If you told me at 21 that one day I would be planning a birthday party with rainbows and unicorns, I would have laughed. Its not that I don’t like rainbows or unicorns, it just tends to be a very “typical” theme and I gravitate away from “popular” themes. But if there is one thing I love about Evelyn, she is exploring what SHE likes, and right now, unicorns are her fave. So together, we poured over Pinterest (more like, I poured over Pinterest and she flitted between playing and looking at pictures) to figure out how she would like to celebrate.

After some brainstorming, we decided to make unicorn bracelets, have an obstacle course for the kids, and a unicorn piñata. I found the cutest idea to have an adopt-a-unicorn station as the favor for party guests, and of course, I wanted to make sure everyone that attended had plenty to eat!

Some of the prep work I did:

Planning the obstacle course –

We already have a slide and a crawl-through tunnel, so I looked around for some ideas that incorporated those items. We got Evelyn a tumbl trak mat for her birthday (great for practicing gymnastics at home!), bought some hoola hoops, pool noodles, and she also received great step stones similar to these for her birthday. We made a circuit with all of those items and then had our water table and baby pool in the middle in case anyone needed to cool off after running the circuit a few times.

Prep for the unicorn bracelets –

I found an adorable rainbow bracelet on Etsy that I used as inspiration and went on a bit of a shopping spree for beads. I know my girls will enjoy bracelet making with the left over supplies, so I wasn’t too worried about the excess. I bought letters so they could put a word or name on their bracelet if they wanted, rainbow pearl beads, rhinestone beads, spacer beads, resin unicorns, and jump rings to attach the unicorns to the bracelets. I knew this would be more of a parent participation activity for the age group, but making bracelets is like, totally in right now, am I right?

Adopt-A-Unicorn –

I found beanie boo unicorns in a variety of colors and even a few different animals (lion unicorn, kitty unicorn, narwhal) for our guests to choose from. I love the smaller 6” size beanie boos, they are portable, still large enough to be snuggly, without taking up a ton of space. I also really like to give favors that are a bit elevated while simple.

I printed out the cutest sign from Etsy to go with the station, and found boxes to create unicorn carriers. Then, using some graphic design know how and half page labels, the unicorn carriers were complete with a line for each party guest’s name so no one would get their unicorns confused.

The custom boxes also served as a great place to put all of the goodies kids collected from the unicorn piñata.

Unicorn Piñata –

It would be easy to just say great things about the unicorn piñata and leave it at that, but to be honest, from a parent standpoint, the piñata was a bit of a flop. We opted to go with the ribbon pull style since Brian just didn’t feel great about putting a bat in the hands of 4 year olds. The mechanism worked fine. HOWEVER, the legs of the unicorn were hollow and not blocked off for goodies to fall down into, and when the piñata was pulled open, the legs did not open, so there was a ton of goodies trapped. I had to do some impromptu surgery on the poor unicorn to open the legs and let the rest of the treats fall. I know what to look for next time!

I don’t mind sugar now and then, but I like to encourage the idea that treats are a “sometimes” food (thank you Elmo’s World!). So when considering what to fill the piñata with, I chose a combination of: cheddar bunnies, yum earth gummies, pixie sticks (hello nostalgia!), unicorn horns (swirl lollipops) temporary tattoos, stickers, and play jewelry. I think there was enough excitement from the kids while also a bit of relief from the parents, knowing they weren’t going home with a car full of kids hyped up on sugar.

Lunch –

Evelyn is at a stage where she is very particular about the food she eats. Since it was her birthday, I wanted to be sure SHE would eat the food I served! We selected a menu of chicken strips/chicken nuggets, a variety of French fries, veggie platter, fruit platter, unicorn snack mix, unicorn ice cream cone cupcakes, iced tea, lemonade, and water. I found some great inspiration posts on Pinterest for fun ways to display the veggies and fruit. And check out the unicorn snack mix! It was delicious.

 

Unicorn Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes –

This was Evelyn’s request after looking at lots of different unicorn cake and cupcake ideas. She saw some in ice cream cones and that was it! I’ve made hundreds of cupcakes, maybe even thousands, but baking them in cones was a first for me. I followed a great recipe and they turned out pretty good. The cake was a homemade confetti cake and I think I would use higher quality jimmies in the recipe next time to improve the flavor, but overall, the texture of the cake was moist without tasting like it wasn’t done. That was my main concern with baking in the cones.

The icing was also a new technique for me because I did a three color buttercream. After making the plain buttercream, I separated it into three bowls, added gel color for really vibrant pink, turquoise and purple. Then I spooned a line of each color onto saran wrap, rolled, and then dropped the entire tube into my piping bag with tip no.1M The frosting piped beautifully onto the cupcake cones! I added the finishing touches: black icing eyelashes and fondant unicorn horns covered in edible gold dust. Fabuloso! And when I tell you Evelyn’s face lit up at the sight of them… Those are the moments this mama lives for.