Barnyard Party - young child For our daughters 2nd birthday, we arranged for pony rides and created a Barnyard theme. The pony rental also included a petting zoo of baby bunnies, baby chicks and guinea pigs. We rented hay bales for the front yard from a tack n feed store. We purchased a giant galvanized steel bucket which we filled with water for the ponies. (We later kept it as a toy box for our daughter's bedroom.) In the backyard, we decorated using scarecrows in our small garden, plastic Halloween pumpkins (for August), lots of sunflowers and wildflowers in vases, and blue checked tablecloths. We served country fixins: ham, rolls, potato salad and potato chips, and lemonade. Each child was invited to visit the garden and plant seeds in a small pot to take home.  We chose seeds that would sprout in a short time. The birthday cake was decorated with yellow sunflowers. As children came in the house, we had the video Babe on TV, and lots of books about farm animals scattered in the living room.  For party favors, we decorated brown paper lunch sacks with stickers of cows, sheep, chickens and barns. Each child got a tall bucket with their name on it, and farm stickers.  We also ordered bath sponges shaped like animals, and farm or gardening stickers.