a sunshine-y rainbow-y 3rd birthday

** don't miss the discount codes and free printables at the bottom of this post :) **

so if you follow me on instagram [alyallen1], you know that Reese turned three last week. 

May 14 was her big day, but since my husband had a meeting that night and wouldn't be able to celebrate, we just acted like her birthday was Tuesday [which was the 15th]. 

since she can't read a calendar and has no idea either way, it totally worked!

Tuesday morning she woke up to balloons in her room

we made cinnamon rolls for breakfast

and sang happy birthday and she blew out a candle

and i hid her little gifts around the house. since i spent a total of $10 on all the "gifts", i thought this would make it more exciting. i don't know if i'll do this every year, but it was fun... so i probably will.

so that evening, all her grandparents & great-grandma came over for burgers/hot dogs and cake.

oooohhh the cake.

i had seen the rainbow cake around for awhile. i can't remember what jogged my memory, but it was probably shauna talking about these guys on instagram... and it hit me, ah yes! the rainbow cake! i knew i had to make one for Reese's birthday. so i searched, and of course, the rainbow cake was pinned a bazillion times.

via

the only tweaks i made to the recipe? i used boxed white cake mix and betty crocker made my buttercream frosting. nothing from scratch. i was nervous enough about the rest of the process, so i didn't want to add on the homemade aspect. too much pressure and it wasn't worth it for me. i was mostly going for the awesome look of it. and you know what? it tasted awesome, and looked like i'd spent hours. those are my favorite kinds of tricks :) to say i was elated would be an understatement!

so, here's the before. the anticipation was literally killing me since i had no idea how it would turn out:

she absolutely LOVED when we started singing. 

like for that moment, all attention was totally and completely on her. she soaked it all up.

annnnd after:

amazing right? i loved how the colors were a little more bright and neon-ish than the recipe. 

there was no way i could add enough food-coloring to get those deep primary colors.

in case you can't tell in the background there, 

i made some cute little prints to go with the "you are my sunshine" theme.

yes, this is the third set that i've designed. but it was so perfect! 

anyway, i added them at the bottom of this post in case you want to print them out :)

a couple more fun things i wanted to share with you:

this weekend i'm doing 40% off in the shop. 

YES, FOURTY PERCENT OFF! of anything.

use code "CELEBRATE" to take advantage of that goodness.

if you've been eyeing a particular hoop, or some prints, 

and just couldn't quite pull the funds together, then now's your chance! 

[and TRUST ME, i know it's so hard to justify spending money on extra cutesie/unnecessary stuff like this]

one print comes to $7.20 and hoops range from like $11-$16 at this discount

and also zazzle.com is doing 20%-60% off on various products, which is amazing.

wrapped canvases are 60% off. the prices are almost unbelievable at that rate.

here's the link to my shop where you can get my designs on all kinds of products

use code MEMORIAL2012

[like last time, if you want a particular product but don't see a certain design or color scheme in the zazzle store that is in my Etsy shop, just email me, or leave a comment on this post, and I'll add it to the zazzle store]

and now for the free printables that i used for Reese's birthday ---

just click on it, and it'll open larger in a new window. 

right click on that and save to your computer. open it up and print.