5120

Autumn Harvest - 1yr - Scarecrow & Hay Bales

Oct 2002

Angela in Cabot, Arkansas  USA

Special Mention

Pumpkin Patch Party 

For our sons first birthday, we wanted to do something different from the normal theme party.  After much discussion, we decided to have an autumn theme. 

We started by making invitations that had pumpkins, leaves, and a photo of our little boy (Braden).  The card heading said, Our little pumpkin is Turning One.  In the text portion we said, Our little boy is turning one.  His birthday party will be lots of fun.  There will be food, and cake, and lots to do.  But, it will make Bradens day just to see you.  We invited about 40 people and had about 35 people attend. 

We found a barn front display at a local party store.  We set it up in the back yard directly facing the house.  We bought some hay bales, pumpkins, scarecrows, and mums. We placed a bale of hay, a scarecrow, pumpkins, and a pot of mums around each side of the barn front for decorations. We also got some small wooden posts like the ones they use for yard sale signs to build a small fence.  We attached two hooks on each post one near the top and the other near the middle.  We spaced the posts about 3 ft apart and attached rope on the hooks of each post (in two levels).  The rope draped from post to post and looked like a miniature fence. 

The fence was built along the sides of the barn and up towards the back of the house. We had lots of balloons in all the fall colors attached along of our little fence. Within the fenced area we put two small (child size) picnic tables for the young children.  We put brown paper over each of the table and put crayons on the Table so the children could draw on the brown paper.  At the mailbox, we put a bale of hay and the scarecrow with birthday balloons in the scarecrows hands.   

We grilled hot dogs, sausage, chips, salad, and dips.  I also made a big pan of baked beans (family recipe).  We set the food up buffet style. We had several bowls of candy corn around.  We also made a mix of half candy corn and half nuts for some of the bowls.  Everyone really liked the mix.  We also had cold canned soft drinks, bottled water, and kid’s drinks in an ice chest so that we did not have to worry about making drinks.  That really helped make it easier.  We had some fall leaves on the tables and along the hay bales for added decorations.  The tablecloths, plates, and napkins all had a really cute scarecrow design on them.  I also had several rolls of paper towels on the adult tables with fall decorations on them.  

After everyone ate, we let our little boy attempt to open the presents.  He wanted to play with everything as soon as he opened it.  His favorite gift was a little red wagon from his grandpa. We pulled him around in it and took him, and a few of the other kids, on a wagon ride in the little red wagon.  

I had made a round cake with orange frosting for the birthday boy. We sat him in the high chair and gave the entire cake to him!!  We also had chocolate and yellow cupcakes for everyone else.  The cupcakes were decorated with orange and chocolate frosting with candy corn and candy pumpkins for decorations. We also had ice cream. 

We made a take home gift bag for each of the kids.   We used white paper lunch sacks and decorated each lunch sack with leaves, pumpkins, and each child’s name.  Inside the bag was an orange sucker, a small ball, stickers, crayons, a fall coloring book, a whistle, bubbles, and candy corn.  We also made a small bag of candy corn for each parent in a clear pumpkin decorative bag. 

We also gave each adult a Thank You note that was rolled up like a scroll.  Each scroll said the following:  Dear Friends and Family, One year ago a little Boy blessed our life.  We named him Braden.  In the past year, he has learned so much, like how to drink from a cup, give kisses, crawl, walk, laugh, and love.  He has grown from a little baby to a little boy.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family as a part of our life.  Thank you for coming today to celebrate Bradens first birthday.  May we have many more years of memories together. 

We handed out the bags and the scrolls as each family left.  We took some really cute pictures by our barn display of our birthday boy.  It turned out to be a wonderful day. We were even able to re-use some of the party decorations for a front yard fall display with hay bales, the scarecrows, the pumpkins, the artificial leaves, and the mums.

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