Farm Birthday Party

For Alexis' third birthday, we had a farm theme.  It went so very well, I thought I'd share what we did at the party.  In planning the party, I actually read many accounts on the internet of people who had already done farm parties for their children.  So, a lot of these ideas came from others and I just stole them :-)

For decorations, I used mainly Shindigz which had a lot of great and cheap farm party items.  Evite had a cute child farm themed invitation that I used as well.  In the invitation, I let the guests know that since the theme was farm they were welcome to come in overalls or plaid to fit the theme.  The party started out with guests getting their pictures on our rocking horse (seen above) as they arrived.  I'm going to print these pictures out and send them in thank you notes.

I made name plates as you can see above.  I cut card stock in half and folded each half to make the plates.  Then I printed out pictures from Microsoft clip art, cut them out and glued them to the name plates.  I wrote the names of the guests on the plates and put them against one wall in our living room, spaced out evenly.  The reason I did this was that every activity we did involved the guests taking home something.  Every time we finished an activity, the guests put their item by their nameplate so all items they would take home at the end of the party would be in one place.

Once guests had their picture taken on the horse, they came inside and then made a farm animal puppet.  I used the Make a Barnyard Animal Sticker Set from Shindigz.  Guests put the stickers on card stock and when they finished, I cut around the animal face, then attached a Popsicle stick on the back with tape, creating the puppet.  I had coloring sheets for those that finished early, but didn't need to use them since everyone finished at the same time.  (As a side note, it's always good to have something on the side to do if you see bored guests!)  We then all sat on the floor and sang "Old MacDonald."  Whenever a guest's animal puppet was mentioned, the guest held up the puppet and made the animal sound.

Next we sang "The Farmer in the Dell."  I had printed out pictures of each character in the song from this website.  I printed them on card stock and cut them out.  Each guest played a character in the song and "took each other" as we sang the song.  They got to keep their printed out character.

I next asked the guests what farmers do on the farm (note how "Farmer in the Dell" made the transition from animals to farmers :-D).  One of the guests defined a farmer perfectly, describing him as someone who takes care of animals and plants crops.  I said, "Yes, and the farmer's animals have gone missing.  We need to find them."  Each guest then got a box (cute bandana decorated ones from Hobby Lobby's party section) and was sent out to the backyard to find five hidden farm animals that they then got to take home.

Next we did the other thing farmers do: planted seeds.  I had dirt, Styrofoam cups, bean seeds and a watering can.  Guests filled their cups with dirt, planted the seeds, then watered them.  They then took them inside back to our dining room table where they made scarecrows that went into the cups to "guard their seeds."  My husband created the scarecrow pattern to put on Popsicle sticks.  I pre-glued the hair, hat and heads together, the shirt and gloves together, and the pants and shoes together.  The guests glued the various parts onto the Popsicle sticks in order and drew a face on the scarecrow.

We next ate cake.  I ordered the cake from Market Street.  As the children (and adults) ate the cake, I read farm books I had gotten at the local library to keep the guests entertained.  We then opened presents.

Finally, I had purchased some pink balloons and drew pig faces on them.  I told the guests the last thing they needed to do before the party was over was catch a pig to take home and dumped them out of a garbage bag I had them in.  It was a great last activity as children love batting balloons around.  As each guest left with all their crafts and items in tow in plastic bags, we handed out barnyard coloring books as a final party favor.

I learned three important things from throwing this successful birthday party, three pieces of advice I found on the web that were invaluable: 1) Keep the party moving.  I worked to have no downtime during this party.  You need to keep children active.  That's why I had the coloring sheets in case I needed them.  Also, when Alexis was opening her presents, I had set out a farm puzzle on a table, a Fisher Price farm on our hearth and farm animal lacing cards by our TV.  These served double duty, not only as decorations, but as play items so children weren't bored while Alexis opened her gifts.  2) Piggybacking (pun not intended :-D) on the first piece of advice is keeping the party a reasonable time length.  I planned for an hour and a half.  Especially for children at a young age, this is a good time length.  Also, I think morning times are good because children are just starting their day and less likely to be cranky as a result of being tired.  3) Do something for the adults.  At Alexis' age, adults will stay at the party with their children.  I had a table set up with snacks for adults (a caramel dipping sauce, apples, smokies and juices).  We also set up chairs in our backyard.  I told parents they were welcome to stay with their children, but if they wanted to get away from the birthday events, they could also snack and talk in the backyard.

All in all, we threw a successful party.  One mother told me her daughter raved about how much fun it was.  I think all the activity and keeping the kids busy is what leads to a child really liking a party.  That, and a lot of fun activities that included things they participated in making themselves and could take home.  Now, to think about next year ;-)