Farm Party Inspiration...it's one wordy post (sorry!)

Last week I received an email from an old school friend of mine, Debbie.  She's looking for ideas for her gorgeous little girl's 4th birthday & is thinking of a farm animal theme....with a few guinea pigs thrown in for good luck. Well Deb, you've come to the right place.  Here we go with some ideas I've come with so far...

Now Step One (for me) is to start with a great set of party printables.
I use either The TomKat Studio or Bird's Party
It's so easy...just purchase the printable set you would like (and with the US dollar being so kind to us Aussies at the moment, they're all super cheap to buy!) wait a couple of days and before you know it a clever email will show up in your inbox with all your printables attached.
From there, you just print them out and start planning the rest of your party around the colour scheme of the printables. (I like to use heavy duty canvas cardstock for my printables - available from Lincraft in a book of 10 sheets for around 8 bucks)

I don't know about you, but I think a Milk and Cookies theme goes perfectly with a farm animal party.  The kids will be exhausted after chasing around all those animals, so a cup of milk and a few cookies (biscuits for the kiwi, aussie and british readers out there) for each child will go down a treat.

Printable set from the very clever Kim over at The Tom Kat Studio

Now don't freak out when you see the following images, because they are from a wedding...and I'm not suggesting for a minute that you go and set up a party for a 4 year old like a wedding reception, but what I am suggesting is you look at the pics and work out what you like (and what you don't) and maybe try a simple version for yourself.

(These stunning images came from Postcards and Pretties)

For example, in this pic there is a cute sign that the bride is holding....

you could write 'happy birthday' on a piece of old driftwood or 

a blackboard or a piece of large cardboard.

Now this is pretty cute!  

And simple.

I love the hay bales....

and while I don't think I could be bothered knocking up a timber frame 

& attach kitchen utensils to hang from it, 

I could easily purchase some hay bales, 

place them closely together and put all the milk and cookies on top 

(ie: use hay bales instead of an actual table!)

Once again, I love love love this idea!

But it's a birthday party...not a wedding reception....

so why not take inspiration from this beautiful image and

offer your guests more than one flavour of milk.

You could go totally 'rustic' and use actual 2 litre milk containers 

(just remove the label, so they're all plain & look the same) 

and then fill one with plain milk, one with chocolate & one with strawberry.

Too easy!

Finally, every guest loves to take home a treat and these cookie mix jars are perfect!

They're so easy to do (I've done them several times now)

Just find a cookie recipe that you like,

buy the dry ingredients 

and fill them into the jars in layers

(ie flour first, then sugar, then oats, then choc chips etc)

Attach a little note with the recipe 

(so the guests know what wet ingredients they'll need to add) and you're done!

Here's some I prepared earlier:

These were made using V8 juice bottles.

I've also used jars from IKEA in the past, which do look better.

And finally, here are some images I found of actual Milk & Cookies parties.

I think you'll agree that it's one cute party theme!

source: Mint and Daisy Design Studio

source: Cooking up a Family

So there we have it.  

For now.  

There will be more ideas to come, so stay tuned..

or maybe even start following this little blog...

cos there are a few surprises in the pipeline here at K&Co!