I want to be a rainbow: Halloween 2010

I started asking a couple of months, ago.

Sometimes, she would say something odd:

“Ironman!” (though she’d never seen the movie).

“A sharoolannan!” (one of the many words she’s made up).

But over and over, no matter who asked, she would respond with one thing:

I’m going to be a rainbow for Halloween!

And so she was.

As costumes go, it was actually quite easy to construct, only complicated by the fact that I left it until the very last minute to begin making it. The rainbow is hand-cut and tempura-painted foam board that are attached to rainbow suspenders. She’s wearing clothing and socks she already had, most of which was a gift last Christmas. A piece of yellow foam board (from the 99-cents store) was attached with masking tape to a yellow headband that she already had. People kept running into it and it broke in half while we trick-or-treated.

Now certainly the final result is nowhere near as cool as kid Robocop. But if Lyra had seen Robocop on Halloween, she’d probably have burst into tears. Just as she did whenever we saw a boy dressed like Ironman, or anyone wearing a mask of any kind.

This year she was far more terrified than she had been in the past. And an adult with a ghoulish mask almost brought our trick-or-treating to a close before we could get past the second house. I promise to pay the therapy bill, because I am going admit that her fear had me laughing until tears streamed down my face. See the end of this video for evidence:

[Or click this link to view it because I can’t seem to get it to imbed on this page]

It’s not that  I wasn’t sympathetic; in fact, I was truly empathetic. I was once the kid who was terrified by everything. My imagination was too easily triggered and it didn’t take too much horror imagery to send me reeling into nightmares for months (years?). I was in high school before I ventured into my first haunted house. I avoided Disney’s Haunted Mansion like the plague.

But, I did eventually get over it. Kind of. Some adults on our trick-or-treat outing may/may-not have witnessed my walking nervously away from a teenage boy dressed as Leatherface. I may have reeatedly chanted, “Not a fan! Not a fan! Not a fan!” The burst of anxiety may have made my eyes mist. Or it may have been allergies. I’m not admitting to it either way. But if you were there, you just might have seen that.

I’m certain that someday a three-foot-high ghost costume will seem cute to my girl and she will find this video of her running away in fear to be downright hilarious. Until then, please don’t tell her that her momma was so insensitive as to put together a photographic and video compilation of the event and post it on internet? Deal?

 

(Roy G Biv) Rainbow Birthday Party: Portrait Project

I would love to say that every portrait I took as part of my Rainbow Party group panorama was stunning and amazing. A few were, but for some reason I completely lost the ability to focus any time someone in red in posed for me. Seriously, every single red portrait was underexposed or a partial blur.

My apologies to all my beautiful, red-wearing guests. I did not do you justice.

Here is the entire portrait in it’s rainbow entirety (none of our orange guests were able to make it, and we sadly wound up with only one blue and one yellow. So, it’s a girly rainbow—heavy on the pink and purple (click to view larger):

And here are a few of my most-successful portraits of the day:

A few more are on flickr. You can see the misses by scrolling through the panorama.

(Roy G Biv) Rainbow Birthday Party: The Sweets

While the rainbow salad and fruit bars provided some generally healthy party fair, I made sure to balance those out with a healthy dose sugary goodness. Although I would have loved to do a full-blown, color-coordinated dessert bar, Amy Atlas style, sometimes it’s best to know when to simplify. So rainbow-colored candy in simple abundance is where I decided to go.

By now you know that we didn’t get a picture of anything, including the vibrant and yummy rainbow popcorn. So, the images below are borrowed from the web and credited to the original source. All of the candy was loaded in large, glass vases (PÅLITLIG from Ikea) and apothecary jars that I borrowed from a friend.

Swirl Lollipops from Oriental Trading

These were prettier than they were tasty, but fine for the price.

Sucker Assortment from Oriental Trading

We still have a lot of these. They have vibrant colors and a yummy fruity taste. They were a big hit with the birthday girl.

Machine size gumballs

We placed these in mason jars and then stuffed in handmade paper flowers in an assortment of colors (tutorial coming soon).

Rainbow Popcorn

This is messy, but surprisingly easy. you need a lot of bowls and willingness to clean up a bunch of colored sugar when you’re done. The popcorn can be made multi-color or single color, depending on your event. Less colors, means less bowls, and less clean up. Here are the steps (adapted from this recipe and inspired by this party on The City Cradle)

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
• 1 medium-size bowl for every color of popcorn you wish to make (I used 5 bowls plus the pot)
• 2 quart heavy bottom saucepan
• 2 cups of granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup of water
• 1/4 cup of butter
• food coloring (I used Wilton’s gel colors)

Directions

1.  Line a cookie sheet with heavy duty aluminum foil. Butter gently, or coat with non-stick spray.

2.  Make popcorn (un-greased is best). You can use an air popper or Alton Brown’s paper bag popcorn method. I use this microwave popcorn popper whenever I am making large quantities of popcorn for caramel corn. Let your popped corn cool and shake the bowl several times to make all unpopped kernels fall to the bottom of the bowl.

3.  Place an equal amount of gel coloring in the bottom of each bowl. For rainbow popcorn you will place a dollop of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple each in separate bowls. Set aside.

4.  Place your saucepan on the stove over medium-high heat. Add water, butter and sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring regularly. The boiling mixture will resemble light corn syrup.

5. Remove the sugar mixture from the heat and distribute evenly amongst the food-coloring bowls. Be careful, as melted sugar is VERY hot.

6. Stir the colored sugar mixture in each bowl, using a separate spoon for each. The colored sugar should be glossy and even.

7. Distribute the popcorn evenly amongst the bowls. Lifting the kernels out by hand and avoiding all unpopped kernels behind.

8. Working quickly, stir the contents of each bowl until the popcorn is well-coated and colorful.

9. Pour the colored popcorn onto a cookie sheet to dry and harden. Leave extra syrup in the bowl, if any.

10. When popcorn is cool and hardened, break up large clumps with your fingers and enjoy. If popcorn remains sticky to the touch after it has cooled, or there are large pools of syrup on the sheet, place the entire sheet into a 250-degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes and allow to cool.