Farm Party -1yr- BBQ & Corn on the Cob

My son loves animals so I thought it would be great to have a farm party for his first birthday.  I mail the invites 3 weeks in advance and I also ordered everything from oriental trading at this time. 

INVITATIONS: I cut out red barns and then had two longer sides that I folded over to look like doors.  I painted white (white paint pen) trim on barn eves and made white x's on barn doors.  I got two star brads for the doors and tied raffia to close it.  The top of the barn I cut out a window and painted the trim and then I glued a black and white pic of my son in a cowboy hat. 

The top said in rope letter stickers YEE-HAW ZACK IS ONE! Then behind the barn doors said Come join the barnyard fun! Ride a horse or pet a pig there will be animals small and big! Then had all the info and on the bottom said wear your overalls. On the inside of the doors I put animal stickers and grees paper shredded grass.  My older kids helped me make these and loved it. 

DECORATIONS: I ordered the farm theme from oriental trading.  I got cow print balloons on ebay.  I did mostly cow print and red green and yellow accents (table cloths and other balloons.) I made cow print table runners.  I got the plastic boot cups from oriental trading and used those as vases with flowers and I tied a coordinating ribbon on each one.  I had blow up farm animals all over the yard (OT) I had the autograph horse and cowboy pict of my son on the table when you arrived. 

I had a wheel barrel full of cowboy hats, bandanas and farm animal visors for the kids to dress up in.  I got straw bales and used them as seating.  I got the giant canvas and painted a barn mural and I put a straw bale with a stick horse in it to take pictures of the kids.  I painted some giant farm animals on appliance boxes and cut them out for decoration in the yard. 

FOOD: We had bbq pulled pork I just put in the crock pot overnight then put bbq sauce and let it simmer for another hour or so.  We had bbq corn on the cob, corn bread baked beans, chips, lemonade and rootbeer.  I also made a veggie garden I put the dip on the bottom of a tray, I laid the veggies out in rows like a garden I put a mini scarecrow on it with a sign that said Zackary's Garden we also had deviled eggs. 

GAMES:  When the kids arrived they chose something to dress up in, got their pic taken and then there were activities set up for them to float to.  We had pony rides, a petting zoo(a pig, cat and dog), and hay rides (my mom had a lawn tractor with a wagon we filled with hay).  We had a ball pit for the babies, a milk the cow station (a saw horse painted like a cow with big rubber gloves filled with water with little holes in them and a bucket under the udders"

Then we had a duck hunt where they picked the ducks out of bucket of water and got a prize if it had a "P" on the bottom.  Then we had a "garden" with little buckets and seeds and a watering can where kids could plant it and take it home.  After we ate we had a stick horse race then I hid prizes in the hay and timed them to search for prizes. Then we blindfolded the daddies and made them do a pie eating contest.

CAKES:  I always make my kids there own cake and one for everybody else.  For Zack I made him a cow cake out of the animal crackers cake pan it was very cute.  I then made a barn cake. That was a lot of work I carved a cake and stacked it to look like a barn.  I put in on a cake board that I decorated with fondant to look like fields with a toy tractor and grass and a pond with gum paste ducks.  I decorated the barn with red and white fondant with a grey roof. I made more gum paste animals for in front of the barn (cow sheep pig)It was a great party and had great reviews. 

The kids got to take home there dress up outfit and the oriental trading farm boxes."