Farm Birthday Party Ideas - Barnyard Theme

Have some fun with your child's farm birthday party. Get ready to transform your backyard into a barnyard. Your young guests will be excited about the following barnyard birthday ideas.

Resources:

Invitations

You can make your farm birthday party invitations yourself. It's easy - just cut out a barn shape from red card stock. Don't forget to cut and fold back the doors so they open.

Next, coat the entire perimeter of the barn's back (avoiding doors) with glue. Then press the barn shape onto white card stock. Cut around the barn shape and your invitation is ready. Repeat the process to make as many invitations as you need.

Fold back the "barn doors" and write the details of your farm birthday party on white surface. The wording could say: "Down on the farm, that's where we'll be...to celebrate Fall (Summer, etc.) with family. Pigs, ducks, and chickens, too... The only thing we need is you."

You can keep your farm birthday party invitations simple, if you choose to. Just put animal stickers (or draw animals) on the 5"x7" cards, and then write the party details inside.

Decorations

It's best to have your farm birthday party outdoors. It fits the theme and makes the cleanup a lot easier.

Hang yellow, white, red streamers and cow mylar balloons around party area. Scatter the backyard area with hay and add a few pumpkins to make it look like a farm.

You can make your own barn out of extra large rectangular box. Round the front and back flaps on top of the box with scissors.

This will form the rounded roof. Bend the smaller side flaps in toward the middle to work as supports.

Next cut out barn doors (large enough for the kids to crawl through) with an X-Acto knife (only adults should be doing this). You can paint your barn with red paint and add trim with white tape. To raise the roof, tape a few sheets of white poster board (end to end) lightly ceasing them to round the roof.

Use red-checked tablecloth as table cover. Place several stuffed (or plastic animals) on the table for the centerpiece.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities

*Barnyard Animal Transformations: As farm birthday party guests arrive, grown-up farmers (adults dressed in overalls) can transform the party-goers into little animals with face paint and accessories (animal noses, etc).

*Coloring Pages: While kids are waiting for others to arrive, you can get them to color the animals in the coloring book.

*Farm Magnet Craft Activity: You can get the Farm Magnet Craft Kit from a party store. Have the kids design their favorite farm animals.

Favors

Farm animal party favors can include bandanas, straw or cowboy hats, etc. Tie the bandanas with yarn and hang them from a tree. Kids can pick and wear them during the party to look like farmers.

Also give out plastic farm animals, tiny toy tractors or trucks, animal cookie cutters, or farm stickers.

Farm Birthday Party Games

*Pin-the-Tail on the Horse: At farm birthday party, you can have some fun with classic Pin-the-Tail game. Have the kids pin the tail on the horse where it belongs.

*Lost Animal Search: Hide small stuffed or plastic animals throughout your yard. Make sure that they are not too difficult to find. Get your "little farmers" find the lost animals and bring them back to the farm.

*Animal Sounds Contest: Let the kids have some fun with imitating the sounds of barnyard animals. Award prizes for the funniest, loudest, shortest, longest (etc.) animal noises - so everyone can win!

*Prizes in a Haystack: For this barnyard birthday party game, you'll need candy and prizes - and a big pile of hay. Before the game, hide the prizes in the haystack, and give each child the same amount of time (1 or 2 minutes) to dig through and find prizes to take home.

*Fun in the Barn: Transform your party guests into animals and let them play in the pretend barn. Encourage the kids to make sounds, waddle, walk, and behave like the animals do.

*Musical Milk Buckets: This barnyard birthday party game is a variation of Hot Potato. Kids sit in a circle and pass a small milk container while music is playing. When music stops, the child who has the container goes out of the game (and receives a prize).

*Sheep Herding: Inflate two white balloons before the farm birthday party. Attach pieces of black curling ribbon for the sheep tails. Next, draw sheep faces on the balloons with a black marker.

Divide the kids into two teams. Provide each team with a broom. Line the teams up in the yard.

Get players from each team (one by one) to herd their team's sheep with a broom across the yard and back. The first team to herd their sheep across the finish line wins. Provide extra "sheep balloons" in case they pop.

*Duck, Duck, Goose: This classic game suits perfectly for farm birthday party. Have the kids sit in a circle.

One player is the Fox. She goes around and taps others saying "Duck". As she exclaims "Goose" and taps somebody, the Goose gets up and chases her around the circle.

She has to sit down in the vacant spot (previously occupied by the Goose). If she does, the Goose becomes the Fox.

*Little Piggies: This farm party game can be little messy, but it's fun.

Before the farm birthday party, prepare one small bowl of Jell-O for each child. Line the bowls along the ground if playing outside. If playing inside, put the bowls on paper towels or table cover.

Kids kneel down by their bowls with their hands on the ground. On the command "Go", the kids start eating their gelatin without lifting the hands. The first player to clean his bowl - wins.

Farm Animal Birthday Cakes:

*Cow Cake: Bake one dome cake in a 1-liter bowl, such as Pyrex. Next, bake one 9" round cake and three cupcakes.

Set dome cake upside down in the center of the round cake and secure it with icing. Cut one cupcake in half and use the halves for cow's ears. Then arrange two more cupcakes as legs.

Frost the cakes with white icing. Add "black spots" with chocolate icing.

Decorate your cow cake: add 2 malted milk balls (for eyes), 2 black gumdrops (for nose), 1/2 red Hi-C Fruit slice (for mouth), and black shoestring licorice (for hooves and eyelashes).

*Pig Cake: Bake two 9" round cakes. Layer the cakes, and top them with pink frosting.

For eyes, place 2 M&M's on Necco Wafers, using frosting as glue. For snout, top 1 Snowball with 2 brown M&M's. For ears, cut the half Snowball in half and frost the edges pink.

Farm Birthday Party Food Ideas:

*Serve French Fries and Pasta (for Hay)
*Granola (for Grains)
*Corn on the Cob
*Baked Potatoes
*Beans
*Moo Cream (Ice Cream)

*Feed Bags: Fill small burlap (or Ziploc) bags with animal crackers, gummy worms, Chex Mix, or other animal-theme food. Write "FEED" on the bags with a black marker. Hand them to your farm party "animals".

*Farm Tray: Serve raw vegetables like baby carrots, olives, broccoli, cauliflower, plum tomatoes, etc. Kids, who don't usually eat veggies, will be delighted to eat them! Serve vegetables with dip.

*Animalwiches: Cut out slices of bread, cheese, and meat using animal cookie cutters. Place all animal shapes on a platter and let the kids assemble their animal sandwiches.

Farm Birthday Party Drink Ideas:

*Cricket Cooler: A night before the farm birthday party, fill several ice trays with water. Drop several raisins in each compartment for "cricket cubes" creation and freeze overnight.

At the party, pour 1 tbsp of grenadine syrup in each guest's glass. Next, fill the glasses with cream soda. It will be fun for the kids to watch the transformation of the drink.

*Milk