The whole idea for a Farm Birthday for Little Clam started when Jellyfish and I were looking through one of my cake books for birthday cakes for HIS birthday. JF randomly pipes up and says "I think you should make a Barn cake for ...". There were no pictures of a barn in the books we were looking at - it was just random - off the cuff... but I loved the idea! :)
I used the party
invites to kick off the theme. I know in the past I have just emailed a lot of the party invites, but I really love receiving mail in the post, and I just think it makes it that much more special.
As always I was far too busy enjoying the party to get many photos, but here are a few for you.
The cake is made from 2 x 20cm square cakes that hubby trimmed to add to the top layer, and 1 x loaf pan. I made the windows and doors out of piped white chocolate (lets just say that my hands were none too steady at the hour of the night I was making them!). The roof is just ice cream wafers, cut to size, and the characters are per favour of the kids' duplo set. :)
When it came to party favours, I wanted something that was way more than just lollies. I searched many times till I found these milk pails in colours that the birthday boy chose. And there were JUST enough of them for the day!
You can see poking out the top one of the straws that I made for the party (tutorial
here).
I filled them with plastic animals, Pascal Milk Bottle lollies, little fuzzy chicks, the duck crayons that we made the week before the party (posted
here) and fruit scented highlighters.
The Thank You tags were sourced from Anneliese
here.
The menu was based around brunch (thanks for the idea
Anneliese!), which lent itself readily to the whole farm theme I thought.
Scrambled Eggs
Homemade Muesli (Granola to all my US friends. Recipe from Nov 2010 Martha Stewart Living magazine - which I doctored a little.)
Pancakes with either Homemade berry compote or Maple Syrup with cream
A selection of toasts, spreads, and cereals
Fresh Breakfast Juice
And for the kids we had milk in little glass bottles. These were juice bottles that I removed the labels from, and added Moo "juice" labels (found
here). Note to self... set up table and get photos of everything BEFORE the kids sit down! lol
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Farm Girl |
I used a vintage sheet with farm pictures on it for the table cloth on the main table (It was mine when I was about 6), and a light blue one on the kids table - which is what Little Clam chose. Apologies for not getting a photo of the actual table!!! ( I had to get the sheet out of the cupboard to take this one).
The men were good enough to give wheelbarrow rides to all the little peeps, and in between turns the rest played on the swings, bikes and sandpit. I had some games ready to go... but didn't end up using them - woops (pin the nose on the pig, pass the parcel, etc.). We finished off with everyone sitting down and watching Little Clam open his presents, which had been stored in a drum at the beginning of the party.
All in all, it was pretty stress free - just the way you want it for a 2-year-olds party. :)
Check out where
other peeps are being creative...