Barnyard Bash! The Good Daughter Turns Two

Over the weekend, The Good Daughter turned two. I wanted a fun, simple theme for her second birthday and since I have all the time in the world (ha!), I thought I would make all the invitations and decorations for her party this year.

There was a lot inspiration out there for a barnyard birthday and it was easy to come up with decorations, games and food.

I chose a barnyard theme since TGD loves animals and the farm. I designed an invitation that I think really set the tone for the party. (Click on any photo to make it larger)

When guest arrived, they were greeted by Bessy, the flying cow.

I made pom-poms in John Deere green and yellow along with red/orange and blue.

I used the same farm animals throughout the decorations. This welcome to the farm banner was a super cute way to tell guests about the party.



The door displayed an E I E I O banner.

Once the guest got to the backyard, they had several games set up for them. We did a duck pond, a Farmer's Market, horseshoe toss and pig pen.

We also had barnyard bowling and a chicken coop.

At the duck pond, the kids got to pick a duck and the one with the dot on the bottom, got a prize from the Farmer's Market.

I tried to have a mix of both old fashioned and kid friendly candy.

The market had bubble gum and cow tails.

Old fashioned stick candy.

Cracker Jacks.

The next game station was a horseshoe toss.

Then came barnyard bowling.

The Good Husband made this play barn for the kids. TGD loved it and kept going inside and hiding.

Next was the chicken coop where kids could gather eggs.

Everything looked wonderful until it rained and we had to move the party inside. The chickens, horseshoe toss and pig pen filled with pink balloons with pig faces drawn on them were a total loss. But the kids had more fun playing in the rain, hiding in the barn and splashing in the pool.

I tried to keep the theme in the menu by featuring picnic types of food and food you think of when going to the farm.

We had haystacks (pretzels) and chicken feed (Chex Mix).

Organic veggies with buttermilk ranch dressing.

The main entrees were pigs in a blanket, chicken fingers and animal cut out sandwiches.

The chick sandwiches were turkey and provolone on wheat bread.

The barn sandwiches were brown sugar ham and swiss on white bread. The cow sandwiches were roast beef with cojack on wheat bread.

We had baked beans (recipe to follow in a later post).

Cole Slaw

Tater Salad and Pasta Salad

Assorted Melons.

To drink, there was sweet and unsweet tea. We also had lemonade in mason jars.

And "well water".

Instead of one large cake like we had last year, I decided to make cupcakes.

There were four different flavors and decorations. The cow featured dark chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream with a fondant cow. The pig featured a vanilla cake with a strawberry butter cream with a fondant pig. The duck featured a yellow butter cake with vanilla butter cream with a fondant duck. The sheep featured a vanilla cake with milk chocolate butter cream with fondant sheep.

TGD had a vanilla cake with cream cheese butter cream with fondant animals and the number 2.

I decorated the table with red gingham tablecloths. The centerpieces were milk bottles (Starbucks frappuccino bottles) holding yellow and white daises. I also had several small galvanized buckets holding balloons. I also decorated the tables with several farm animal puzzle pieces and a small barn TGD has.

In the end, she didn't care that it rained and she was just excited that everyone sang to her and she could scream "Happy Birthday Abby!" as much as she wanted. Meanwhile, I needed the next day to recover and clean the house.

I hope you have a great year, little one and here's to a great and rain free 3rd!