A Farm Theme First Birthday Party for Levi!

Our little Levi turned 1 this past weekend and we celebrated with a farm theme first birthday party! It was adorable and a great kids’ party theme for early fall, too. It can be expensive to throw any type of party, let alone a themed, Pinterest-y one, but I managed to keep it really budget-friendly by making the main decorations myself: the red barn background and the cow-print flag banner. The rest I bought at Dollar Tree and Party City, more on that below!

For the DIY barn backdrop, I used this blog post as a rough guide. The basic construction is simple: start with a trifold presentation board (I got mine at Dollar Tree). Cut along the top of the board to create the roof shape. Now that you have your basic barn shape, cover it with red poster board (I used double-sided tape to attach it to the presentation board). Then cut strips of white paper and glue them on to create the barn dos and signature X’s. Next, cut 2 black rectangles for the windows and layer on thin strips of white paper for the window panes. Lastly, cut black strips to cover the perimeter of the roof. Tip: I like using either a glue stick or double-sided tape because liquid/gel glues like good ol’ Elmer’s can create bubbles under paper.

I secured it to the wall with small picture-hanging hooks (two of them are holding the barn up on the wall), masking tape, and 2 thumbtacks.

The tiny hay bales are Dollar Tree finds, as are the faux fall flowers and galvanized pots. The plastic animals are part of our Little People farm play set.

I made the cow print flag banner with black and white poster boards, kitchen twine (any string or thin ribbon would work), and a single hole punch. First I cut out the white triangle flags, then cut little, irregular “splotches” out of the black poster board and used a glue stick to secure them to the flags. I punched holes in the top corners of each flag and threaded the twine through each one. Tip: don’t cut the twine until all of the flags are threaded onto it and you can hold it up to the wall to estimate the spacing of the flags and how long you’ll want the finished banner.

I found the tiny straw hat with the red 1 on it, the farm-theme high chair banner, and farm-theme plates and napkins at Party City—their “Friendly Farm theme.”