My daughter loves farm animals, so we held a farm party for her 2nd birthday. We live in an area where real animals wouldn't have been practical, so we used our imaginations.
INVITATIONS: I found blank note cards with pictures of animals at the dollar store, and wrote, Baa Cock-a-Doodle-Doo.
Come to a party; Holly's turning 2!" All were invited to wear their "finest denim." DECORATIONS: We had planned the party for our backyard but it poured the previous evening so we did it all in our house. My husband found clip-art images online and increased their size until we had animals around 3 feet high arranged around the rooms. I tied animal ballons to the posts of our staircase; the kids took these home as FAVORS. The best decoration was a "barn" that my husband made from a cardboard appliance box. He painted it red and the doors and windows opened. The kids loved playing in it. (Amazingly it lasted for a couple of months after the party; my kids continued to enjoy it.) GAMES: The party was in October so we had a pumpkin rolling contest. I hid small stuffed farm animals that I had collected from garage sales for the kids to find and bring back to the "barnyard." 2-year-olds love stickers so I gave them farm stickers and a paper plate to stick them on. My husband in straw hat and bandana and using a cow puppet read Sandra Boynton's Barnyard Dance book and we invited the kids to act it out. Mostly the kids were happy playing with the stuffed animals in the "barn." COSTUMES: Everyone wore denim and some had bandanas and straw hats. SNACKS: We served macaroni and cheese "pigs in the blanket cornbread. CAKE: I baked an oblong cake and trimmed it into the shape of a barn. I tried to ice it red, but no matter how much red food coloring I used, it just kept getting pinker! I used decorator icing to add details. Around the cake I put green-tinted coconut and little plastic farm animals from the dollar store. The kids loved this party so much more than the generic party spot" parties that they are invited to."