Jul 29, 2012

A Rainbow Birthday Party...Manav turns 1 !!!

Hello my lovely readers, I know this has been my longest break yet from blogging. Well blame it on a 3weeks vacation to India, where we had both mine and Manish's sister's weddings and after returning , another 2weeks planning my baby boy's 1st birthday party and now 1week later here I am going to share the beautiful party we had. :-)
I had no clue what sort of party we wanted. I din't want any cartoon character themed party as Manav has no special interest in any as of now. All kinds of ideas and themes kept zooming in and out of my imagination. 
Finally it was his dad (Manish) who suggested we should just do a colorful party, with Rainbow colors, afterall, which kid does not love bright colors. And wow, what an idea Sirji!!! 
I wanted the party to be different and a memorable one for us and our guests. I wasn't gonna just buy any party stuff and decorate. 
And so my hunt for good Rainbow themed decorations and party ideas started, you won't believe how many nights I stayed up browsing. I shared my ideas with my Sister and Sis-in-laws and they also loved the idea and gave plenty of suggestions. 

Our little Appu celebrated his big 1st birthday on July 11th, 2012. Being a working day and having just returned from India, we weren't ready to have a big celebration that day. So instead I made him wear a beautiful shirt that I specially ordered online from Etsy.com and bought a small 5" Chocolate Torte and made him cut the cake and eat a good spoonful :-) You can see he really enjoyed it.
Our beautiful Rainbow Party was kept for a week later, on July 21st, and we invited our close friends and colleagues. As far as Rainbow themed parties are showcased on the internet, I din't make a Rainbow cake, I dint have any Rainbow shaped decorations etc but I made sure everything included all the Rainbow colors.

The night before the party I had a friend of mine stay over and while I decorated and arranged the cake, she and Manish was busy blowing balloons, setting up pictures collages , arranging the fruit bouquet , baby-sitting etc etc :-) 
I made my favorite Chocolate-Banana cake , two 10" cakes and two 6" cakes sandwiched between yummy chocolate buttercream , covered in homemade Marshmallow fondant. The clowns were made by me using fondant 3 days before the party, so that they set and firm up well.
The idea to get balloons coming out the cake simply occurred to me one day, and I thought that would look great with all Rainbow colored balloons coming out from the Birthday Cake. The cake was really tall and looked absolutely stunning, what do you think?
The Cake Table was arranged using The Birthday Cake with colorful balloons and clowns surrounded by Rainbow colored Daisies, a colorful French Macaron tower (which I ordered from a local bakery) and a beautiful Rainbow Fruit Bouquet ( Grape(violet), Blueberries(blue), Honeydew melon(green), Pineapple(yellow), Musk Melon(orange) and Strawberries(red) ).
As per my initial plan I was supposed to have a tray of Rainbow colored chips : Blue and Green Corn chips , Yellow and Orange Potato chips and Red Beetroot chips arranged in a Rainbow fashion...but things got messed up at the end and I had no idea where my tray went and where the chips went :-) But nevertheless I felt the Cake table was arranged very colorfully.

I made the Happy Birthday banner that you see below using Card Stock :-) Couldnt get a better picture. 

For some fun for the little ones we hired a Face Painter - Balloon twister and they all had a great time....Even little Appu got a Balloon bracelet which he seemed to have really enjoyed ;-)
Our little Appu was so happy throughout, and happily cut the cake and ate a nice big slice himself :-) Everyone sang Happy Birthday so beautifully, thank you all :-)
Before cutting the cake, I took out the helium filled balloons inserted into the cake and sent them into the air, which everyone thought was a cool idea and then we cut the cake.
Even the cutlery was bought in all Rainbow colors, we bought some plates with 'Happy Birthday' written on it and other plates in solid Rainbow colors. However we din't get enough pics of everything :-)
The food was Indian, which was all ordered from a nearby Indian restaurant, and the food was amazing. The menu included:
Appetizer: Freshly made Samosa chaat and Batata Puri Chaat
Main Course:  Veg Biriyani, Raita, Chana-Batura, Chilli chicken and Tandoori chicken 
Dessert :  Kesar and Mango kulfi for dessert and Mango lassi

We got these beautiful colorful goody bags and for the return gifts we selected mostly everything that had something to do with Colors, like color pencils, sketch pens, crayons, coloring books, painting sets, baby books related to Colors, colorful toys , colorful candles and picture frames etc . Our Thank you card had a lovely rainbow lollipop on it, so we got actual Rainbow Lollipops too for all the little goody bags :-)

We had a cute autograph frame which we wanted our guests to fill for Manav which everyone thought was a really cool idea. Thanks for hubby dear for the neat idea.
Our little Appu was very happy with all his gifts and was literally digging into them as you can see ;-)
We had also displayed beautiful pictures of Appu from 1st month to 12th month, but I forgot to take snaps of those...I'm thinking of arranging them on a frame soon.
All in all our Rainbow party was a huge success, I'm so glad that all our efforts payed off well and that everyone enjoyed their time , even our little Appu! Hope you all enjoyed it too and got few good tips if you are planning on a colorful party soon. :-)

As its too much information to add in one post, I'll soon include recipes for :
1. My favorite Chocolate-Banana Cake (which is the same cake I used for my Baby Crib Cake too)
2. How to make a beautiful Fruit Bouquet yourself.

I hope to be more regular with blogging from now on...so how have you all been? :-)

***Updated : Feb 15th,2013***
A blog reader who loved this rainbow birthday party theme, did the same theme for her son's first b'day. I was so happy to help her with suggestions and ideas for the big day. A big thank you to her for loving this theme and doing it for her special occassion.
Here are a few snaps that she shared, which I really liked, of  how they setup the rainbow theme.  So here's few more ideas for you all!!

A Rainbow colored backdrop to take pics of your guests with!

Rainbow colored Soda drinks - Loved this one!!
Solid Rainbow colored plates, cups , cutlery and napkins!

-Manju










43 comments:

  1. Belated wishes for ur kid and even I liked your theme.

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  2. Birthday wishes to your son!!
    You have put in a lot of effort.. Kudos!!

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  3. had lots of fun reading this post! Happy birthday Manav!

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  4. happy birthday to manav... You know my brother's name is also manav :)

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  5. Good one !

    http://www.followfoodiee.com/

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  6. Hi Manju,

    My hearty belated wishes to your lovely Manav :) :)

    Party Looks YYummYYY !!!

    Very colourful !!! and Neat presentation :))

    Keep on Dear...

    Do collect your Sunshine Blogger Award at

    www.southindiafoodrecipes.blogspot.in

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    Replies
    1. Thank u Punitha n thanks again for the award . Will def collect it :)

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  7. Belated b'day wishes to your son..

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  8. very beautiful bday cake.... happy bday to lil Manav!!

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  9. Great job again Manju, for planning and sharing your great ideas! Even though I had a vague idea of what you were doing for the party, it was still very surprising and warm feeling as I entered into the decorated party hall :-) so really an awesome job!! :-D

    Keep it up and we all wish Manav again for more and more colorful birthday parties through-out his life!! :)

    ~Sharada

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    1. Thanks Sharada, as always u always flatter me with allurcompliments :)

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  10. Belated birthday wishes to mon,ellam adipoli ayittundu..Nice theme & colrs..Cake pinne double adipoli,Manju!!

    Ongoing Events of Erivum Puliyum @ Palakkad Chamayal-Fenugreek Leaves OR Green Chillies

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  11. Wow Cool cake Manju..great job with the cake and party...Its going to be a similar situation for me in Spetember..going to India in 2 weeks time and when I come back my boy is turning 4 ,has to throw a party for 20 - 30 kids and I m baking..very nervous actually..havent done a 2 tier cake yet..did u support ur first cake with Dowels ?? I am thinking of a 2 tier cake or a reactangle cake with Disney car( MC Queen ) theme...lot of thinking to do ...mmhmm...

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    Replies
    1. Hi there Vineetha,
      Thank u so much for the compliments. Ya planning a big party is difficult , specially when u have a busy vacation schedule :)
      Actually I din't use any dowels for the cake, though I had bought them, but decided not to use them at the last moment. But using dowels will definitely ensure your top tier does not press into the bottom tier.

      Tiered cakes have a good appearance I feel. But flat sheets cakes are also equally good and much easier to cut :) Whichever method you choose, I'm sure everyone will be praising you for for it.
      Can't wait to see what you'll come up with. Ur theme sounds really cool.

      Have a great vacation!

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  12. Wow Mnaju, that cake looks fab! Manav is indeed lucky to have such a cool mom who bakes! :)

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  13. Belated wishes to him, seems you guys had a wonderful birthday party..May god bless ur lil darling.

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  14. great cake dear... and a cute son... A lovely blog happy to follow you... do visit me http://cooklikepriya.blogspot.co.uk/

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  15. wow... cake looks awesome... truly professional...

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  16. Awesome cake n wonderful b'day celebration, first time here, happy to follow you :-)

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  17. Hi Manju...Ur blog is awesome :) I am a foodie and my family is too.... I love trying new things and ur blog is brimming with lovely things to try out!!!
    Wishing little Appu a very very happy bday!!!! Incidentally read the 1st bday celebrations today..... Hope you had a lovely bday celebration this year too....Do share what you did this year:)

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  18. Hi Kavitha,
    Thanks a lot for the lovely feedback and b'day wishes :-) I have shared his 2nd birthday details here : http://manjuseatingdelights.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-bubble-themed-birthday-party-manav.html

    :-)

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  19. Hi Manju,
    Nice party. I wanted to know from where you got the custom rainbow + Mickey themas banner?

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  20. Hi Manju,
    Nice party. I wanted to know from where you got the Mickey themes banner?please help me for the banner as i want to do it for my son's birthday which is in May..

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sheetal,
      The Mickey banner was brought from India (from Trivandrum, kerala basically). Couldn't find anything as big as this anywhere in US.

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  21. Hey Manju
    Is there a specific place where you get such banners..loved it.Pls let me know

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  22. Hi could u tell me how u ordered the poster with your son pics on it ?

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  23. Hi. How did u order the poster with your son pics on it ?

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    Replies
    1. I got it done in India at a printer store in my hometown where they print banners and posters for films and events etc.

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  24. Congrats for this great day. I really enjoyed while planning my birthday party.

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  25. Very Great Manju!!!!
    I am also planning for birthday bash, would you help me
    Great hear comments from other viewers
    Thanks a lot
    - Akshay Gupta
    http://www.partypoppers.co.in/

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  26. Circus Theme - Who doesn't love the circus. This is a lot of fun for both the kids and the adults. You can hire a clown, a balloon artist, face painter and even try to put on a small circus of your own. You can set up little rings in the backyard and provide activities like juggling, hula hoops, and magician-themed crafts for kids to invent their own shows.

    birthday party themes in perth

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  27. Awesome, you have done a great job. Beautiful and kid's friendly theme you have selected as well as decorated so perfectly. Lip-smacking food items bring water in everyone’s mouth. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and ideas about how to organize kid’s party perfectly.

    ChoukiDhani Team [www.choukidhani.com]

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  28. decoration is good...organized well

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