A Barnyard Brunch for Farmer Jack

Oink, Moo, Cocka-doodle-doo!  

Farmer Jack has just turned TWO!

We decided sometime ago, when his favorite book was "Old MacDonald" and his go-to trick was farm animal sounds, to celebrate Jack's special day with a barnyard brunch.  I like to plan the menu around the birthday guest of honor and since Jack is a lover of all things breakfast, a brunch seemed like the right way to go.  All of his faves were in attendance:  eggs, grits, blueberries, and blueberry muffins, plus a few extra bits.  I sent Ryan and Pop to the farmer's market that morning to pick out a farm-fresh bouquet to adorn the table.  Any day with farmer's market flowers is a good day.

As per usual, everything else was put together with whatever I happened to have on hand.  I sure am getting my mileage out of this mini chalkboard signs I made a few years ago!

I borrowed a Melissa and Doug toy crate from the playroom to set up a crudite platter veggie-garden style complete with popsicle stick markers.

Originally I thought I'd do individual hashbrown casseroles in a muffin tin and call them haystacks.  But it's a whole lot easier to ditch that idea and just make "haystack casserole"

The eggs were in the form of a sausage, spinach, mushroom, onion, crustless quiche and another quiche with just cheese and eggs (oh, and a 3rd quiche for just Ryan and me that was Whole30 compliant...meaning no cream, no cheese...no fun!  But hey, at least Farmer Jack's berry patch and veggie garden were abundant.)  (P.S. don't you love the little crocheted chicken egg covers from my grandma?!)

The kids' table was set with dollar tree plates, their own supply of blueberry muffins (in the chicken basket from my grandma) and up-cycled creamer containers that MiMi's been saving for me.  I put together a toy barn we have as a centerpiece.  The lazy susan made it functional (they definitely took the opportunity to play as they ate--as they should;).

  I love that the cups had a perfect little flip top with a straw sized hole just begging for a fancy striped paper straw.  They also served as placecards with their scrapbook paper name labels.

Our animal guests shed their masks at the door:

Here they are in human form:

The jolly kid table occupants

The adult table sported a bunch of wheat, a happy yellow chicken, an old flour sifter, and a cute milk bottle candle that was a gift from a few of my students this year.:

Farmer Jack and my handsome farmhand

This little dude can tear up some brunch!

After brunch it was time for play dough--one of Jack's most FAVORITE things to do!  I cooked up a couple of fresh batches, colored them with colors that would be satisfying to make barnyard things with, and dug around in my huge collection of cookie cutters (a recent acquisition from my mom) for all things farm.

Play dough usually holds Jack's attention for quite awhile and this time did not disappoint.  In fact, it held everyone's attention for quite awhile--from age 2 to 50-something!

After dough play, we moved into the family room for another Jack favorite, stories and songs--although it was more like story and song:).

In the family room a seed packet banner cheered up the mantel along with some alphabet blocks and a couple of props borrowed from Oklahoma and Fiddler days.  Molly helped scout out all the books around the house with anything to do with a farm theme.  We filled our rotating raisin box of books with those.

After that it was back to the table for some seed sowing fun.  A side effect of the Whole30 thing Ryan and I are doing is that we've been through LOTS of eggs.  So, at my mom's suggestion, I gave everyone half a dozen shells, we colored faces on them, then planted chives in them.  Jack was totally enthralled with this activity and spent at least 20 minutes working on it with Ryan with great concentration on each step.  It was darling.

twins

More farm fun (plus a rhinoceros)

  Time for cake!  Layered potted plants were the star of the birthday dessert menu.  In addition to breakfast food, Jack's a big peanut butter fan.  These were assembled in a joint effort by MiMi, Pop, Ryan and me the night before.  The Whole30 thing was going pretty easy until it came time to unwrap and chop up 40 Reese's peanut butter cups...I've never heard the sirens call to me quite that strong.  Nor has the smell of glorious peanut butter wafted right up my nose like that before.  But, spoiler alert, self control prevailed!

Big Boy eyes

I have no idea how they tasted in the end but Jack thoroughly enjoyed his.  He downed most of it with nothing more than the popsicle stick!

Present time was a joy as well.  He met every gift with an audible gasp and wide eyes and was excited about each one.  It was darling and showed evidence of how thoughtful and sweet his heart is.

puzzle-loving boy!

A quick stop by the farmer's market and it was time to go.  

Our youngest guests left with a cow hand sanitizer, a scrub brush, a bottle of carrot bubbles, some cow tails and strawberry candies.  And of course their half dozen chive plants!

Here's our charming cast of characters:

Bidding farewell to our farm friends:

The farmer and the cowman should be friends.

My sweet post-party peeps

The after party consisted of naps, thunder storms, a movie, dinner and ANOTHER birthday dessert for Jack who gasped when he saw it coming out of the fridge:

My cuddle bug

Jack was a joy all day long and was a model birthday party honoree...you know how you always half-expect bratty, over-tiredness from kids on their birthday?  Not this one.  I think my favorite part of the festivities was the fact that he enjoyed it all.  Genuinely.  Thanks, Jack...mommy LOOOOOOOVES you!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, joyful Jack!