farm market birthday — Miss Poppins' Parties

Hello, hello! It’s been a while since I’ve had time to post anything here- life has been crazy and full- but you know I couldn’t let Miss Emma’s birthday go by without sharing it!

Months ago, when Emma first chose a farm market theme for her this year’s celebration, I was envisioning an outdoor market, with pretty fall trees, a fire in our fire pit, and straw bales topped with flannel blankets for seating in the yard…. BUT, even though we had gorgeous weather the day of, 5-ish days of heavy rain leading up to her big day meant that our back yard was one gigantic, muddy swamp, and there was no way we were going to be able to head outside with 20 plus kids. So, we moved the party inside, which was kind of nice, because all of my fall/farmhouse decor could just play right in. Now I have 4 giant straw bales hanging out in my garage, just waiting to be used for… something. Best-laid plans, amiright?!

I used the kids’ IKEA easel chalkboard to create an “open”sign so that guests wouldn’t have to play that awkward guessing game about whether to knock or just open up the door and come on in. And of course I left all of our pumpkins, gourds, and Halloween jack o’ lanterns out on the porch.

The market itself wound up in our living room. I used some of the furniture we currently have in the room, plus brought the kids’ market stand up from our basement play room to display all of our wares (read: lunch). I didn’t get a great picture of the whole thing once it was fully set up, but that crate on the floor eventually became a stand for a bushel basket full of popcorn.

We can’t have a party at our house without food, so we served a late lunch of sub sandwiches, fresh fruits and veggies, hard boiled eggs, salads, popcorn, and some fun mini apple and pumpkin pies. And of course, it wouldn't be a fall market without some apple cider.

I made these laying chickens for the kids a couple of years ago out of a pattern I purchased from Ikat Bag, and of course they had to appear in Emma’s farm market. Also, you can just see the bottom of the giant basket of popcorn here.

All of the food, including these cute 4-inch individual pies, was homemade.

Emma wasn’t really concerned about having cake, so I make a simple naked cake with a cute topper, mostly so we could put her birthday candles in something that wasn’t icecream.

This simple market stand usually lives in our basement play room, where the kids have a little make-shift market/cafe, but I brought it up to help me display our selection of fresh fruits and veggies.

Each of the guests got to paint their own canvas tote to take home with them. I found these 12.75” x 10.65” natural canvas bags on Amazon, and they were the perfect size for kids to carry.

Each family got to take home an additional favor: a DIY Caramel Apple kit that I put together. Packaged in white cardstock milk cartons that I got at Michael’s, each kit contained 4 bamboo dowels, 4 giant muffin papers, enough caramels to cover 4 small apples, and sprinkles.

And that’s it! The kids had a great time eating, painting and playing in our playroom, and Emma was so excited to host her cousins and friends!