Garden Birthday Party Ideas

Garden birthday party proves to be a great theme for an outdoor party.

There are plenty of games and activities to turn all the guests into gardeners!

Resources:

Invitations

For garden party invitations, buy seed packets from the garden store. Write the party details in permanent markers on the backs. Enclose packets in envelopes and mail to the invited gardeners.

As a variation, mail an apple to each guest in a small box. Write the garden birthday party details on a card and tie it to the stem. Include a recipe for baked apples.

Purchase some artificial flowers and mail them to guests in decorative bunches. Attach a card with the party details.

The wording for your garden birthday party invitations can say "Roses are red, violets are blue. (Birthday child's name) is turning (age) and wants to invite you... to his (her) Garden Birthday Party." Include the rest of your flower party details.

Decorations

Tie paper flowers around the yard. Hang large posters of vegetables and fruits (available at teacher supply stores) on the fence and walls.

Hang Mylar flower balloons around your party room. Put flower posters on the wall. Turn yellow latex balloons into bumblebees by using black streamers for stripes. (Draw eyes and antennae with black markers.)

You can also make flowers out of balloons: join five same-colored balloons in a bunch. (Blow up the balloons only half way so they are round in shape.) Blow up two more balloons for the flower "center". Surround the center with the original five balloons for flower petals."

Print out large words on colored paper posters. They can read "How does your garden grow?" or "Stop and smell the roses!" Then stick the posters on the wall. Hang plastic butterflies from the ceiling on clear threads. Decorate the house with real flowers, silk flowers, tissue paper bouquets, flower pots, nests, birds, and bird houses.

Cover the garden birthday party table with green or yellow table cloth. Set real or plastic fruits and vegetables on the table. Put several real flowers in a vase for centerpiece.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities

*Garden Party Face-Painting: Turn each garden birthday party guest into a flower child by face-painting flowers on their cheeks and bumblebees on their noses.

*Flower Door Hanger Activity: You can get a craft kit from a party store and have the kids decorate their door hangers with flower pieces, sparkly letters, and colorful gems.

*Decorate a Flowerpot: Have the kids decorate plain terra cotta pots with Cray-Pas oil pastels.

Because the oils stay permanent, first have the kids sketch their designs with pencils. Then they can trace the sketches with the pastels.

*Pot a Plant: Once the pots are ready, let the gardeners fill them with flowering plants that they can take home. Impatiens, pansies, or marigolds are perfect for this project.

Help each garden birthday party guest pot his plant and moisten the soil. Then set the potted flowers aside for safekeeping until the flower party ends.

Favors

For your garden party favors, give seed packets, garden gloves, trowels, soft plastic rings, glitter bracelets, flower sticker sheets, etc.

Garden Birthday Party Games

*Garden Glove Puppet: Give a single garden glove to every guest. Provide a variety of items used in creating finger puppets: wiggly eyes, tiny hats, felt, puffy paints, markers, and so on. Let the kids make their own glove puppets.

*Name Garden: Give each guest a flat metal tray such as small cookie sheet or tin box. Fill the tray with a layer of potting soil. Have the kids "write" their names in the soil using grass seeds.

Spray the dirt lightly with water and set in indirect sunlight for the rest of the garden birthday party. Then send them home with the gardeners. In a few days their "names" with begin to grow!

*Pin the Stem on the Flower: Before the party, draw a large flower on construction paper. Cut out paper stems for all your garden birthday party guests. Blindfold the kids, one by one, and get them to stick their stems on the flower.

*Bug Hunt: Before your flower birthday party, hide plastic insects around the yard. Give each guest a baggie and set them on a bug hunt. They have to find as many plastic critters as they can.

They may trade bugs at the end of the activity and take them home as garden party favors.

*Butterfly Bean Bag Toss: Have the kids toss the bean bags into pots or buckets. You can also get a cardboard flower mural with holes cut out. (They are available at party stores.)

*Funny Foods: Buy unusual looking foods (e.g., turnips, kumquats, poi, celery root, etc.) at gourmet or ethnic food stores. Display the items one at a time and have the players guess what each one is. If they don't know, have them make up a funny name for the food item. Award prizes for correct answers.

*Sweet as a Rose: Buy a variety of fragrant flowers at the florist, and put them together in a vase. At game time, have the kids close their eyes. Pull out one flower at a time, pass it around to the players in a circle, and have them identify the flower based on its smell.

*Portable Greenhouse: Draw outlines of greenhouses on green construction paper. Cut out the center of each greenhouse, leaving a one-inch edge around the outside, then distribute the outlines with plastic lunch baggies to the kids.

Have them moisten a paper towel, fold it in half, and place it on the bottom of the baggie. Rest five beans or seeds on top of the towel.

Tape the cutout greenhouse around the baggie as a frame, then tape the house to a window. Have the guests take their framed baggies home and place them on their own windows.

*Taste & Tell: Cut an onion in half and set it on the table. Gather the kids around the table, blindfold one of them, then give her a small piece of a vegetable or fruit to taste. Before tasting the item, the kid must take a whiff of the onion to help disguise the taste. Award prizes for correct answers and repeat with all the kids.

Flower Birthday Cake:

*Flower Cake: Bake a sheet or round cake according to package directions. Frost it with white icing. Tint shredded coconut green with food coloring and sprinkle all over cake. Top with edible flowers or candy flowers.

*Sunflower Cake: Bake 9" round cake. Frost the cake yellow and place it in the center of a serving dish. Put mini Hershey Kisses (or other small chocolates) on top for "sunflower seeds." Start in the center and work in circles to the outer edge.

Frost about 16 Twinkies yellow, and place them along the outer edge of the cake for "petals."

Garden Birthday Party Food Ideas:

*Garden Face Sandwiches: First, make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then decorate the top of each sandwich with fruits and vegetables cut up to resemble funny faces.

*Fruit Flowers: You flower party guests can "plant" their own "flowers" on their plates. Put a slice of kiwi or banana for a flower center. Next, arrange strawberry (cut in half lengthwise) or raspberry petals around it. Then add a shoestring licorice stem with fresh mint leaves.

*Nuts Over Seeds: Set out bowls of seeds and nuts for the garden birthday party guests to munch on during activities.

*Sunflower Pockets: Spread cream cheese inside half of a small pita. Next, stuff the pocket with raisins, grated carrots, and raw sunflower seeds.

*Fruits & Veggies: Serve a variety of cut-up fruits and vegetables skewered together on sticks. Offer fruit and veggie dips on the side.

*Ants on a Log: Fill 5" celery stalks with peanuts butter. Add raisins on top for "ants."

*Critter Crunch: Mix pretzel sticks, yogurt covered raisins, animals crackers, etc. in bowls or plastic baggies.

*Gummy Worms
*Flower-Shaped Marshmallows
*Ice Cream

Garden Birthday Party Drink Ideas:

*Herbal Tea: Brew some herbal tea to serve over ice in frosty mugs. Or, you can serve it hot with honey and slices of orange and lemon.

*Lemonade