Nora's Rainbow Birthday Party {Take 2}

Monday was Nora's 4th birthday! My little girl is truly getting so big!

Her birthday happened to be the 1st day Kyle had to report back to work…so she got a surprise birthday wake up call ;)

We all stormed into her room and sang happy birthday! She was so excited…in fact she asked for the same wake-up call following her nap ;) Daddy picked her some flowers on his way out the door and she loved that…it may have to become a tradition.

After breakfast we decorated the house. Normally I would do this the night before, but she requested to help decorate. Yes, my 4 year old LOVES to decorate! Nora requested another rainbow birthday party, which was great because I still had most of the decor from her party last year. We laid down a rainbow table runner, hung up rainbow lanterns, put out the flowers from daddy, made rainbow kabobs and decorated the mantle. It was very simple, but very Nora.  We also went out to buy balloons. She strayed a bit from her rainbow theme when she chose princess balloons, but since it was all about her we went with it.

For the favors we found rainbow cups and filled them with Nora's favorites: princess candy necklaces, crayons, sparkly rainbow pencils, rainbow stickers and huge rainbow lollipop.

If you haven't guessed Nora is a bit particular about her tastes and for weeks she has been asking for a chocolate cake with orange frosting, flowers and rainbow sprinkles. While I don't fancy myself a cake decorator I thought I could fulfill her cake dreams. She helped me bake and frost the cake. Then I added the sprinkles. It's certainly not professional, but she thought it was beautiful!

For her party Nora was allowed to invite 1 friend for a day of fun. Nora chose to visit the Bead Boutique to make necklaces. For any locals with girls the Bead Boutique was a wonderful place to host a party!

 They each got to choose their beads and create their own "pattern"

Then they strung their beads and the shop owner added the clasps. The girls had a ton of fun perusing the bead selection and it was so fun to hear the explanations behind each bead ;) They did great stringing their beads and their final creations were perfect!

showing off their new necklaces

After Bead Boutique we went for an ice cream snack and then back home to get ready for dinner.

proudly wearing their party hats

 After a Mexican themed dinner it was time for presents.

 Nora was so excited about each gift! She received lots of things she wanted like an Elsa dress, a new Jessie, tiara, "glass slippers," a rainbow unicorn dress, a unicorn stuffed animal and more! We gave Nora a baby bed that used to belong to Mema (more on that in another post).

these 2 also had fun in the their party hats

 Then it was time for cake and ice cream.

Blowing out her candles 

ready for some cake too

Everyone approved of the cake ;)

As we were putting Nora in bed she said, "Mom, I LOVED my birthday!" And that's what it's all about…making her feel special on her special day. Mission accomplished!