Farm Party Decorations

• When it comes to the color scheme, think outdoors, such as green for grass, yellow for hay and sunshine, and red and brown for barns and fences.
• Set out a little red wagon (or several if you can borrow some from friends) and fill it with hay. Ask a parent or two to pull children around on "hay rides."
• Make pretend fences using cardboard "planks," scissors, a marker (to draw on knots and nails), and packing tape.
• Cover your table(s) with toy tractors, plastic or stuffed farm animals and a top it off with one of our barnyard centerpieces.
• If they're available, decorate with cornstalks or bales of hay.
• Stuff an old pair of overalls or jeans and a flannel shirt with newspaper. Tie off the ends of the legs and shirt sleeves with twine or rope. Set a hat down over the collar to make a scarecrow. You can stand him in the front yard by placing a shovel firmly in the ground and running the handle through the back of the pants and shirt.
• Use assorted stuffed animals to set up a pretend petting zoo.
• Ask your guests to dress in jeans or overalls, plaid shirts, and other farm gear. Tie red bandanas around their necks as they arrive.
• Set up a pretend milking station using a saw horse, a rubber surgeon's glove, string, a low stool, water, and a bucket. Fill the glove with water and tie off the top. Hang it underneath the saw horse using the string. Place the bucket beneath the saw horse and the stool alongside it. Use a pin to prick the tip of each "udder" and let the children practice squirting water into the bucket while sitting on the stool.
• Make individual animal headbands for your guests using wide construction paper strips. (It may be necessary to staple two lengths together unless you have access to long sheets of construction paper.) To decorate the strips, cut out different-colored ears and combs, glue them onto the strips, then draw on patterns or glue on faux fur from a craft store. For instance, you could cut out and attach a red comb to create a rooster, attach brown faux fur or frayed brown construction paper to create a horse or donkey, and white ears with black magic-marker spots for a cow. Be creative!

Farm Party Food

• Take hot dogs to the farm by turning them into Pigs in a Blanket. Simply bake hotdogs in crescent roll dough (found in tubes in the refrigerator section of your local grocery store).
• Serve piles of thinly-cut French fries, and call them "Straw."
• Serve chocolate milk, and call them "Brown Cows." You can give your cows "spots" by throwing a few mini-marshmallows into each glass.
• Serve Mud Puddles made from brownies cut into circles and topped with hot fudge "mud." If you want to go all out, add a marzipan cow or pig (found at specialty and gourmet stores) to each.
• Serve Jell-O during a "Pig-Out Contest." Children must hold their hands behind their backs and eat cubes of Jell-O piggy-style from "troughs" (i.e. small bowls). This activity might require putting on paper napkin bibs!
• Make homemade animal cookies using animal-shaped cookie cutters and our Animal Sugar Cookies Recipe.

Make a "Piggy Cake" using our recipe or your favorite mix and our decorating instructions. Another option is to make our Down on the Farm Cake.