Farm Birthday Party

 

My little Oliver turned 2 a few weeks ago and you know what? At this point in my life, I can not think of anything cuter or sweeter than a 2 year old little boy. He is such a ray of sunshine in my life and has brought such joy and laughter to our home. Oliver was a surprise! Due to very difficult pregnancies we thought we were done having babies after two. But God knew better! I am so thankful God knows what I need better than I do. Oliver is such a gem!

 

We celebrated his actual birthday at home, just the 5 of us. We had a little cake and gave him his presents. He was so excited about his new trucks and tractors - especially his backhoe. He yelled "Back-HOE, Back-HOE" with extra emphasis on the "hoe" part! Ha!

 

The day after his actual birthday, we had a farm party on Grandma & Boppa's farm.  Oliver loves hanging out on the farm with Boppa and is very into animals and tractors.

 

Big sister, Claire was all dolled up, as usual. She always has very strong opinions about her attire for special occasions.

 

The menu was a very country-picnic type of theme: grilled hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, corn on the cob (from Boppa's garden), baked beans, potato salad,

potato chips, watermelon, and deviled eggs.

 

 We used red and white checked tablecloths for the tables and farm party plates and napkins from Birthday in a Box. Click the picture below to get to the website for ordering information.




 

 

 The beverage choices were lemonade or white milk.  The white milk was in a pitcher with a mason jar of Magic Milk Straws out for the kids to make their milk chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry flavored. 

The flavored straws were a big hit!

 

I had one table set up for the food and another table set up for the party favors and gifts.

 

I made the tablecloth out of red and blue bandannas. I bought them in packages of two for a little under $2 at WalMart and sewed them together. The big red barn is one of our kids' favorite toys.
We brought it along and kept the party favor bags in it until it was time to pass them out.

 

I had a couple huge sunflower heads from our other grandparents' garden so I included those in the decor.  We had fresh green and red apples that we sent home as party favors for kids and adults too! We had a tractor pulling a hay wagon.  The "hay" was Rice Krispie treats with red Pull & Peel licorice for the binder twine (string.)

  

Here is Oliver peeking out through the rails of the deck! Notice the "Oliver" hat?!? We also had a collectible Oliver toy tractor that Oliver got from his Uncle Dan when he was born.

We had large cardboard cows set up on either end of the table along with our stuffed horse we affectionately call "Gutterball!"

 Here is our friend, Lilly riding Gutterball!

 



The party favors hidden in the big red barn.

 

The party favor bags were purchased at WalMart from the craft section. I added farm stickers and raffia ribbon to "countrify" them up a bit! Inside the bags were either a horse or pig Webkinz

key chain, a little plastic tractor, and a sheet of farm animal stickers.

 

I found this farm foam craft kit at WalMart. The kids each got a sheet of foam and then got to make their own farm scene with fences, barns, farm animals, and letters.

 

 

 

Then Grandma and I led everyone in a round of Farmer In the Dell!

We also used the parachute and everyone got to run under when their name was called!

That was a hit!

 



Big Brother Hugh and Big Cousin Jake took turns giving mini hayrides

on the little wagon with the John Deere lawn mower.

The birthday boy front and center!

 

He spent a lot of time pretending to drive it himself too!

 

He loved his cake and was especially excited about the baby chick cupcakes!

 

I'm so bummed we didn't get a better picture of his cake. It was adorable, if I do say so myself! I made it - a barn made from chocolate cake with lamb and chicks cupcakes along the sides.

I used food coloring to color coconut to make it green for grass - I put the coconut in a Ziploc bag and added a few drops of green food coloring then shook the bag. Worked good. I did the same thing for the yellow chicks with coconut and yellow food coloring. I cut the corner off from orange slices sugared candy for the beaks. The lamb cupcakes were mini marshmallows and chocolate chips for eyes. The cupcakes came together very quickly and were really cute!

He was a little embarrassed and got shy about everyone singing to him!
He buried his face in my neck!

 

 

See his shirt says "Chicks Dig Me!" It is one of his favorites!

 

 

One of his favorite gifts was from Aunt Cherie, Uncle Danny, and cousins Jake and Nicky. His own tools!  Oh, he was so excited!

 

 

 

 
New John Deere trucks and tractors were a big hit too!
He was genuinely delighted with all his gifts and really appreciated each one!

 

 

 

 

 

One of the highlights of the party was the straw bale maze Boppa made.

The kids loved running through it!

 

He didn't put his tools down at all after he opened them!

 

Special memories with cousins and friends (and again, he is holding the tools!)

 

 

Riding Boppa's horse, Cabby was another huge highlight of the party!

 

Cabby got lots of love that day!

 

Everyone got a turn!

 

 

 

 

Claire and Oliver got to ride with Aunt Cherie. Oliver was a little crabby about it!

And notice (below) he is still holding onto his new tools!

 

Hugh is an experienced rider!

 

 

Our little family!

 

Thank you, Boppa and Grandma for the great farm party!

 

Big brother agrees with mama - nothing sweeter or cuter than a 2 year old little boy!