Well, the Little Guy turned 4 in the end of April and this year it was a John Deere Tractor themed birthday party. We hosted it at my in-laws house, which is sort of tucked away from traffic so there were no car slow-downs this year (see the house last year, and the year before).
Once again, I went a little CRAZY with the theme. We had tractor rides, a bounce house, tractor tire cups, a farm field birthday cake, tractor tire cookies, straw bales and John Deere stuff everywhere!
Tractor Wheel cookies were just sugar cookies covered in black candy melts with yellow and black candy melt centers. Very tasty and on theme!
I was pretty proud of the cake this year. It’s the biggest, most labor intensive one I’ve made so far, and it turned out great! You know when you’re imagining something and it turns out like you imagined? Yeah, that’s what happened, and it made me very happy. I found the idea from another tractor party site. She did a 2, so I just tweaked it to work with the number 4. I used a 12×18 cake pan and a triple batch of my chocolate cake recipe.
Lots of yellow and green…even the punch had to be yellow and green! And it is Wisconsin…don’t forget the brandy!
The table centerpieces were just bandanas from a craft store, vases from the dollar store with a tractor sticker I made and burlap ribbon tied in a bow. Easy peasy.
The party favors were tractor tire cups (really just monster truck cups with a new label in the middle I printed on sticker paper) and then little goodie bags of M&Ms and chocolate/vanilla animal crackers…tied up with some twine.
All of the paper products (invites, banner sign, stickers, food labels) were designed and printed by me, so I saved a little money not having to buy those items pre-printed.
At a tractor party, a wagon ride is a must!
And of course, what child’s birthday party would be complete without a giant bounce house? The Little Guy jumped in as soon as it was inflated.
Many of my ideas came from various Google image searches and much too much time on Pinterest. We’ll see what happens next year. I figure I only have another year or two before he decides he just wants to play lazer tag with his friends and eat pizza. *Sigh*