Farm Girl Birthday Party!

     Miss E has always been quite the farm girl. From the moment she could pull herself up and peer into the brooder at our new chicks at eight months old she has been obsessed! So naturally now that we have a "real farm" with spring babies, I felt that a farm party was in order. Miss E has always been pretty easy to sway as far as party themes go. Her requests are typically quite reasonable and non-specific. For her fourth birthday party she wanted lots and lots of balloons. For her fifth birthday party she wanted to invite only people who like cats, and this year all she wanted was to have a red cake. She also requested that the color scheme be red and pink.

     I always plan my children's parties MONTHS in advance so I have lots of lead time to make the invites and as many of the decorations that I can by hand. I used to scrapbook before I became a mom, so I am able to tap into the creativity that I miss using in that way by hand making these items. I also used to be an elementary school teacher and I must admit that I LOVED putting together units and lesson plans equally as much as I loved to teach them! There is just something so energizing about the planning stage; brainstorming, writing lists, googling images (of course now I have Pintrest!,) making invites, decorations, favors, planning a menu, games and/or activities... I just love it!   

     In fact, I am constantly on the lookout for items for my "party closet" and on some level I am always planning at least one or two of my children's parties in the way back of my head. I have been known to go WAY OVER THE TOP, especially for all three of our childrens' first birthday parties! I have been slowly simplifying things as we simplify our daily lives, so with that in mind I really tried to keep that part of the theme as well. I have also learned that if I do too much I don't get to enjoy the day with my family and friends which is supposed the be the entire point, right?!

One of our four new piglets.

Our first batch of home hatched chicks.

      Before I even began my Pintrest search I had the whole thing pictured in my head. I knew I had an old chalkboard in the garage that used to be in my pretend classroom in the basement when I was a kid, and I wanted to use it for the welcome sign. I also knew I wanted to use our driveway cones (that just happened to be pink) to mark each pen of baby animals, and I pictured simple animal silhouette's to label each pen. I used a couple google searches for inspiration and just free handed pictures onto contact paper to make patterns for the petting zoo signs.

Two of Meadow's Kids, born 3-13-13.

The female kits from Hazel and Ivy's first litters, born 3-3-13.

     I also made a simple garland out of twine, mini clothespins and pink and red bandanna scrapbook paper that I had on hand. I cut the flags using pinking shears and fastened them to the twine with little wooden clothespins from my craft stash. We bought balloons from the dollar store and tied them on strategically placed  bales of hay in and around the garage. This worked out nicely since Mr. J had recently purchased several bales and we hadn't yet gotten around to putting them away. My favorite decoration was the wreath that I made using leftover paper, candy canes, and clothespins from the invites and favors. There were 7 hearts, so I put a newborn picture as well as a picture of Miss E at ages 1-6. We still have this hanging in our dining room and it will most likely make it's way into miss E's bedroom eventually.

     Miss E helped to make the favors. We made bandannas for guests to wear upon arrival and Candy Cane ornaments for them to take home. I had been on the lookout for pink and red stuff and I scored almost all of our paper goods on sale after Valentine's Day. My best find was the pink and white candy canes that we used for the favors on sale for 90% off at Big Lots! you can't beat $.20/ package! Using lace and pink paper from my stash we came up with a cute heart ornament that was easy replicate and put together with the glue gun in one sitting.
To make the bandannas, we used cloths that I had on hand, stuck the contact paper animal silhouette's on them, and used empty spray bottles to spray paint Rit dye onto them. They dye colors were supposed to be red and pink but came out looking more like pale and light pink to me. They still looked pretty cute on our guests who would dare to wear them!

     For the cake I loosely followed the plans for this  Barn Cake and animal cupcakes. I used gluten free graham crackers and candies that I already had on hand to make the cupcakes. I just had to add a goat and a bunny! I also used one of my favorite cake recipes from Gluten Free Goddess instead of a box. YUM!!!

          The party was at 2pm so we served snacks, cake and ice cream. I made Muddy Buddies, Bunny Berries (muddy buddies with Kix cereal instead of Chex,) Chicken Feed (Chex mix,) Farm fresh Eggs (deviled eggs,) and had a "Farm Stand" of fresh fruit and vegetables with hummus and my homemade ranch dressing. Mr. J made the Hay Bales (Rice Krispy Treats,) and Hay Stacks (Cornflake Treats.) My grandmother brought chips and salsa and my mom brought chips and dip. For drinks we had soda, iced water, fruit punch, chocolate milk, coffee and tea.

     My favorite part about the drink station was the cups that I made out of jelly sized mason jars and plastic lids. Mr. J simply drilled a hole in the center of each lid for a straw and I adorned them all with different combinations of lace, twine, and ribbon so that they would be easily identifiable without having to label them with names (think wine glass tags.)

On a whim I set up a rice table to keep the kiddos occupied while we finished getting set up.

Our kiddos greeting guests in the driveway.

Guests of all ages really seemed to enjoy the animals.

Our Farm girls in their element.

Classic "Miss E!"

Mr. J and Mr. T enjoying the party.

     All in all I think this may have been one of the best parties we have thrown for Miss E! It was easy to plan, fun for almost everyone who came (except my poor mom who is allergic to hay and animals,) and ended up being something that truly reflected who Miss E is. She is a true "Farm Girl" at heart and feels right at home on this little farm of ours. 

Mrs. J :)