Since her kids were born on the same day, Bird of Bird’s Party wanted to settle on a theme for a joint boy + girl birthday. Living in the country near lots of farms, she new exactly what popular theme she would recreate this time… a Kids Farm Animal Barnyard Party (with some serious creativity)! “Hatching Chicks” cake pops displayed in egg cartons labelled with “Free Range Eggs” box labels, printable red barn favor boxes and mini metal milk churns filled with candies!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Cupcakes inside mini metal pails, with green frosting & shredded wheat cereal “hay”
• Milk bottles topped with mini straw hats and printable cow inspired bottle wraps
• Mini “Farm Orchard” with homemade apple cake pops displayed in a stand covered with hay
• “Pigs in Mud” chocolate pots with “Made on the Farm” labels
• Mini white picket fence, hay bales & grass “tablecloth”

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Bird…

Styling & Printables

I love thinking of fun, unique ideas and twists on popular birthday themes, and it was no different for my kid’s this year – We always have a joint party as they were born on the same day, and the Barnyard Theme was a perfect solution for their 5th and 7th birthday celebration this year!

As we live in the country near lots of farms, I relished the chance to incorporate some of the familiar farmhouse details in the decor like hay bales, gingham, burlap and grass! Another feature I really wanted to use to help bring the farm look to the party and to the desserts table, was a traditional American red barn. So I created a Barnyard Printable Party Collection and party invitation invite based around that and the farm animals.

The desserts table backdrop was created to match the printable designs on a large white canvas, and I decorated it with construction paper, real straw and synthetic grass – All using hot glue.

For the main desserts table, I used an old wooden table and simply covered it with AstroTurf that I purchased at my local fabric store to measure.

The white picket fence, from a garden center, helped complete the look and frame the top of the table. I also incorporated some sunflowers in old milk churns from the farm, and red gingham rosette bunting around the table using the printable scrapbook papers from the collection.

Food & Drinks

I wanted to create a “farm shop” look for the main desserts table which I set up indoors, and filled it with farmhouse or homemade produce: a homemade apple and berry pie instead of a cake with a personalized birthday banner, homemade “Pigs in Mud” chocolate pots with “Made on the Farm” labels, a large wooden bucket filled with apples, “Hatching Chicks” cake pops displayed in empty egg cartons labelled with “Free Range Eggs” printable egg box labels, candy eggs inside egg shell plastic containers, as well as the farm animals decorated cookies from Maman Les P’tits Gateaux, which were displayed onto a square bale of hay.

Other iconic farm details on the table included mini metal milk churns from Ma Plus Belle Decor, filled with milk candies and displayed on mini hay bales from Curious Country Creations. The mini churns were covered with red gingham scrapbook paper. The milk bottles also had a “farm” accent with the addition of mini straw hats (which also helped keep the bugs at bay!) and wrapped with cute “Farm Fresh Milk” bottle wrappers.

Each little guest had their own little British-style “Ploughman’s Lunch” inside a glassine sandwich bag which I printed directly on to, with the labels from the Barnyard Printable Collection. They also received a red barn favor box filled with farm animal sweet treats, which were kindly shipped over to me from the UK by my sweet friend Gillian from Crumbs of Comfort Cake Design.

The sitting area was set up on the patio outside and contained a whimsical mini “Farm Orchard”, which I created from lollipop sticks and covered with hay. This was also used to display homemade apple pops so the kids would “pick their own” just like in a normal farm orchard.

Each place setting and dessert was labelled with a DIY farm-style mini sign that I made using some of the printables and lollipop sticks. On each place setting there was also a cupcake displayed inside a mini metal pail. I topped each with cream cheese colored in green, and decorated with shredded wheat cereal to emulate hay. All topped with a cute printable animal topper from the Barnyard Collection.

Favors & Activities

Favors included milk carton favor boxes filled with farm cookies which the kids decorated during the party, the red barn favor boxes with sweet treats, barn animals party hats from the printable collection and DIY Stick Horses, which I made by gluing large horse icons from the printables kit onto wooden dowel rods purchased at my local hardware store. These were decorated with red gingham ribbon and buttons for a whimsical look. Farm honey pots decorated with wooden bees and printable labels were provided for the parents from a local farm.

We had fun playing charade games where each child had to guess the farm animal hat they were wearing, as well as racing their stick horses. I also set up a little cookie decorating station with blank sugar cookies, cookie cutters and all the ingredients for them to decorate their own farm animal sugar cookies from Crumbs of Comfort cake Design, which they also got to take home inside their milk carton favor boxes!