A Rainbow Party

January 26, 2015 By Kelle

I’ve decided that my kids’ birthday parties is the middle circle of the Venn Diagram of my loves, the place where everything intersects–color, celebration, pretty things, motherhood, music, friends, family, introspection and a deep love for my children. That middle circle is like a family reunion in my head–a day when all the grown-up kids and their grown-up differences return home to sit around the table and realize they’re connected and bound by love.

Yesterday, I was thrilled again to feel the circles intersect as we celebrated with friends and color and music and rainbows, all lassoed up into that middle place by our love for Nella.

A peek at our rainbow party for our colorful girl:

Hosted at our community’s incredible House of Gaia

Nella’s rainbow dress from Berit’s Lilla

Rainbow toe love.

My friend Kathy made Nella’s rainbow cake, simple yet stunning on the outside…

Edible sugar rainbow butterflies from Amazon.

…and a complete party on the inside.

This is Miss Lulu. She’s mesmerizing to watch. She’s like Mary Poppins except instead of magic, she uses kindness, and she weaves these valuable lessons of self worth, loving each other and using our creative gifts to make the world a more beautiful place into every activity she initiates.

The rainbow toes. I can’t even.

We were hoping there was a gay pride parade somewhere near us yesterday afternoon because we were decked out and ready to go and could have killed two celebration birds with one stone.

The kids took turns bouncing in the middle of a stretched piece of fabric. Nella was hesitant to do it, but I put her in anyway and promised her it would be fun. We bounced her up and down and through the entire experience, she never quit doing two things: holding my hand and smiling. (Thank you to my friend Andrea for the picture)

The kids huddled together for a “rainstorm,”…

…hid under “the sun” while happy dragons danced around them…

…and lined up together to sleep under a rainbow.

My dad made these beautiful rainbow ribbon wands for each of the girls.

It was magic.

Party bags enhanced with a stack of free paint swatches…

…and rainbow goodies tucked inside.

Rainbow favor bag goodies: rainbow putty (1 doz), rainbow crayon (25 pack), rainbow star lollipops (1 doz), rainbow folding fan (1 doz), rainbow punch balloon (1 doz), rainbow glitter temporary tattoos (72-pack), rainbow candy dots and lipgloss (Michael’s)

And a big thank you to my friend Kim (Nella’s favorite barrettes) who made all the little girls rainbow barrettes to take home.

I didn’t know this photo was taken until I found it on my camera late last night. Nella didn’t want to lay under the rainbow with her friends unless I went with her. So I did, and there we were–her a little apprehensive, me a lot assuring. Surrounded by our friends but glued together–calm, quiet and feeling the moment…all under a thin veil of rainbow. Which pretty much sums up everything.

Thankful for parties and babies and color and cake–and opportunities to stand in the inner circle where everything collides to make perfect sense.

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