Lately, I've been thinking about what I should do for my daughter's second birthday.
Since her birthday falls during the fall season, I thought about throwing a harvest or farm party. The invitations would be a cartoon of a small farm with animals and a barn. When you open the cut-out barn doors on he front cover, you'll see the celebrant's picture dressed as a farmer. When you open the invitation entirely, it would have her picture along with different farm animals and the heading would be, "Hey y'all come join me n' all my friends for a barnyard bash at..." The tables would be draped with red and white checkered tablecloth, fruits, vegetables, and wheat as centerpieces. The food would be filled with plenty grilled or barbecued dishes. I plan on making my daughter's cake this year. It would be a 2-layered round chocolate cake and covered with chocolate frosting. On top of the cake, I would Sprinkle some crushed Oreo cookies to make it look like soil, then with some white cardboard, I would cut picket fences to use as a border around the top of the cake. Before I decorate inside the fence, I would get a fork and lightly glide it across the "soil" to make it look like a mini garden. Inside the fence I would decorate the top with mini lettuce, carrots, radishes, watermelons, and other fruits made out of marzipan. For the final touch, I'd add a few mini toy rakes and shovels. For the favors, I would decorate miniature terra cotta planters with some plastic or artificial miniature fruits and vegetables, decorative moss (as a fill for the planter), some wheat (preferably plastic, which can be found @ craft stores during the fall season), and little wooden lady bugs or birds as a little touch . Remember to tie the favor with a couple strips of raffia and a printed label of the child's name and birthday tied to the raffia. There's quite a little work, but at the end, when you hear those compliments from your guests, it's really worth all the time and effort! P.S. The favor that I mentioned are for the adults at the party. Usually as kiddy favors, I take some clear favor bags, that are a little bigger than the average size, and fill each one with cookies, cheese n' crackers, juice boxes, pudding, small boxes of crayons, a mini coloring book, or flashcards. Sometimes I end up putting them in individual baskets if they become overstuffed. If you have babies at the party, you could do what I did for my child's 1st b-day. I had little baskets with two bottles of baby food (main course and dessert), a little toy, a beanie baby, and a little bib! Enjoy!