Life Thru a Linds: Kinley's Rainbow Rollerskate 7th Birthday Party

Kinley is SEVEN!

It is surreal.

Each year that passes by and my oldest gets older, I realize how quickly their childhood is going.

Just yesterday I held that precious baby girl in my arms and carried her home from the hospital.

I can't believe it.

Kinley got some new roller blades earlier this year and from the moment she got them she has not taken them off.

She puts them on from the minute she gets home from school until she goes to bed.

So, when she asked for a rainbow-themed Skatetown party, we rolled with it.

(haha, pun intended)

Kinley got to scroll through Pinterest and pick her own invite and she really went for it!

Lots of color on these.

We didn't actually get them all printed and sent out, per se....many received just a picture text of this invite...but, I mean, whats the difference, right?

Who has time to actually mail things?

Pretty early on, Allison sent me this link to Oh Happy Day's giant roller skate pinata.
I immediately shook it off because I couldn't buy it and it was DIY and I knew I had no time to work on a project this huge.
But, I just could NOT shake it.
My love for cardboard creations at birthday parties mixed with my inability to say no and to always overcommit to everything all at one time, was just a bad combination.
So, I went for it.
I did not follow their tutorial really at all.
I used an appliance box from Alex & Mendy and just did what I could with it.
No way was I going to make it an actual pinata if we couldn't use it at Skatetown nor was I going to "fringe" all of the tissue paper.
So, really, do not compare my roller skate to the Oh Happy Day one in any way. But, it is what inspired the largest cardboard roller skate ever.

I just roughly drew theses shoe-like things on the back of some cardboard and cut it out with a kitchen knife.
(Laughing at myself as I even write that...I am the best DIY-er...do not EVER follow what I do)

Then I cut long strips of more cardboard for the depth in the middle and packing taped it all together.

My plan from here was just to paint it...but, since I just run with things and do not plan them out at all, the paint did not stick at all to the packing tape so I had no choice but to wrap it with something.

Allison was over at my house one day and she decided to help me try some tissue paper and we just folded whole sheets in half and started hot gluing them on in rows.

Then I did try some fringe for the rainbow part and the wheels.
I didn't have mylar paper, so I just used good old fashioned hot glue and glitter.

The ONE thing I paid attention to on the Oh Happy Day tutorial was the shoelaces and they just made a world of difference.
Once I got those in, I just loved it.

The work was pretty much worth it because it was the ONLY thing I did for Kinley's party and I pretty much FORCED every person there to take a picture with the "Giant Roller Skate"

How many poses will we see around the Giant Roller Skate??

See I told you....this was not an optional photo opp

There were other things at the Skatetown party....

For instance THE CAKE!!!

What on earth.!?...How can I go on anymore than I usually do about a Mendy cake?
It's impossible. \
Truly.
If you can even begin to find a cake more beautiful than THIS rainbow petal cake, I challenge you!
It was gorgeous.
Truly outdid herself once again!

My vision for the food tables was a rainbow...can you see it??

The table when guests walked in had socks for everyone to wear with their skates, some glow sticks and the party favors. The cardboard happy birthday rainbow is ONLY cute when Shea and McKenna are inside.

Got these straight from Pinterest.
What would fit better than Rainbow Twizzlers with Rolos for a rainbow rollerskate party!?

We limbo-ed, hokey-pokey-ed, and put Kinley in the middle and sang Happy Birthday.

You can tell she just hated the attention from everyone. :)

Our family party shirts were on point!

I have the best resources at my disposal and luckily no one loves a rainbow t-shirt more than my best friend, Kristen from Celebrate-Always.

She busted these out and they looked fantastic.

Kinley had her own vision for her t-shirt.

She wanted to play off Taylor Swift and wanted it to say "Skaters gonna skate, skate, skate, skate, skate" I Loved it! I totally thought she made it up...and she could have...but, I saw a few more on pinterest after she mentioned it. But, she did write a whole song about it and how some people roller blade and some people roller skate but even if you fall, you just have to "shake it off, shake it off."

Love her.

And for sure no one has a shirt this cool!