Sweetie Pie Farm Party

My youngest just turned 3. When did that happen? He is currently obsessed with barns, or "cow houses" as he calls them, so a farm themed party was the way to go this year. I had such a blast creating and planning this party. It just turned out so cute!

The signs, banners and other printable items can be found in my etsy shop, if you are interested in throwing your own farm themed bash.

First I have to tell you all that I am a budget party planner. This entire party cost me $60! That includes everything from the decorations and invitations to the food and game supplies. So parties like this are something most everyone can do. I borrowed the cute farm stuffed animals from a friend, along with a few other things. So keep that in mind as an option too.

Let's start with the food table.

We had water and lemonade for drinks in our fancy beverage dispensers. The Watering Hole sign is available in the party pack. Since my son's birthday is so close to Christmas, I found tons of red and green items on clearance. (I need to make a mental note, always make sure I use red and green in his future parties. Haha!) So the jar holding the sign is filled with red M&M's and the adorable chevron paper straws were also found on clearance. 

The super adorable chocolate pops were handmade by me. Once again after Christmas clearance items included a lot of different colored candy melt. I found the farm animal mold on Amazon. You can find it here.  It even comes with the sticks. If you've never made your own chocolates it is easy, and it looks like you slaved away making adorable additions to your treat table. Check out youtube for some great tutorials. 

The cake was my son's idea. It just had to be a barn cake. We made mini cupcakes and put the animals on top so that we would have animals in the barnyard. Kian called the mini cupcakes "baby cakes." It was really pretty hilarious to hear him asking people if they wanted a baby cake. 

I found the cow print napkins at Hobby Lobby and then just opted for red plates and utensils and tablecloth. All of which were found at the Dollar Store. 

The food labels are available in the party pack in my etsy shop. There are some with names already in them or a blank set. Anyway, these carrots were one of my favorites. They were so easy to make. Just fill a cone shaped bag with goldfish and add some green paper on top! I found the bags on Amazon as well. 

The Hay bales are rice krispie treats tied with red string twizzlers. The Tractor Tires are chocolate shortbread cookies (they have a hole in the middle). And the Cow Pies are No Bake Cookies. These were the hit item on the treat table. There were none left about halfway through the party. 

 The free chicks were easy as well. Yellow peeps on a stick. I filled a clear container with some unpopped popcorn kernels and put the sticks in it. The Pig Out sign is also in the party pack.

Finally we also served "chicken feed" otherwise known as cheesy chex mix. Any trail mix or similar mix would work for this. I served it in a bucket with a scoop.

On to the decorations.

 The banner was made using red burlap (on clearance after Christmas) twine, and the paper letter print outs found in the party pack. I even opted for sewing the burlap so that I can rearrange how many are on the twine. The letters were just taped on and can be removed, so the burlap banner part can be used again (I see an awesome banner in my mantel's future for Valentine's Day). The barn is a red tri-fold board that I cut with an exacto knife. I used construction paper to glue on the other colored elements.

The items hung from the ceiling were either clearance or items I had from previous parties. Adding something hanging from the ceiling creates instant party atmosphere. 

The large metal tin for holding presents was borrowed from a friend, as were the items decorating the floor by the food table shown below. 

We had cow print balloons (Hobby Lobby) and "wood" signs, and farmers hats around the party area as well.

Now onto the games!

As the kids were arriving we had farm themed toys out for the kids to play with. We also had an episode of Shaun the Sheep playing.

The first game we played was "Catch the Pig". This was probably the favorite game of all the children.

I had our older party guests get on one side of the pig pen and let the pigs (pink balloons with pig faces drawn on them in marker) escape. The party guests had to catch the pigs and return them to their pen. There was a good 15 minutes of pure noise, chaos and fun as the kids played this game.

Then we played Pin the Tire on the Tractor. Pretty self explanatory. I didn't catch any pictures of them playing this one.

Next we played "collect the eggs". I had egg cartons on the floor and hid some Easter eggs. The kids had to collect the eggs and put them in the cartons. When they filled a carton they got a sticker. After games we enjoyed cake and ice cream and presents. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I know the birthday boy did. He is still talking about the "cow house" party.

