I liked rainbows as a kid, and I would have loved those cupcakes.
food coloring and Mac 'N Cheese… inexpensive, rainbow-themed, and the kids can learn something about perception altering taste.
Pasta is always a big hit with kids. Keep it kinda plain, maybe a cream/butter sauce with a little basil. . .
You and I have similar taste in kids parties! Celtling’s second is this Fri, and I got big and little bubble wands, sidewalk chalk and fairy wings for everybody. That oughta keep 'em busy 'til the cake is served! LOL!
This is a good suggestion, I don’t know if I will be able to pull it off this time, but I do like it.
Kalhoun, that was part of my motivation for keeping it on Friday, it seemed nicer to parents. It one thing having the party on a weekend when the birthday is on a weekend, but co opting a Saturday for my convenience seems a bit much. My daughter is also very conservative in this manner and doesn’t believe in having birthday parties not on birthdays.
I like this suggestion of rainbow sundaes, easy enough if we are also doing the rainbow kabobs.
Well, I can’t do that because I don’t know the parents. I gave them my number in the invitation, so I hope they would call me ahead of time if there is some deadly allergy.
This is a huge phenomenon in Sweden. They even have it at street fairs. One fun variation is to grab a bunch of silly junk that aren’t prizes but will mess with the kids’ heads a little. Last time I pulled prize duty I had things like an onion, a banana peel, crumpled-up paper and the like. The important thing is to have an adult on the other side to say things like “The fish are bein’ naughty today!” and encourage them to try again quick so they get the goods. Fun and entertainment for the whole crowd.
What about tricolor pasta with butter/oil for the starch? With “sprinkle cheese” for those who want it, of course. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could even sautee up some onions and tricolor bell peppers for people who want them on the pasta (the kid I babysit would eat all the veggies and leave the pasta and chicken, to be honest!)
Sounds like a fun party!
It looks like it will be an indoor party. The yard is soggy and forecast is for more rain. We just rearranged the room we will have the piñata in, and it made a space that would be great for the fishing game. I think I could convert the whacking stick to a fishing rod now that we have converted the piñata.
All I can say is you are so brave…the idea of having 7 seven-year-olds (mostly girls I assume) in one house is mind-boggling. I would imagine sitting next to a jet engine would be quieter.
Good thing Uncle DMark isn’t hosting this party or the main game would be “See who can stay the quietest the longest!”
Of course, I have to assume that would be the shortest game of the day.
Aren’t most kids that age “nibblers”…meaning they eat a bite, then run around and then come back and eat a bite again, etc. etc. I think most people sort of put out food that tastes good at any temperature - doesn’t have to be eaten while hot or at a specific time. Pizza might seem to you to be the easy, lame, boring thing to do - but Chuck E Cheese has proven kids like it.
Do kids that age play Twister? Very active, but in small space.
No reason to do pizza if the hostess doesn’t want to. (Both hostess in the sense of the birthday girl, and in the sense of her mama). I’m not seeing anything wrong with chicken fingers/tenders/whatever, so long as you have ketchup available for those who eat everything meaty with ketchup. And perhaps ranch dressing available for the veggies if you serve veggies.
(or maybe it’s only my nieces who only eat food which is smothered in either ranch dressing or ketchup. Actually, that’s an unfair characterization of said nieces’ eating habits. But I do think having ketchup available would be a good thing).
But, in general, modern American 6 year olds will not starve if they skip a meal–and many have parents who would see they had another shot at dinner if they did choose not to eat at your daughter’s party.
I’m thinking of serving clear soda in clear cups with colorful straws and a rainbow fruit kabob as a garnish.
I will definitely have ketchup as a dipping sauce. Not only is it a safe fall back for the cautious, it is a lovely red. I am thinking of having cheese dip too and coloring it blue.
When I was a volunteer at a day camp, we would get the kids to play “sleeping lions”, which involved lying down, absolutely still, and being quiet. Last one who doesn’t get spotted twitching or wriggling wins. It’s amazing how long you can keep kids quiet if it’s a competitive event.
Be vigilant that these only get eaten at the table. You don’t want to have to be cleaning up ketchup and dyed cheese from the living room carpet, your daughter’s bedspread, the cat, etc.
I would PLAN twice as many activities as you think you need, but only actually DO half of them.
What about some version of duck, duck, goose? (when Daughter was small, we had a dinosaur party theme and her ddg was Barney, Barney, Baby Bop–and you got to “bop” the chosen one on the head with a stuffed Baby Bop. The rest of the party was serious dinosaurs, but I digress). Maybe your party goers could tag with a rainbow colored stuffed animal nicknamed Roy G Biv… Ok, maybe not. 
Can you get to a craft store and purchase inexpensive prisms or those cool cardboard " eye-glasses" that make all the lights turn into rainbows? That might be fun for the girls–tag with the glasses on or some such.
It is always a good idea to have some few party ideas to be held “just in case”. The clothespin drop is a good one–and not a common one these days. What about writing down names of the colors and having one taped to each girl’s back and she has to guess the color by asking questions of the other guests? That may be too abstract, but work with me here…
attitude is everything at these things. If you are having fun, chances are the kids will catch your enthusiasm. But they also don’t want to sit around waiting for set up etc.
Do they still make green and purple ketchup? I haven’t bought ketchup in ages, I only eat it on my fries, and I generally only eat fries when I go out. I remember the oddly colored ketchup, though.
The party was a huge success. The boys were no shows, but the four girls came and they had fun. They played with the party favors, and played hide and seek. The piñata trap door jammed so we had to whack it with a stick, which was apparently great fun. They took turns beating the lion and scrambling for the candy which was flung out. KellyM helped and beat it to separate the head from the body, and then they paraded the lion’s head through the house and shredded the piñata into tiny pieces, including splitting the head in two. Although they savagely beat the piñata, they managed not to hurt anyone or anything else.
Menu
Starters:
rainbow fruit kabobs, green and purple grapes
pop with rainbow fruit garnish
tortilla chips
blue cheese dip
crudities
ranch dressing
Dinner
four color pasta with sautéed vegetables and butter
Broiled Chicken tenders and legs 3 ways: tandoori, BBQ, and Soy and Balsamic vinegar
rainbow fruit salad
Desert
Rainbow marble cake
Rainbow sherbet
Chocolate ice cream
Strawberry ice cream
Post Desert
piñata candy!
Can I come next year? Sounds like you had a great time.
And please give WeeLee my belated birthday wishes.
Glad everything went well.
I think it is amazing that everything went so well. The party favors I bought and put in little buckets were hits; I think I saw someone playing with each type of favor, usually in little groups. Also, though not every girl wanted everything I had to serve, but no one looked negatively surprised by anything they put in their mouth, and everyone had something they were eating with enthusiasm.
I had toothpicks out and was going to suggest building things with cruditiés, but there was never a lull, not even someone by themselves for a moment. The closest was when one of the girls was especially taken with my soon to be two year old son and played with him for a few minutes. She even asked if she could come over sometime again to play with him. We told her that she was welome to.