Wishing Star Birthday Party

The boys double trouble campfire smore party celebration at Wishing Star Farm in Elliott, Colorado is finally over.  The party was a complete and total success.  Wishing Star Farm is a working farm who shines during September, October and November as a pumpkin patch when they hold fall festival.  We rented the farm after hours so all the fall festival fun was ours enjoy.  Pony rides, pumpkin patch, duck racing, corn bins, hay tower, wagon rides, swings, pipe tunnels, giant jumping blobby thing and petting zoo complete with sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, ponies and a camel!  The big blobby bouncy things was by far the biggest hit of the party and Case's favorite piece.  Shoes off, run, bounce, chase, play tag, fall down, duck, duck, goose, roll, slide, whatever you did on the big bouncy blob was sheer fun, plus it held at least 20+ kids at one time!  Case had so much fun on the blobby thing I had to drag him off to ride the horses and wagon.  He bounced and played chase the entire time!  Cole enjoyed different aspects.  This is the first party where he really understood his friends were present, delighted in seeing them show up and enjoyed playing with them.  'Gio is here!  Levi came!  Where is Colter?'  When asked, Cole's favorite part of the party was 'all of it' and playing with his friends.  








 


 


 

My stomach has been in knots for several days thinking our the sheer number of people who were attending.  Apparently everyone accepted our invitation and wanted to bring their brothers, sisters, cousins and grandparents.  Final child count on the rsvp list before the party started was 40 kids.  40 kids!  How did the party get so out of control?!  How do you feed 40 kids plus parents and grandparents?  Ack!  We kept it v-e-r-y simple.  The menu was hot dogs and chips.  Grab and go.  Fix it yourself.  No maintenance for me.  Yea!  At the beginning of the night we started off with 80 hotdogs, 100 bags of individual chips, ketchup and mustard as sides, water and 60 pouches of capri suns.  When the party was over we had 10 hot dogs and a hand full of chips left.  I guess the masses were fed.      



The actual party was low maintenance but party prep was work.  I decorated the rustic barn tables with cowboy boots, bandanas, mason jars filled with utensils, l.e.d. candles wrapped with twine, happy birthday banners, big wicker baskets to hold the food, tin buckets tipped over for the party favors and frames with the agenda and menu printed inside.  Party favors were flashlights with twine bows and a smore snack bags filled with golden grahams, marshmallows and chocolate chips.  The take along snack bags were topped with a tag that said, 'Thanks for making my party smore fun!' I had fun coming up with themed ideas for the party.  And I think the decorations ended up super cute.



The party was basically a free for all.  Show up, play, eat, ride, have fun and play some more.  Around 6:45, hay rides began and people started gathering around to watch the fire being built.  Cody manned the smore station once the fire began to blaze and operation sugar rush commenced.  We passed out the party favor flashlights and the kids ran around the fire pit playing flashlight tag with marshmallow faces.  Finally the group was herded over to my campfire cakes to light candles and sing Happy Birthday first to Case, then to Cole.  If your sweet tooth wasn't satiated with smores, we distributed vanilla or strawberry cake with chocolate icing and chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow icing topped with a mini marshmallow, chocolate chip and graham cracker piece.


 




 

The party wrapped up after the cake grand finale.  We tore down decorations, packed up food and loaded up the vehicles.  Exhausted by all the fun, the boys hitched a ride in a tractor bucket that delivered them right to my car.  While we were driving home in the dark and both of the boys eyes were drooping, Cole sleepily said, 'I miss my party.'  I think he had fun.  :)  Happy Birthday boys!  I hope you felt special on your special day.  I love you!