Ellie's Rainbow Party

On Monday we celebrated Ellie's third birthday with a "rainbow" party. I am in no way gifted at throwing parties - in fact, I usually find them really stressful to plan and get ready for. But I had a little extra help this year. The day of Ellie's birthday I decided to start of the morning by reading Proverbs 16. This verse jumped out at me: "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." (vs 3) I've recently learned how different my days can look when I start them off by asking God to order them...but on this particular day I knew I'd need extra grace! I committed my to-do list of 500 things to the Lord and asked him to bring peace and order to the whole day. It was quite extraordinary. We had an incredibly peaceful, productive day.
Anyhow, for some bizarre reason I am hard-wired to believe that I can't plan a child's party without a theme of some sort or another. I try to tell myself that it would be fine to just do nothing, but a theme always ends up happening anyways. After humming and hawing with Ellie over a few different options (she suggested 'oceans' and 'cherries'), I realized that choosing a 'rainbow' theme would be appealing to her and super easy for me. So with a little persuasion, a rainbow party it was!

Shortly before Ellie's friends arrived we painted a rainbow on her cheek. She was over the top excited about her guests coming!! We chose to do a supper party so that just Ellie's closest four friends and their moms could come (siblings stayed at home with their dads - we're pretty cramped for space). All four girls have been Ellie's friends since birth...and it was pretty amazing to see them all relating to each other as 'mature' three year olds. :)

Not all of them wanted rainbows on their cheeks, but they did all pitch in and help to 'decorate' our 'table cloth'.

Noodles and meatsauce and veggies and dip were the main course! Most girls were too excited and distracted to really eat.

After supper everyone went and played, and of course, dressed up.

For dessert we decorated ice cream sundays (with rainbow m&ms and sprinkles) instead of having cake. I nearly forgot the candle...so Ellie's ice cream was almost melted and finished by the time we stuck it in there.

The sugar did it's job!

Next came the gifts. Here's Ellie's dear friend, Chloe, telling her all about the gift she gave her.

I couldn't believe how peaceful it was with no babies! After the girls went home with their (what else) rainbow-themed goody bags, Ellie slept loooong and hard. I was so thankful that God had reminded me to trust him with the details. Normally this details-oriented, perfectionist of a mom would have been exhausted and tense by the end of a party day. But there was only peace and joy to be found instead. I was reminded yet again everything is better when He is involved, and that God is a truly a transformer of hearts!

p.s. I hope to post a little bit about "3 year old Ellie" yet, but am having trouble finding free time these days!! So there's more to come...check back.