Charlie so this was against Maniger policy - but it was St. Patrick's Day, after all. A small bag of sugary cereal isn't going to kill anyone, right?

It was at this point, when I brought out the fruit rainbow, that Ryan said I had way too much time on my hands...maybe he has a point. But this was really quick and easy and I couldn't resist. It was a hit with the kids as they could easily help themselves to the fruit. Of course they went for the marshmallows first, but all the fruit was gone by the end of the party.

All in all, I'm  happy with how the party turned out. I thought things out ahead of time, for once, and did many of these projects over several weeks. It was actually enjoyable - not leaving everything to the last minute makes a big difference. Who knew? I wanted to make this first birthday party special. And since Izzy isn't really aware of any of it, I guess I did it for myself. I feel so incredibly lucky to have two healthy, smart, adorable and perfect kids. I wanted to celebrate how crazy happy I am to be the mom of two amazing little beings. This party and all the colorful rainbows made me happy. And so it was all worth it.