Barnyard Bash -2/4yr- Cow Balloon Centerpieces

My 4 year old son's and my 2 year old daughter's birthdays are both in the same month. For the time being, I wanted to do their parties together.  I had a hard time trying to to decide on a theme that would suit both of them.  I decided to have a Barnyard Bithday Bash. 

I started out by trying to find a place to have the party.  I rented a gym at a local church and had plenty of room to create the right atmosphere for the occasion. 

I made invitations by cutting out a barn on red card stock.  I used a white paint pen to make the details on the barn and drew a white picket fence.  I put small farm animal stickers (pigs, cows, and chickens) on the bottom of the invitation and made it look as though the animals were in front of the  fence.  I also drew some sunflowers behind the fence.  The barn doors opened to a small piece of white paper that gave the information for the party in red ink.  I wrote for everyone to wear their barnyard best. To add to this part of the invitation I took a black sharpie and colored cow print in around the words.  It may seem that this took a long time, but once you figure out what you are doing, it goes pretty quick.  

For decorations I got several bales of hay and layed them around the "barnyard".  I bought barnyard animal beach balls from Oriental Trading and layed them on top of the hay.  It really looked cute.  The kids had a great time playing with the balls, too.  Every child took a ball home at the end of the party.  We also had lots of balloons.  I used red and white balloons.  I really wanted everything to coordinate, so I cut out small pieces of black felt and glue them onto the white balloons.  They really looked like cow print balloons.  I put the red and cow print balloons together at the center of each table. 

I, not only, needed something to tie the balloons to, but I also needed a center piece for each table.  So, I took 2-liter soda bottles and made farm animals out of each of them.  I painted them according to what animal they would become.  There were pink pigs, brown horses, and black and white cows.  I used sheets of colored foam to draw the faces and feet and tails.  For the horse I used yellow yarn for the mane.  I then took a cow print party hat and place them on top of the bottle and ran the ribbon of the balloons through the little hole in the top of the hat.  It made it look like the farm animals were wearing the party hats and also served as a great balloon weight. 

I had a hard time finding cow print party hats, so I just went to the dollar store and bought plain white party hats and, again, cut pieces of black felt and glued them on. The table cloths I used were just the red and white checked.  So, were the plates.  It really added the right touch for a barnyard party.   The food we served was hot dogs with individual bags of chips.  There were boxed drinks for the kids and sodas for the adults. 

The cake was just a sheet cake iced in grass green icing.  I found a barnyard set at Wal-Mart,in the toy department, that had a cardboard barn, which was the perfect size to put on the corner of the cake, and white plastic fences and plastic farm animals.  It was really, really cute and even cheaper to make.  I also had cupcakes with green icing and a farm animal on each.   

The kids had a great time having stick pony races.  I just took a yard stick and zeroxed some pictures of some pony heads.  I colored them and glued them on the yard sticks and added a little rope which I looped around for the reins.  There was a visit from a barnyard clown, which really was fun. 

The last activity was a hay find.  This was, hands down, the greatest part of the party.  Every kid and adult was in the hay, throwing it around hunting for toys.  I got all of the toys from Oriental Trading and The Dollar Tree. 

For goody bags I took white lunch sacks and painted black spots on them (cow print) and filled them with goodies. I then folded the tops down and punched 2 holes in it and ran a red ribbon with a small cow bell on it through the holes and then tied a bow.  I also found barnyard puzzles at the Dollar Store and wrapped one for each child.  Because each child brought a gift for my children I wanted each child leave with a gift from my children.  The reactions of the children when Trace and Hollie gave them the gift was great.  They were so excited.

The party turned out really great.  Every child that came wore their "barnyard best". I hope that this will help give some ideas to those looking.   Happy Party Planning!!