Setting Up

• Make some wood or cardboard cut-outs of a giant pumpkin, scarecrow or farm animal. Leave a hole so guests can take turns placing their face through the hole. Have a digital camera ready to take a picture of each child. If you can, print each child's photo for him to take home. Hay bales can be used to create a little maze or be used as outdoor tables and chairs.
  
  

Games

• Gather all of your children's stuffed animals and place them in a clean empty trash can. Take two large cardboard boxes and cut a door in each. Decorate them to look like barns. Place the boxes far away from the trash cans of animals. Divide the children into two teams. Instruct them to take one animal at a time and put it safely in the barn. The team with the most animals in their barn at the end wins. If the children are older, you can have them do this blindfolded.
  
  Younger children may appreciate a simple game of duck, duck, goose and older children can bob for apples.
  
  

Activities

• Borrow or rent some equipment and have a hay ride. Take children on a 15-minute hay ride around your property. You can make it a little more fun by taping animal pictures along the route. Have children shout out any time they find an animal during the ride.
  
  Another activity is to decorate pumpkins. Small pumpkins are fairly inexpensive and can keep children busy at least half an hour during a farmer birthday party. Put out some paint and let the children decorate their own pumpkin to take home. Be sure to have the children put on smocks or old T-shirts so they don't ruin their outfits.
  
  

Food

• Animal crackers are a must for a farmer birthday party. You may want to have one box of animal crackers for each child to take home. You can make a cake and place some plastic farm animals on it to make a farm scene, or make cupcakes with a different animal on each.
  
  Cheese cubes can be set up to represent hay bales, and a trail mix can be made to simulate chicken feed. Deviled eggs offer a chance to talk about where food comes from. If you have time, make some milk shakes and tell the children you got the milk from cows on the farm.