Harri-Hedgehog was close to reaching his first big milestone (turning 5) and so, in true Steph style, I started planning the big one. And a big one it was. The old cogs started to churn a few months out, and with a little inspiration from my beloved Pinterest a party was born!
I love love love planning my kids parties and it was so easy this time around because Harri-Hedgehog is so obsessed with the farm, the cows, the tractors... so it was no problem coming up with the ideas.
So began the nights lying in bed with 'ah ha' moments and ideas whirling. I tell you no lies; it was like I was transported back to those days as a child waiting for my own impending birthday parties, only this time I had the control and the joy in putting it all together!
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| The production line! |
So where do I start? Well I open my trusty 'Big Black Birthday Idea Book' (excuse the alliteration but its another love of mine!) and I write down the basics: What, when, where, time, guest list, games & activities, decorations, table & settings, party favours and, of course, food. Then I slowly add to the list over time.
I am a scrapper so it was awesome using my love of all things papery and coming up with and executing the invitations. I scoured splitcoast stampers and used an idea from one of my scrap pages to make these invites. The little wheels are embossed in black and the split pins allow them to spin around freely. There is a little bunny in the cab too, which means something to Harri-Hedgehog as he has a special rabby that he can't live without!
Inside I wrote 'Start up your tractor and put it in gear... ***'s fifth birthday is nearly here".
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| The goody bags/party favors |
I had great fun making the goody bags for the kids to take home. Next to farm stuff and his rabby, Harri-Hedgehogs favourite thing is Lightning McQueen, so a couple of squinkies and "Cars" stickers made it into his friends goody bags. I wanted everything to tie with the theme though so I made American fudge brownie cookies & decorated them as a tractor wheels with pebbles and popped them in a cellophane bag tied with string too. I also bought mini old-fashioned green, white and yellow lollipops from sweet pea parties and added those too. I filled cellophane bags with the 'food' goodies & tied them with bakers twine and attached tags stamped with a message for the siblings of Harri-Hedgehogs friends.
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| All ready to go.. and in a farmy basket too! |
Almost everything I make is made with Stampin' Up products. So the DSP, stamps, ink, punches, brads, embossing folder and bakers twine are all from them. I bought the brown bags online to tie in with the theme, and I glued DSP (Designer Series Paper) onto wooden pegs from Spotlight & used it as an added embellishment. The sticks for the windmills were actually lollipop sticks a friend bought me from London.
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| Hard at work... so hard in fact that closing cupboards didn't factor into my day! lol. |
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| The party table |
This was so cool to set up. Everything had to be farm related, hence the table cloth and checked fabric. All of the tableware was made of biodegradable wood (I'm a bit of a greenie). The placemats were made of card covered with cow print table runner paper. I also used it to wrap presents for prizes at game time and around the milk bottles, which I then decorated with a punched out label (to write a name on), twine and mini bull clips.
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| Milk bottles ready to fill with flavoured milk! |
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| Wooden cutlery - love it! |
The jars had green, yellow, white and black treats. One jar was layered with green and yellow jellybeans, and one had my Mums favourite lolly - milk bottles! The lollipops are the large ones from sweetpea parties. We had to pick out only the green and yellow licorice allsorts from the bins at Countdown and still it wasn't enough! We ended up at New World supermarket too! I will never forget how Little B said that we might get in trouble for pilfering them - he kept a lookout better than any hawk!
I had soooo many balloons - cow print ones, brown, two shades of green, yellow and white. We filled a few black rubbish sacks with them at the end of the day! I had plans for them but that had to wait...
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| The buffet, lol, just about ready. |
I really like making food for parties/get togethers. I will think about it for ages before deciding on the 'perfect' feast. I wanted everything to be farm related, so it was all go for dairy products. Yogurt, cheese and every flavoured milk possible was there. Then we had the 'meat' side of the menu - ham & egg sandwiches, southern style chicken nibbles and mini hotdogs on sticks. Then the fruit! But what is a party without treats right? My bestie came out and spent the day helping me to prepare this feast - she made all of these gorgeous farm bike cookies and she made the cupcakes! My world is a better place for having you in it Bex, and I am so grateful for your friendship! Check these out..
These little blackboards are great. I got them online. The 'sand tarts' really did look and feel sandy. The haybales were lamingtons that I iced with lemon icing (and a little colouring) and coated in thread coconut. The motorbikes are gingerbread. I had fun icing them I tell ya!
These eggs are seriously cool.. they are just marshmallows stuck together with lemon icing! Yummo.
Bex did a way better job of baking these than I could have, and it was quick and easy for me to ice and decorate them. Go the internet! I bought just about everything online, I don't think I will do it any other way in the future.
Sorry for the lopsided picture - I guess that is enough cupcake photos anyway! You get the picture.. heehee.
And now for the cake...
Is that dirt? Noooo... its dirt cake! I made a chocolate fudge cake, then crumbled it and added brown pebbles and m&ms. Then I crushed up a couple of packets of chocolate oreo biscuits and added that. Then I added a pack of big jelly snakes 'cause what is dirt without worms? And whala (how do you type that?) a birthday cake fit for a king/farm boy.
The kids helped themselves to the cake along with chocolate mousse, icecream, dairy whip cream and fudge sauce. Total sugar overload, but hey, there was a lot of fruit and veges on offer too remember? Hehe. And, it gets better.. the cake doubled as the birthday present.. well, the tractor and trailer did anyway. So this was the first time Harri-Hedgehog saw this, his present! Check out his face...
Is that face not worth it all? The culmination of all the work (said tongue-in-cheek since I loved every second of it) is written in the delight and excitement highlighted on his face. That alone is worth more than a million thank yous. He is so happy, his heart is full and that alone is the reason why I will do this again and again.
There is more to a party than food though aye? (gasp gasp!) It's the fun games too...
We had a treasure dig in the sandpit to start with, and then I drew a tractor in sidewalk chalk for the younger siblings to colour in. I also made a big blob each of green and yellow playdough for them.
Pin the wheel on the tractor was a hit. I was asked to recreate it for one of Harri-Hedgehogs friends party too so that was awesome! (And I had heaps of time to draw it - unlike this one - so it was cool!)
The kids got some serious air.. watch this space Nike!
The sack race! It's a must for a tractor party isn't it? It looked like so much fun that...
... I asked the Mums to have a go too! It was a blast, I would've gone for another go again and again, but then I am really just a big kid at times!
What is that flying through the air? (Just under the goal to the right?)
Lets play "Where's Wally" only change it to "Where are the gumboots?" Look closely!And that was that! Some worn out kiddies (and Mums too no doubt), but hopefully a lot of fun had by all. Harri-Hedgehog was a happy boy so I reached my goal and hopefully helped to create a wonderful memory for him to ponder on in the years to come. And if not, well, he has this post and a scrap album to look back on aye?!
We had a special 'family night' for him too. Remember the balloons? Well, more on that in another post I think. Thanks for reading and sharing in a celebration I will treasure forever! I will hunt out the sources of the things I bought online and post the links soon.
Steph
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