Barnyard Bash -2yr- Cardboard Barn

Just this last week we had a barnyard bash for my daughters 2nd birthday.  I had so much fun planning it. 

First I made invites on my computer using barn graphics that came with my software. We planned for late morning early afternoon party so the kids could still get their naps in. We invited family and friends, so all children were accompanied by an adult. On the invitation I invited the adults to bake a homemade pie for a pie baking contest (We had 7 entries). I also told everyone to wear there farm attire.  I had a hard time finding farm plates and napkins that I liked so I just went with the standard red and white flowered gigham pattern.  I was able to find the paper products very very cheap at a paper factory store. 

I made the party hats out of white card stock and drew black cow spots on them and tied red yarn to hold them on. I found blowers at the dollar store and cut diamonds out of craft foam, put a hole at the bottom and top to put the blower threw and wrote happy birthday jamie on them with a cow sticker.

I made a cow birthday cake with a recipe I found on the family fun website.  We had lunch that included some farmyard favorites such as a corn roast on the grill, and a cold slice of watermelon, along with regular lunch food.  For desert we had the cake and all the homemade pie and some homemade ice cream that the kids got to help make with a hand crank icecream freezer.  For drinks we had white and chocolate milk chugs and lemonade and ice tea along with some other favorites. 

I made birthday signs on my computer for inside the house and out.  also I was able to find some farm yard animal cutouts online.  I made them into a mobile for kitchen chandelier inside.  We had farm yard window clings and red and white balloons, I also got extra white balloons that I used that trusty black marker on for cow spots.  We had all the tables set up outside, just the food and cake were inside.  We had about10 hay bails set up outside to sit on.  I set up a little barnyard using a huge corregated box for a barn.  I just painted it red and used white duct tape for the door and window. (my husband cut out those with his jigsaw)  The box already had some cutouts on the side so I just bought some little white wire fencing (the kind that's rounded with no sharp ends) and make a little fenced in area next to the barn, inside I put all the farm stuffed animals I could find. 

On the other side I lined up some hay bails and placed the kids wagon behind them with hay inside with a sign that said wagon rides.  Next to the fenced in area I had the kids rocking horse, the kind that is connected to a wood frame with springs.  also I took their stick horse and stuck it into a bail of hay and gave them some ropes my husband made so they could lasso the horse.  I borrowed some fake trees from my mom to add to my barnyard seen, (we have tons of trees in our yard, I just wanted them to be small enough for the kids to reach). I put their goodies into red bandanna's and hung them from the 2 trees like apples.  The barnyard turned out really cute, the kids had a great time playing in the barnyard. 

For activities we borrowed a trailer from a friend for a hayride and we were able to pull all 12 kids and 3 adults with a lawn tractor. we just lined the outside of the trailer with hale bails, and the kids sat on them with there feet in the middle. ( we live on 1 1/2 acres and the neighbors allowed us to go threw there 2 acres also).  We also did a penney scramble in the hay I put quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies plus some extra little plastic farm animals I had left from some soap I had made for the goodie bag.  I had plastic bags with names made up ahead of time for the kids money and candy from the pinata.  Which leads me to the pinata.  I found a cow that mooed when it was hit.  What a blast that was. 

I filled it with the standard candy that doesn't break when it hits the ground and some rubber ducky squirts and some puddy eyed farm animals I got from oriental trading company.  We also had some added excitement when my husband found a gardner snake(harmless).  I couldn't believe how the kids just went right up to him while he was holding it.  In the goody bags I had homemade clear soap with plastic farm animals in it.  I made some chocolate suckers with a cow and tractor mold.  They had farm animal magnets that they had to assemble, a punch balloon and a farm stuffed animal. 

Also on the table for the adults I had a little flip photo album that I had put a bunch of farm sayings and meanings in that I had found on the internet.  like "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" and some not so common ones.  I put the saying on one page and the meaning on the other.  I had about 16 of them. It was fun cuz the older people had heard of most of them but the younger ones had never.  Behing them I put some picures of the birthday girl from the past year. I also made the birthday girl a special birthday outfit.  I took an old pair of jeans and cut off the legs i sewed a bandanna ruffle around it to make it a skirt, I added some eyelet lace and a bandanna belt that she just tied, we had already had a white t-shirt with a bandanna print in the center for her.  We also had some cow tatoos. 

A great time was had by all.  Some things I didn't do that I wanted to were to take pictures of each child in front of the barnyard to send with them in the thankyou's I got some of the kids, but I didn't get them all.  Also I was gonna make my husband a t-shirt that said pie judge on one side and on the back bribes accepted.  By the way the peanut butter pie won.  tHe prize was a pig kitchen timer and a notepad shaped like a pig that I found at the dollar store.