Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Birthday on the Farm

Since Joy and Grace were babies, we've been taking them to Ardenwood Historic Farm, minutes from our house. Periodically they have special Toddler Time sessions where the little ones hear a story about a farm animal, grind corn, and feed farm animals. Both girls love feeding the animals
and seeing all the different farm animals. It was only fitting that we should celebrate their birthday on the farm.


We met at the gazebo, and I made a no-sew banner (that matched the invite) for decoration with a simple, country feel.

We started off singing "Old McDonald Had a Farm" with some farm animal puppets and read/sang the story of "The Farmer and the Dell" for the kids.


Then we joined the Toddler Time story and saw the various animals on the farm - I think they mentioned they had 13 lambs this springtime! We made our way round to the chickens and fed them and the goats freshly ground corn, grown on the farm.





We made our way back to the gazebo and enjoyed lunches packed in felt farms (Thank you, Target $1 section - what a find!). I kept the lunches simple with Uncrustables PB&J sandwhiches, carrot sticks, apple slices, and a juice box. When everyone was done with their lunch, we filled their barns with a small farm board book, a farm animal that made a sound (horse said neigh, etc), and organic popping corn grown on the farm. We also sent everyone home with a Farm foam sticker kit.




After lunch, the kids enjoyed a little bubble time and playing in the grass. Then we sang and enjoyed birthday cake. I saw this idea in a party book for this darling graham cracker barn and silo, and knew immediately that I wanted to top the cake with that. We used our Little People farm animals to complete the farm scene on the top of the cake.




This was such a gorgeous day, we couldn't pass up this lovely field of yellow flowers.





I owe a huge THANK YOU to Albena for taking these beautiful pictures. I also owe a big THANK YOU to my mom, who made these darling dresses for Joy and Grace.


It's hard to believe these sweet little girls are two, but I truly feel blessed to have the privilege to be their mother. It's been a crazy, but enjoyable ride so far and I look forward to the fun times ahead!