Down on the Farm

I like having parties at my house. When I was in college, I spent 5 semesters living with a gal who loved to throw them as much as I did. We turned our dorm room into an place to welcome our friends several times. One Christmas we collaborated with our next door neighbors and threw a big party using our rooms and the area between them.

I also like to make cakes and cards. I've thought in the past that they might be good ways to generate extra income, but I've discovered that both take more effort than people are really willing to pay you for, so it's better to just save that effort for those I love most.

For Caleb's 2nd birthday I considered several possible themes, but finally settled on a barnyard theme inspired by one of his favorite books "Duck on a Bike". I bought several copies of "Duck on a Bike" on eBay to include in the goodie bags. Decorating was easy - I just rounded up all the barnyard related toys!

I made these barn cards for invitations.

I made cupcakes decorated like sheep, pigs, and chicks. I got the sheep pattern from Family Fun magazine and the pigs and chicks from Taste of Home.

Caleb's Little People Barn was a great backdrop for the cupcakes.

The whole spread: We had a "vegetable garden" tray, pumpkin roll ups (sun-dried tomato tortillas rolled with american cheese and a sprig of cilantro), and chicken salad.

This was pretty much my only completely original idea for the party - everything else was an assortment of things I found in magazines or on the internet. I made these goodie bags out of inexpensive burlap fabric and wrote on them with a sharpie. Inside were the books, farm stickers, some bubbles, and a cow lollipop.

The cow lollies were really easy to make. I bought a cow mold at a candy store.

Finally, Caleb helped me make these thank you notes. I did the big pig and he did the little ones. It's pretty tricky to work with a hot pink ink pad and a toddler, but we didn't make too big of a mess! The inside reads, "Thank you very much!".

I had a lot of fun getting all this together. I think we'll do it again...in a few years!