Partytime!

Most of my crafting these last few weeks has revolved around stuff for E's 2nd birthday party. I decided on a farm/barnyard theme, partly because she loves farm animals, but also because it was relatively generic and easy to find/make stuff to go with it. I've already posted the cardboard animals in various states, but here are the finished products. Forgive the crappy quality of the pictures. I was a bit frazzled this morning trying to snap them before everyone arrived.

Sheep (that wouldn't stay stuck to the wall)


Cow (I actually made two, the other is the same, just mirror-imaged)

Pig (whose tail I forgot to put on, poor guy)


Chicken


And duck (see below). Oh, I only made the bigger duck though. The little ones were pre-made wood cutouts from Michael's.

I also got a roll of red paper from a teacher-supply store and made a very generic barn to go on the wall. Black construction paper for the roof "shingles" and long strips of white paper for the barn doors and windows. I used the rest of the red paper to cover my coffee table and pushed it up against the barn to make a coloring station for the kids.


I attempted to make a 3-dimensional barn cake to go along with the paper barn. Of course, I procrastinated on starting it until last night, so it's not quite as nice and polished-looking as I would have liked. Still, I think it's pretty cute. And luckily, 2-year-olds don't really know the difference.

Here's a rather crappy picture from an odd angle:


And a better picture with T holding up E while she blows out her candle:


I have to say, even though I was dead tired while icing this at 1am last night, I realized how much I've missed working on cakes and pastries. I think I'm definitely going to have to get back in practice, even if only for fun. I had actually also wanted to make a silo out of stacked cookies to go with the barn, as well as animal cupcakes, but I simply ran out of time. I ended up ordering the cupcakes from a local place instead, which I was not super juiced about, especially after I got them and they were sort of crappy. I think I could have made better ones myself, but oh well, what's done is done. The kids ate the cupcakes and were happy, so that's all that matters.

Last, but not least, were the little goody bags I made out of bandannas. Nothing super special or complicated, just bandanas that I cut in half, folded and stitched up two sides. Throw in a bunch of favors from Oriental Trading Company, tie with ribbon and voila! Homemade goody bag! (Although I do have to give some credit to my cousin to stuffed and tied all the bags. Gotta love slave labor!)