It's time to be thankful.

Photo courtesy of Emma

As I sit and watch all the devastation on TV in Christchurch I realise that my own life is not that bad,  Yeah, I'm having a bad week in the schoolroom, my husband is away so all is left to me, I have had the worst hay fever for two days but this is all meaningless when you see how the poor people in Christchurch are dealing with such devastation.  There were a few anxious hours after the earth quake as I waited to find out about my family who live in Christchurch but thankfully they are all OK.  Miraculously some of their houses are not harmed while others have major damage but they are all alive and together.

I read Shannon Fricke's post this morning and have decided to take some of her advice.

I am living my BLISS.

I have my children with me, a husband who cares for us, great family support, live in a blissful place & fantastic friends.  What more could I want?
NOTHING

Rainbow Party - Part 2 The Cakes

We have always had 2 birthday cakes for Mr T and Miss M, so this year was no exception. Miss M had wanted a giant cupcake cake for several years now but it had been wet and all our parties had been cancelled.  Mr T was happy with anything that involved lots of colour and icing.  So with that in mind I thought I would attempt the rainbow layer cake.

Rainbow Layer Cake = 3 packets of Betty Crocker Vanilla Cake mix, 4 1/2 tubs Betty Crocker Vanilla

Premade Icing.  Each layer is baked seperately.  Mix packet mix as per instructions and seperate mix into 2 bowls (thanks to Suzanne for the tip to weigh the mix so that each layer is even !!).  Colour with food colouring - you will need lots ! All of the colours in this cake are made with food colouring except for the purple which was created using edicol dye. Available from kindergarten suppliers and non toxic !

To put together we iced between each layer, filled the gaps with icing and then poured more icing over the top.  We freezed the cake into between icings to assist with cake crumbs.  It was such a hot day you can see the icing was melting off the cake.

The bottom of the cake was ribbon, the top was coloured choc chips from woolworths.  Tip- might be a good idea to put these on at the last minute as the colour melted and ran onto the cake a bit.

Melting child and melting cake.

Success - it was a little bit frozen so hard to get the first piece out but it was delicious and cold on

such a terribly hot and humid day.

Cake number 2 - Miss M's Giant cupcake.  Made using a Wilton cupcake tin and homebrand cake mix with pink marbling.  White frosting is bakemate in a tin can, available from Woolworths.  I love this stuff, soooo

easy !! Cupcake wrapper was made by fan folding wrapping paper from Phoenix Trading. Rainbow sprinkles purchased from ebay.

The Giant cupcake was very popular.

One very hot Miss M.

Hope you enjoyed the Rainbow Party cake details.

9th Birthday Rainbow Party - Part 1 The Food

It was with great excitement that we held a rainbow party on Sunday for Mr T and Miss M's 9th birthday.  There was double the joy when it was revealed that it wasn't going to be too wet and that all the party goers could actually drive into our rural property.  This is the first time we have had vehicle access since the 16th November 2010.  So apart from the birthday celebrations it  was also another great reason to celebrate. 

Partygoers included 20 plus children of varying ages and 25 plus adults. The heat was almost unbearable with ridiculous humidity and no air at all, and just to top off a fab rainbow party we had several light showers of rain !! There was a bit of organising involved so rather than clog our facebook wall I have opted to blog about the party and the preparation.  Starting with the food.

The food table was full of colour, and lots of sugar !!

Tropical fruit punch proved popular.  Drink dispenser & rainbow star paper

cups from Crazy Clarks.

DIY printables such as the birthday banner, cupcake toppers, food labels etc were from Little Spunky Monkey.  Bec was a joy to work with and knew exactly what I was looking for.  I would highly recommend using her services.

Party food included Jelly Oranges, Rainbow Bread, Rainbow fruit Kebabs and Rainbow Cupcakes.

Rainbow coloured disposable platters from Crazy Clarks.

Cardboard cupcake stand from Ebay.  Rainbow cupcakes homemade.

Take home treats.  Rainbow lollipops from Tom's Confectionary Warehouse

Thanks to the tip from Tina at Georgie Girl :) Clear noodle boxes from Crazy Clarks filled with jellybeans and lolly snakes from Tom's (as above) and wrapped with ribbon from the AnK collection :)

Lollipops are pushed into floristy foam that was wrapped in white paper and edged with rainbow tape.

"Rainbow Juice" mini lemonade plastic bottles from Woolworths. Bottle labels designed by

Little Spunky Monkey applied to the bottles with clear packing tape. 

Labels were printed on a laser printer. Different coloured food colouring

added just before the guests arrived.

Rainbow cupcakes. Cupcake toppers designed by Little Spunky Monkey.

Kindly sampled by my gorgeous niece Miss C.

The party table.

Rainbow Table Skirt (fabric bunting) and rainbow tape (around lollipop boxes)

available from The Party People

The lollipops were very popular !!

Miss M samples the jelly oranges.

Miss C has another rainbow cupcake !

Personal cupcake recipe with lots of food colouring.

Think I have covered everything !! Will blog about the cakes and games later :)

Hope you enjoyed reading about our Rainbow Party.

Madeit Monday - Rainbow Bright

Well the Rainbow Party was a success, I think there will be 20 VERY exhausted children in central Queensland today, promise to post photos soon.  But first here is our madeit Monday blog - all things rainbow and bright and colourful !!

Rainbow Bunting Flags Milly Molly Mandy $30

Pinwheels & Pearls Ribbon Wand with Jingle Bell Ladidah $8.40

Rainbow Spot Beanbags My Georgie Boy $35

Custom Rainbow Print Three Cats Studio $16

Rainbow Pillowcase Dress mushroom and me $30

Personalised Rainbow T-Shirt The Crafty Nomad $28

Boys RAinbow Stripe Cotton Necktie Cheeky Jasmine $15

Rainbow Tutu Little Fish Creations $35

Have we mentioned how much we love madeit ?? We were thrilled to open up to the top sellers page this morning and find we are Number 1 madeit seller at the moment, thanks everyone for all you shopping support.  Hope you have fun browsing all our rainbow finds :)