Jackson's Third Birthday Party

I truly had no intention of hosting a "friend" birthday party for another year or so, BUT, Jackson has been invited to no less than 5 parties this year and was absolutely pumped to have his own party.  So, obviously, I caved. 

I really wanted a theme that was age appropriate and not tied to a cartoon character, so barnyard it was!

Off to Etsy I went searching for the perfect invitation 😊 I found it here.

A few months ago, there was a petting zoo at Jackson's school which was huge hit with all the kids, so naturally I had to get a mini zoo and pony for the party.  I also hit up Pinterest for party ideas.  My board is full of awesome ideas.

A few trips to Hobby Lobby, Walmart, and Dollar General later and voila, an awesome barnyard party!

Because, really, who wants to be answering the doorbell in the middle of the party?

Hot dogs, veggie platter, chips, oreos, and popcorn were easy peasy and pretty much universally loved by preschoolers everywhere.  Iced tea, lemonade, water and chocolate milk topped off the beverage selections.

Pie tins for plates, miniature milk bottles for kids, pink cups with drawn on pig noses for adults, and wooden forks and spoons (aka pitchforks and shovels) were all a hit.

Of course the stars of the show were the animals!

Another fan favorite was returning all the pigs to their pen!  Pink balloons with drawn on faces acted as the pigs and I set up a cheap little fence around the crepe myrtle as the pen.  The kids loved chasing down the balloons.

I had a ton of left over Easter eggs, so a pseudo egg hunt was a great way to finally use them up!

The milking cow was something I found on Pinterest and had to figure out how to make happen.  Out came the handy dandy saw horse, poster board, a bit of ribbon, a Dixie cup, glove, and some staples.  The kids thought it was a hoot!  I had to add "JB" on the rear as a branding of Jackson's initials 😄

A few stick horses and a "barrel" were perfect for barrel racing 😃

I made a strawberry pig cake, but accidentally only added 2 candles to the cake!  It was a scramble to get the third candle added at the end!

I love useful party favors so whipped up some farm play mats out of felt, added some plastic farm animals, a farm coloring page, and a few crayons into a red basket, attached a thank you note and had a fun and fairly cheap favor that all the kids loved!

After the party, Jackson posed with his Sticky Bellies birthday poster, he was perfectly giddy with being three!