Birthday Parties have been a passion of mine ever since I learned to blow out birthday candles . Whilst I can count the number of actual parties that I had as a child on one hand, I have always found even the simplest of celebrations to be magical. There’s something about balloons, streamers and cake that brings out the child in me even today.
It’s probably no surprise to you to hear that when the kids were younger I themed their birthday parties around their current passion. To make things easier for myself I generally combined their respective celebrations into one. Whilst I have covered Master R’s Minecraft Party and Miss N’s Frozen Party in past threads, I thought it would be fun to revisit the Farm Party we had a few years back.
Our whole family love farm animals. My kids know that milk comes from cows (sometimes goats) before the carton, eggs from chickens and they’re certainly not ignorant about where the meat we eat actually came from. With a surge in their enthusiasm for visiting the family farm just outside Daylesford, Victoria we thought a Farm Party was a fitting celebration for a combined party.
With the theme sorted I went about sourcing the perfect invitation, decorations and then entertainment. Yes, I outsource the entertainment every now and again. It usually means the day will be trouble free for me and I will have some time to talk to the guests.
For invitations I turned to Etsy. I like to personalise our invitations and you can usually find an invitation template on Etsy that will suit the look you are after. Little and the Girl is full of gorgeously designed invitations by the very talented Mara Penny. She incorporates and image of your child into the design to create an individualised look. Initially I discovered Mara’s invitations when I happened across her Strongman selection so I approached her to see if she could create a Farm Party invitation. She whipped one up very quickly and you can now personalise it for your own Farm Party.
Lolly bags are something that tend to always appear at parties. I loved them as a kid and my own children love to receive them when they head out to a party themselves. I searched for different options that I could use from red barn style boxes to red and white checked bags. In the end I procured some small jars from a $2.00 shop, filled them with a mix of boiled lollies and jellybeans and capped them. To make them look like homemade farm jams, I cut cycles of red checked tissue paper and used rubber bands to dress the lids. The finishing touch was the addition of labels I made from the invitation – a picture of Master R and Miss N.
For decorations I headed to Oriental Trading for table covers, cowboy hats and a plethora of goodies. At the time, Oriental Trading only took international orders from overseas and shipping was just over $30.00 BUT I did receive it within 3 days of the order. The pricing at the time (and with a good Aussie dollar) was comparative to prices here in Australia but I was able to source more than I could here. A dozen cowboy hats set me back around $24.00 US. A dozen red and white checked table covers a mere $16.99 US. I also found a dozen red bandanas ($10.99 US), an assortment of tableware, and an assortment of moustaches just for fun.
My next step was to find the entertainment. I did my research on mobile animal farms in Sydney and decided on Kindifarm – kindifarm.com who have an excellent reputation. The Kidfarm Birthday Package lasts for two hours and includes hand feeding the sheep, rabbits, ducks and chickens; bottle feeding the calf; putting sunscreen on the piglet, hand shearing the lamb, and learning how to hold baby chickens. Everyone, parents and children alike loved the animals. Master R was actually sick on his birthday (how does that happen) but made an appearance to feed the calf its milk.
Food? It wasn’t all corn fritters. We created a buffet of salads and fired the BBQ up to create a rustic farm lunch for our guests. Dessert was cake with an assortment of biscuits, jelly and small items.
Thinking about a farm party yourself but lack a backyard? Calmsley Hill City Farm and Golden Ridge Animal Farm here in Sydney both offer farm party packages at their venue where they will cover everything you need.