2191 days

That's how many days my Marley has celebrated on this earth to reach her 6th birthday. Puts things into perspective.....2191 nights of soothing my child to sleep, 2191 mornings worth of smiles when I walk into her bedroom to wake her, 2191 " I love you mommy's" because she tells me every day.

To celebrate we threw Marley a rainbow theme party this year. Luckily for me there are so many fabulous ideas on line, including tutorials and inspirational ideas to get the creative juices flowing.

Streamers and balloons are a no brainer, love the local dollarama store, I seriously don't know what I would do without it.

No party is complete without goody bags, so we had a DIY goody bag table for the kids to pick from an assortment of treats. Homemade pinwheels, rainbow twizzlers, gold chocolate coins ( because that's what's at the end of a rainbow) and smarties.

There a lots of great tutorials online to show how to make these super cute pin wheels, I whipped mine up between episodes of "Game of Thrones" ( our new favourite series). 

The fun colored wool is from dollarama, the kids used it to tie their bags after filling.

The crafter in me could not resist having the kids do a little DIY at the party for their goody bags. One bag of fruit loops + some elastic thread = rainbow necklace!

My first attempt at homemade playdoh was not too shabby. I used koolaid to color and scent it and then added some co-ordinating glitter from the dollar store. There are tonnes of tutorials online for homemade playdoh, it's one of those quick easy things I never think to do but always have the supplies on hand.

It kept the kids busy and was also a fun treat for the kids to take home at the end of the party. We simply divided up the playdoh and popped it into a ziploc bag. I'm even happier that I don't have 10 pounds of playdoh hanging around my house to clean up. It's a win/win situation

A rainbow banner for the party goers to color was a quick, last minute activity which turned out to be super fun for the kids. I had planned to hang it on the wall and take a photo of everyone for thank you cards but you know how time accelerates to warp speed when you're busy, between playing twister, playdoh, crafting and coloring it just didn't end up on the agenda.

Now my favourite part of every party.....the FOOD!!!

In keeping with the rainbow theme there was rainbow veggies with blue corn chips, salsa and veggie dip.

Rainbow layered jello and fairy bread (an australian party must have). Fairy bread is simply fresh white bread, buttered and covered in sprinkles....I KNOW...no nutritional value but sooooo pretty.

Milk was served in cute little jam jars with rims covered in sprinkles. I am so doing this whenever I have a mug of hot chocolate.

The cake was a definate show stopper, looks can be decieving though. The kids were obviously underimpressed at the sight of Marley's cake, that is until the first piece was revealed.

Ta daaaaa!!! So fun, but holy sugar overload. I apologize to all parents for whatever havoc this cake wreaked on their children's blood sugar levels.

 So here's to you Marley. I would not trade a single second of any of the days we've had you in our lives. You are my sunshine, my rainbow....my little pot of gold.