5902

Farm Theme -1yr- Pig Pen of Balloons

March 2003

Denise in St. Martinville, Louisiana USA

Runner-up

For my son, Landon's, first birthday we decided to go with a farm theme.  Almost every time I have gone to a child's first birthday party it is the same teddy bear theme.  For my child I wanted something different.  I found the cutest first birthday farm party supplies on the internet.  It was a barn with baby farm animals around it and said my first birthday.  Since Landon's favorite toy is his little people farm set I thought this was a great idea. 

For the invitations I made little barns out of red card stock.  On the outside it read "Come join the fun  Old McLandon's turning one!!"  Open the doors and the information was inside.  It read "Your invited to a barnyard birthday bash!  For:  Old McLandon D----  Place:  Old McLandon's Farm  address  Date:, Time:. Etc.  At the bottom of the invitation I wrote "wear your farm best!"  I decorated white envelopes with barn and farm animal stickers to send them off in.  For decorations I purchased first farm themed plates, napkins, table cloth, confetti, centerpiece, banner, mobil, hats, and blowouts.  For extra plates, napkins, and forks I used solid red.  I also decorated with red, yellow, and white balloons and streamers everywhere.  I hung a cluster of balloons from the middle of the covered porch we had the party under.  From the cluster I hung streamers.  I pulled the streamers out toward the corners of the porch and pinned them up letting the remaining  streamer hang down.  I tied a bunch of three balloons (one of each color) at each corner where the streamer was pinned.  It gave a very festive look. 

I also had several bunches of helium balloons tied around the party area.  I used bails of hay for the guests to sit on.  I put out several farm related toys for the children to play with.  These included a stick pony, a ride on pony, and a farm play center that the babies could crawl through.  On the side of the porch I set up a farm scene.  I made a barn out of cardboard boxes painted red with white trim and a white x on the door.  I put out a wooden rocking horse, a cow made out of a sawhorse covered in cow print fabric with a yarn tail and a cow head I printed of the internet and painted, glued to foam board and attached to the sawhorse, a small galvanized bucket with water and several rubber duckies, a pig pen with pink balloon pigs. 

I made the pig pen out of paint stirrers painted brown and tied together.  I make the pig balloons using pink balloons, drew a pig face on them and used pink curly ribbon for the tails.  I also put brown fabric in the pig pen to look like mud.  I made a small clothes line out of wooden sticks painted brown and attached twine between the two sticks.  I used clothes pins to hang little farmer clothes (a diaper, denim coveralls, white T-shirt, red socks, brown boots, and a hankie)  I made several signs for my little farm yard.  They said "Don't feed the animals", "Welcome to Old McLandon's Farm", "Duck Pond" (taped onto the galvanized bucket), "Pig Pen" (taped to the pig pen).  I also used a wagon filled it with hay and placed four little fake chicks in it. 

Under the porch I had three tables--a food table, a cake table, and a gift table.  The food table was covered with a red and white checkered table cloth, sprinkled with farm confetti, and had a banner that read "Party Animals" over it, and two bunches of helium balloons on either end.  I used wooden serving baskets lined with red handkerchiefs for the plates, napkins, and forks.  We served hot dogs and potato chips.  The food was all on this table.  At one end of the table I used a galvanized tin filled with Chex mix and shoe string potato chips.  I labeled the tin with a sign that said chicken feed. 

The cake table was covered with the farm themed table cloth, and sprinkled with confetti.  I placed a banner that went with the party theme over the table along with helium balloons at either end.  I  had cupcakes that I had made myself.  For these I used green icing and flower sprinkles.  The farm confetti had big pieces which were different baby farm animals wearing party hats and holding balloons.  I bought Popsicle sticks cut to the right length and hot glued one piece of confetti to each stick.  I stuck the sticks into the cupcakes.  They looked like little animals playing in grass and flowers.  These were very cute. 

I lined a platter with foil, sprinkled some confetti, and put small pieces of curly ribbon around the platter to dress it up a bit.  In the middle of the table was the cake.  I made a standing barn cake.  I made a three layer cake, cut the edges of the top of the third layer to make the cake shaped like a barn.  I iced it red with a brown roof.  I used graham crackers to make the roof look more realistic.  I put two graham crackers on the front for the doors trimmed them in white icing and drew a white x on the doors.  I also drew a loft window with the white icing. 

For the silo I used Oreo cookies stacked and iced red and place a marshmallow pinwheel cookie on top.  I placed the cake on a rectangle cardboard which I had spray painted with green food coloring spray paint (to look like grass).  I sprinkled yellow tinted coconut (hay) around the barn and coming out of the loft window.  I placed a die cast john deer tractor on the side of the barn.  In red icing I wrote the phrase " Happy First Birthday Landon" in front of the barn.  In my family it is a tradition that for a child's first birthday he have a small cake to play in and eat all for himself. 

For Landon's cake I made a smaller version of the barn cake using a little house cake pan.  I iced it red with a brown roof.  I drew doors with an x on them and a loft window with white icing.  I put his cake on a round piece of cardboard sprayed it green and sprinkled yellow coconut around it.  I placed all of his little people farm animals around the barn and made a mud puddle out of chocolate icing.  I put the little pig and a number one candle in the mud.  It was the cutest little cake I had ever seen. 

The next table was the gift table.  I used a red and whited checkered table cloth, and sprinkled confetti on it.  I hung the farm themed mobil over the table.  I used a wooden apple basket to put the goody bags in.  For these I used red and white gingham fabric to make little bags, placed the favors in the bags and tied them shut using twine.  I made little name tags using the confetti.  I glued a small piece of posterboard to the back of the confetti, punched a hole in the top, wrote the child's name on the back and tied them to the bag using the twine.  For the older children I gave a bag of gold fish, a pack of lemonade, a bottle of bubbles with animal stickers on them, a sidewalk chalk with a chalk holder, and a sheet of animal stickers, and a small box of colors.  For the babies I gave a ginger bread man cookie, a pack of lemonade, bubbles, stickers, crayons, and a small beanie animal (either a cow, pig,  or a chick).  I also gave each child a coloring book that I made. 

On the cover sheet I put lots of farm animals and a big barn and the saying Old McLandon had a farm!  E - I - E - I -O!!!  I changed the name for each child so their name would be on their book.  I printed out little people farm coloring pages from the internet.  For the last page I typed Oink, Quack, Bah, Moo--Old McLandon thanks you…..For coming to his first birthday party.  I also put a picture of a little man riding a tractor.  I used a tin baking pan lined with a red handkerchief to display the coloring books. 

I also had two prizes for the games on this table.  I used red gift bags, hot glued the farm confetti to the bag, stuffed it with yellow tissue paper and tied it shut with light yellow raffia with a little confetti animal hanging from the bow.  I then placed Landon's gifts on the table as people arrived.  In front of the table I had a few bails of hay which I also put gifts on.  I made a sign that said Happy Birthday Landon and stuck it into the hay using wooded sticks.  I dressed both of my children in white shirts, denim coveralls, boots and red hankies.  I dressed in white and denim with a hankie and put my hair in pig tails.  My husband even dressed with the theme.  As the children arrived they received a hat, blowout, animal sticker, red bandana, and a stamp on their hand for pony rides.  For entertainment I had a farm CD playing in the background throughout the party, pony rides, hay rides, lots of farm related toys and 3 games. 

One game was just for fun.  I made a bean bag toss game.  I used a green poster board, glued a barn and several farm animals to it, cut out holes and glued it to a piece of cardboard.  I made little bean bags out of cow print fabric.  This was great for the older kids.  I also had two games for prizes (one for the older kids and one for the babies).  For the older kids I used the wagon with hay and fake chicks in it.  I placed several plastic eggs filled with candy corn in them.  The winning egg had baby chicks in it (yellow pompom with goggly eyes glued to it)  The children were each given a turn to search through the hay to find an egg. 

Once every child had an egg they were instructed to open them.  The child who had found the chicks babies was the winner.  The prize for this game was a gumball machine, an extra pack of gum, and a large bottle of bubbles.  The baby game was finding the rubber ducky with the highest number.  I used the "duck pond" for this game.  Each baby was to pick a rubber ducky from the pond and the child with the highest number on the bottom of their duck was the winner.  The prize for this game was a farm animal wash mitt and a farm animal teething book.  The children were all able to keep their eggs and ducks as party favors. The children had a lot of fun riding the pony and going on hay rides.  We also had a baby goat that the children took turns feeding. 

The pony and the goat were lent to us for the day from a friend of my parents.  The best part was that it was free.  They also let me use hay for the party.  We hooked up a small trailer filled with hay to a four wheeler for the hay rides.  Instead of a pinata I filled a small swimming pool with hay and hid lots of farm related toys, candy filled plastic eggs and other candies in the hay and had a hay find.  I gave the children white bags with cow spots colored on them to collect their goodies. 

A few things I forgot to mention-- I used a large galvanized tub filed with ice for the drinks (canned coke, squeeze punch, bottled water, and boxed lemonade).  I also wrapped all of Landon's gifts in animal wrapping paper or gift bags.  The children had a wonderful time.  It was a beautiful day filled with fun and lots of memories.  The children left with lots of goodies--bandanas, hats blowouts, stickers, goody bags, and coloring books.  Landon had a great time (especially with his little barn cake), and when it was all over I felt that it was all worth it. 

Happy party planning and hope that all of your parties give you life long memories!!

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