barnyard bonanza

Sorry for the delay. I've been busy recovering and getting used to having a 2 year old. Did you know that despite their ever-increasing autonomous nature, they still need as much attention? And perhaps more? Yeah.

I have many many many posts in the queue, but this one is by far the most fun. The Birthday Party. I decided to throw Wesley a farm party and it was a lot of work and a lot of fun. I went all out: decorations, activities, party favors, a crazy cake, food, and more. It was great. The only thing I didn't do that could have added more time was handmake the invites! Instead I used evite, which worked OK but I probably should have followed up with the people who didn't RSVP because you never can trust technology, right?

Anyway, we had a ball. I did lots of shopping at Party City and on eBay and Etsy and Oriental Trading for our barnyard bash.

Just so you know, another reason I really wanted to do this party is that Wesley has been so totally into Old McDonald. One week at Toddler Storytime at the library a couple months ago the guy did a rousing version of Old McDonald, and after that Wesley started singing "E-I-E-I" at home. It was a few weeks later we got him to add on the "O." But he did! And we sing it all the time. Plus we already have ton of farm/barnyard toys and stuff. It just made it all the more exciting to have his be his party theme.

The Cake

I was ambitious. The cake idea/recipe was here; and I decided to go for it. I started planning weeks ahead of time. I bought marshmallows and Starbursts and decorator gels and Life cereal and more.

I started baking on Tuesday maybe? I baked the two round cakes for the yard. The next night I did all the cupcakes -- I think I ended up with 30 or so? I only needed 27, but I made some extras in case I had casualties. Thursday night I set the yard up on the aluminum-foil-cardboard and frosted it. I colored rainbow chip frosting green, since it gave the "grass" some texture.

Friday night was assembly and ultimate decoration. I didn't take too many pictures.


The barn is a store-bought poundcake and the silo three stacked funfetti cupcakes, both covered in homemade red frosting, a roof of Life cereal, and windows with pretzel rods. The recipe actually calls for white frosting with Twizzlers as the siding, but I didn't want to bother... although in hindsight it probably would have been easier than making barn-red frosting. I got some tips from my pro friend Michelle that cheap-o McCormick's red food coloring just won't do. I've tried it before myself and can only get a deep pink at best. So, the truth is, you need something better. I got Wilton's red gel from a party store. Michelle recommended to make the frosting a nice deep orange (which I did with cheapo food coloring), then add the gel to make red. Voila. This stuff is potent though -- a couple bites and your mouth is seriously red for hours.



I worked on this primarily during our decoration time. It took awhile. I piped on the frosting, and I started running into trouble when the frosting just got too heavy. Plus, the barn and silo were kinda at an angles, so I had to be careful. Actually, for reinforcement overnight, I wrapped canned corn in wax paper and put them next to the barn structures. I didn't want them toppling before the 10 a.m. party. In the morning when I took the cans away, everything stood fine for the whole party. The silo toppled at like 6 pm that night or something... haha.


Anyway, Shane's mom Eileen had come to town for Wesley's party and she went wild on the animals. She did awesome! All the animals are funfetti cupcakes with vanilla frosting. Some trivia about the animals: the pig ears are pink Starbursts, the chicken fur is yellow coconut, the sheep are all marshmallows, and the spots on the cows are melted chocolate!! Also, the recipe on FamilyFun doesn't call for sheep cupcakes, but someone else who made the cake and posted their story said they did sheep and I thought that was a cute idea.







The finished product??


The Decorations

We had a banner...


And balloons... check these perfect balloons out; I got them off eBay. The weights were actually toys Wesley already had, little Fisher Price barnyard animals. We had 6 blocks and 12 balloons, it worked out perfect.



And, we had other little touches... did you notice the blanket under the cake? It's barnyard fabric. It's a pattern I've loved since Wesley was a newborn that we found at JoAnns when Shane's mom Eileen said she'd make me some burp rags. Since then, she found the pattern in fleece and made that blanket for us, AND Wesley's aunt Leslie got Wesley a little I-Spy bag from Etsy in the same pattern. We love it.

The Party

Essentially, the party was a huge playgroup at my house. We just ate and played and talked and laughed. With a final attendance of 10 adults, 8 kids, 1 baby, 2 cats, and 1 dog, it was great!




We had food... little quiches, BBQ meatballs in the crockpot, fruit tray, veggie tray, breakfast pastry bites, and of course, cake.



We served chilled water bottles with individual Crystal Light packets. I put them in the very appropriate cow mug that has gone in and out of the donation pile for years. I can't seem to part with it. And it came in handy for the party!!

I planned a picture-frame-decorating activity. It was fun! I got the kit for barnyard picture frames from Oriental Trading Company. Basically they are just foam frames and foam sticky shapes... I let the kids go at it.


My goal was to take a photo of Wesley with each of his guests, then I'll get that photo developed and give it to them to put in their frame. Of course they can use whatever picture they want, but it's a cute idea, right? One of Wesley's other little friends did something similar at her birthday last year, so I honored the idea by borrowing it. Unfortunately, as you can see below, Wesley wasn't too photogenic that day. Everyone playing with his toys kind of made him a little crazy. It's the age. Natalie is quite lovely though, isn't she?


We also had games! First, I had barnyard stickers and I put 12 under 12 random paper plates. Anyone who had a sticker got to take home a balloon! That was an easy game.

We had pin the tail on the donkey (more like the very-safe stick the tail-sticker on the donkey) and I a bean-bag throwing game. One of Wesley's presents he got to open ON his birthday (three days before this party) was a huge box of barnyard Beanie Babies from eBay. I decorated a couple Cool Whip containers with stickers and points and I thought kids could throw them and keep track of their points. The game didn't really take off, which was fine, since one of the kids kinda commandeered all the barnyard Beanies and I only had one door prize anyway. The winner of pin the tail on the donkey was Lincoln, and I had a cute pencil with a cow topper for him. He was disappointed though and wanted a balloon. I let him have a balloon anyway! Then he felt better. Ahhh kids.


The End

I made goodie bags I was quite excited about. They included a barnyard finger puppet from Oriental Trading (actually they were Easter finger puppets that lucky for me were on clearance and were barnyard animals!!), personalized pencils from OT (don't get me started though... I was SUPPOSED to have personalized FARM pencils but they went out of stock in the time it took me to put them in my e-Cart and then try to order, so we had confetti pencils instead), M&Ms, farm stickers, and the highlight: green-apple flavored tractor soaps from Etsy. So. Cool.



In the end, the event was successful. The goal was to celebrate little Wesley. I think he had a great time... He got to shear a sheep....



And enjoy some gifts...


And have fun with his friends.



It was an awesome day. And I slept very well that night.

Happy Birthday, Wesley!