Farm Party!

I have to admit that another big reason for wanting to start blogging again was the influence of Pinterest in my life! If ever there was a brilliant idea...I wish I could be an early investor like all those early investors of Facebook! I'd be set! ;)

Anyway, like many of my fellow "Pin heads", I turn to Pinterest for inspiration on just about everything these days...from dinner ideas to decorating to creative teaching/play ideas for my Kuntry Kiddo - I don't think there's anything I haven't been able to find!

Naturally, when I started thinking about Hunter's first birthday party where did I turn for ideas?? Why, Pinterest, of course! We had settled on a farm party theme and while I did have some ideas of my own, I just knew the Pinterest community would come through for me! And they did! I found SO many clever ideas and had an absolute blast putting them all together to come up with one happenin' hoedown!

So, this post is my way of "giving back to Pinterest". ;) He he! Maybe someone will see this post and be inspired by something here! And if so...well, then I've done my part. ;)

Ok, here goes! I'll do my best to link to products I used...


Ordered these straws from this seller on Etsy - they were great quality and held up well! I made my own little flags that said "Saddle up for some barnyard fun...Farmer Hunter just turned ONE!" I just printed them out on white paper...kinda plain, but by this time I was on Farm Party OVERLOAD! ;)

I made the birthday boy this hat using a template from Pinterest. I used heavy cardstock scrapbook paper for the main part and then made a mini circle fan to tie into the banner I had made. Then I trimmed it with (1/2" I think) brown ribbon and made a little ribbon pom pom for the top. As you can tell, he didn't really appreciate it. ;) He's not really a hat guy...although I'm not gonna give up trying!

I borrowed a Cricut machine from one of my friends (thanks Jen!!) and it was SOOO nice for making these little circles and the numbers - not to mention all the letters and the stars for my banner. If I wasn't such a cheapskate I would totally go out and buy one tomorrow! Maybe I'll keep my eyes peeled for a "gently used" one. It sure was nice.



Here's a shot of the dessert table - we had farm animal cupcakes made by my talented sis in law, "dirt", "eggs" and a chocolate milk bar for the kiddos, complete with whipping cream and sprinkles - so much fun!! I got the mini straw bales from Michaels and the crate (turned upside down in the middle of the table) from Joanne's. I draped a bandana over it and it made for the perfect cake stand for the tractor cake! I already had the red checkered table cloth and ordered the bandanas from Oriental Trading (we also had extra bandanas for photo booth props).


The recipe I found for dirt was super yummy, but I wasn't exactly anticipating white dirt! Other than that, I loved it. But if you're going to do it, make sure your ingredients are brown! This one called for cream cheese and vanilla pudding...super yum, but again, not brown.

The milk bottles here are re purposed Starbucks Frappuccino bottles that I had been saving up (it totally justified treating myself)...but you can also order milk bottles like this online for pretty cheap. The little milk labels were from this free printable.


I used mini wood popsicle sticks (from Joanne's) to make a "fence" for the big straw bale and stuck a chalkboard garden marker in it that read "pig pen". I used brads to attach pictures of the little man to the fronts of the mini bales and had a couple framed photos too.

"Fresh Eggs" - these were kind-0f a failure. This is why I don't bake. They were intended to be like cake pops, but I used a recipe for no-bake cake batter truffles - I don't know if that was the best route. But you can see how cute it would be IF I knew how to bake. Or no-bake. Or something. ;)

This was our table in the entrance, which had Hunter Trivia sheets and also a five year time capsule where people could write him a little note. I later put mementos from the party in it, like his cupcake topper and some photos. We'll open it on his 5th birthday and maybe make a new one that he can help with! :) I got the (un-ironed - oops) cowprint fabric from Joanne's, as well as the little mini baskets...

My awesome mother in law was so sweet and made up a bunch of bags of caramel corn for the perfect party favor. Her caramel corn is to DIE for. Melt in your mouth goodness.

This was one of my favorite parts of the party! The photo booth! It was so much fun to look back through the photos that people took (I left my camera on a hay bale with instructions for the self timer). The angle wasn't quite right, though, so I think two bales stacked would have been better. The barn door facade came from Oriental Trading.

Here we are with Hunter's tractor! I made another (smaller) fan circle banner that said "welcome" and strung it with mini clothespins and twine. I got the cow print balloons from Simply Bovine and I loved them. I had originally ordered some in my Oriental Trading order but they were super discolored and smelled HORRIBLE - like chemicals. So I got a refund and the nice people at Simply Bovine got my order out right away.

One other thing that was the hit of the party for the kids was the "straw find". We had been to another barnyard party (the day before ours!) and they had one so I totally swiped the idea. We took two straw bales, busted them open and fluffed it up and hid cheap toys and candy for the kids to search for. So simple and so much fun!

I didn't get any photos of our food, but we had a couple different kinds of chili, cornbread, two type of Mac n' Cheese (including Pioneer Woman's "Not your granny's mac and cheese" - one of my favs!), little smokies in BBQ sauce, chips and guac, a "tomato garden", a green salad and lemonade. Easy and yummy.

So there you have it! We had so much fun with this party and I wouldn't have been able to pull off half of it if not for the help of our friends and family and inspiration from Pinterest!