How To Train Your Dragon Printable Party Set

My 8 year old loves How To Train Your Dragon, so it came as no surprise that this was the theme he picked for his party. It was so fun to do! All of the printable items I created for this party are available in the Etsy Shop. 

Decorations for the party included a lot of brown, red, black, and green, and was inspired by viking maps, dragon scales and fire!

Coming up with food for this party was my favorite part. The cupcakes are "Dragon scales". I made cupcake wrappers that look like scales and the "scales" that come up out of the cupcake are "Spree" candies. 

In the movie, the dragons like eating fish. So we had "Dragon Food"; Goldfish crackers, Swedish Fish (some were even dipped in chocolate) and, cool gummy fish I found on clearance at Michael's,

There was also Fireballs; red, orange and yellow gumballs and Sixlets bought at a party supply store, and Cheeseballs.

"Peg Legs" and "Shields were also on the menu.

Jelly Beans as "Dragon Eggs" too.

For drinks we had Viking Water (the water bottle labels are in the printable party pack)

and "Dragon's Breath". Red fruit punch with Dry Ice in it. I'm pretty sure this was the highlight of the snack table for most of our guests. I love the look on this boy's face that was caught in the picture.

And finally my personal favorite, the Tossed Sheep. I love the sheep in the movie.

They are just funny. So including sheep was a must.

I can't take credit for this super cute idea. I ran across it over on a blog called "Lil Mrs Tori"  Her "How To Train Your Dragon" Party is neat and geared toward kids a bit younger if you are looking for more ideas. 

We also had a banner that said "Happy Birthday" a bunch of plain colored banners and a old looking treasure chest. Because every viking needs a place to store his prized possessions!

Here is a sample of the invitation: 

So the idea for the party was that the guests would come and be taught how to be dragon trainers. As they arrived they could get their faces painted and "How to Train Your Dragon" tattoos. I hadn't even remembered that the characters had their faces painted in parts of the movie. My 8 year old sure did!

Each guest then got to decorate a shield. Since a "vikings most important item is his shield!" 

I made the shields out of round cake bases. They have packs of 10 at Walmart. I cut two slits in the center and put some wide twill ribbon through and looped it so that they would have something to hold onto. I then glued the smaller round (large cupcake bases I found at Michael's) on top to hold the ribbon in place. I found some How To Train Your Dragon stickers in the Dollar bins at Target (score!) So they decorated with those and crayons and markers. 

When they were done with their shields they got to select their dragons. I didn't get any pictures of this, but it seemed like everyone enjoyed it. I created cards that have dragons from the movie on them (included in the party pack). Then each child drew a card, the cards have different colored borders that match different Easter eggs. We hid the eggs throughout the yard before the party. Inside the eggs were a matching card that tells them about their dragon. The boys especially enjoyed reading them and telling each other all the cool things their dragons could do. After Dragon Selection, the kids were free to pick any of the other games to play (similar to a carnival). There was Flying Lessons. Paper airplanes that look like dragons that they flew off of the deck. 

Dreamworks has provided some awesome printable Dragon Paper Airplanes. 

They could also play the Sheep Toss game. 

I made some yarn poof ball sheep. An idea I came across over on Frog Prince Paperie

The original game idea was to get the sheep into a basket in a relay style game. We have a trampoline, and I knew the kids would want to jump on it, so I incorporated it into the party. I used some yellow tape to make some targets on the trampoline and they had to jump the sheep onto them. 

There was also a "Feed Your Dragon Game" 

I found some plastic fish, filled our mini wading pool and dumped the fish in. The kids then used nets to "fish" and then take the fish down to the dragons (a container with a picture of a dragon on it). Most of the kids did this one at least 3 times. My 2 year old did only this game! 

When it seemed like everyone had finished playing the games. I gathered all the kids up to play Dragon Tag. (Essentially freeze tag, but they all pretended they were dragons). After that they were tired! So we enjoyed the cupcakes and opened presents. 

Aiden says everyone has told him they had an awesome time!

The printable items can be found in my Etsy shop: