Lots of young children love farm animals, and it's a fantastic party theme that both boys and girls can get in to.  Browse down the page for food and party game ideas.

Farm animals birthday presents

• Baby Express - well-established online shop have some great gifts for small animal lovers, including farmyard floor rugs and wooden toys.  Search the site for "farm" (look for the search link on the home menu) or browse the following categories:
  • Designer Floor Rugs including farmyard animals.
  • Po Knee, a donkey or horse that sits on your knee to create a fun ride for small children.
     
• Toys Online in Melbourne have a huge range of brand-name toys. Gift-wrapping and greeting cards are available. Delivers Australia-wide at a flat fee and to some international locations including New Zealand.  Search for animals or farm to find lots of toys, puzzles, colouring books, stickers, and more.
   
• Send A Toy is an online toy store based in South Australia delivering Australia-wide.  Free gift-wrapping.  Search for animals or farm to find lots of barnyard animal toys for babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers.
   
• Peanut Gallery - Australian online toyshop offering a beautiful selection of wooden, educational and traditional toys for children aged birth to 8 years. Free gift wrapping and hand-written gift tags. Based in Victoria, flat delivery fee Australia-wide by Australia Post Parcel Post. Having trouble deciding?  Search by age, sex, and price range.
  • Anamalz Wooden Animals Organic maple wood bodies with posable limbs. 
    • Anamalz - On the Farm - farm animals including bull, cow, horse, pig, and sheep.
    • Anamalz - In the Wild - crocodile, elephant, giraffe, gorilla, hippo, lion, zebra.

Farm animals clothing and costumes

• Costume Box - Thousands of Fancy Dress costumes for adults and kids for all occasions. Most costumes dispatched within 24 hours. All costumes displayed are in stock. Children's costumes include:
  • Animal Costumes - wrap and ride costumes and full body suits
     
• Australia's Online Party Costumes Superstore - lots of party costumes and dress-ups delivered anywhere in Australia for $9.95.  See animal party costumes including for lots of farm and wild animal masks. 

Farm animals party products

• Party Products Australia - your one-stop shop for party supplies, based in Brisbane, Queensland.  Party Products Australia stocks over 6000 items including invitations, balloons, napkins, plates, cups, hats, goody/loot bags, temporary tattoos, banner flags, piñatas, and a lot more!
  • Barnyard animal party goods - plus some barnyard party decorations specifically for 1st birthdays
  • Farm animals
  • Jungle party
  • Animal piñatas!
     

Farm animals party ideas

Most regular children's party games can be adapted to a barnyard theme - for example:

• "Simon Says" becomes "Farmer Says".
• Pin the tail on the donkey works as it is, but it could also be pin the tail on the cow, pin the comb on the rooster, pin the hat on the farmer, and so on.
• Make a traditional pass the parcel with some inexpensive animal toys or sweets in each layer - maybe encourage everyone to make the animal noise.
• Play "Duck, Duck, Goose".
• Have an egg and spoon race (hard boil the eggs to avoid messy accidents).
• For older children, celebrity heads can be adapted to farm animal heads - each child is given the name of an animal that everyone except them can see, then through a process of yes/no questions guesses the animal.  The name of the animal can be pinned to their back or put on a head band facing the front.
• A noisy game for older children is to randomly assign animal types to children (draw them out of a hat) then, as they walk around making their animal noise, they have to find others with the same animal - two of each animal works well because the process of elimination will help those with an unusual interpretation of the animal noise.
• Party Products Australia has a range of animal piñatas that can be delivered to your door!

Farm party food

All unprocessed foods come from farms, so there's a lot of scope in addition to the usual party fare.  The trick is to make it a kid-friendly and a bit exciting.

• Arrange bite-sized vegetables - cherry tomatoes, celery, chunks of cucumber and carrot - in rows like a vegetable patch.  Sprouts can represent mulch or hay.  Cottage cheese makes a nice dip for the crunchy veggies.
• Seedless grapes, chopped apple, banana, and melons.
• Animal shaped cookie cutters can be used on melons or cheese for fancy shapes.
• Eggs are a popular farm food and have lots of uses:
  • Egg sandwiches - mash hard-boiled eggs with mayonnaise. 
  • Make egg boats from hard-boiled eggs - shell, cut the eggs in half lengthways, mash the yolks with a bit of mayonnaise then spoon back into the whites.  Add a semi-circle slice of cucumber for a sail.