Party Recap...

We celebrated Scarlett's second birthday with a "Modern Farm" party--a cleaner, updated take on the farm theme with a little of the apple harvest season mixed in. Scarlett, not uniquely, made all the barnyard animal noises before she started articulating words, and "Big Red Barn" is her favorite bedtime read, so if she could have named the theme for her second birthday party I think "farm" really would have been it.

I always think of the invitations as the beginning of the party. They set expectations. I love good old-fashioned paper and ink, as opposed to more modern forms, and I really enjoy making my own. So for Scarlett's I designed the Modern Farm invites.

The animal silhouettes became the motif I repeated to tie it all together. It was just too much fun thinking of things to do with them! Such as the tablecloth for the serving table, and the buttonhole napkin ties.

When menu planning I couldn't come up with the right sort of dinner for my farm themed child's party so I opted for brunch instead. Why not?! It lent itself more easily I thought. So we served scrambled eggs, muffins, bacon, sausage, apple juice, orange juice, milk, and as "birthday cake," cinnamon rolls. It was the kind of meal the adults and the kids could enjoy equally. That's the thing about the first two birthday parties, they really seem to end up being more for the adults (mom especially!), so it was fun to try and have something here for everyone.

That said, I think the kids table was the focus, and certainly the most fun for me in the making! The table was set with child-sized bamboo plates, individual bottles of milk (repurposed Frappuccino bottles) with Modern Farm labels, and favor baskets at each place.

I used wood pint-sized baskets (what happened to these? they are so great!) and filled them with a plastic farm animal, an old-fashioned lollipop in green apple or cherry, and an apple tagged with a thank you card.

I think Scarlett genuinely had a great time! She wore a birthday dress I made her with animal appliques, loved eating the apples, and of course tore into the presents, which we stored in a big wooden crate until opening time.

A happy, happy birthday for Scarlett!

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