Mother’s Day is a fun day to celebrate all the things mom’s do. Here are a few simple ideas to show mom you care and have a little fun as a family!

Coupon Book

Make a book full of coupons for mom to use when she needs it the most in the next year! Fold up pieces of paper and staple at the binding. Decorate the cover and fill in the coupon pages. What chores need to be done around the house? What would your mom really appreciate? A few ideas could be “I will wash all the dishes after dinner while you take a walk or bath,” “I will pay a game with you,” “This coupon good for one car wash,” and “This coupon good for one bear hug!”

Picnic Basket Lunch

Prepare a picnic lunch in a basket full of her favorite snacks and go to a park with the family. There is something about spreading out a picnic blanket and having all your favorite people around that is all enduring to a mother!

Take Mom on a Trip (pretend)

Does your mom love the beach? Decorate one room in the house that brings the beach to mom. Use butcher paper to paint or draw the ocean and a colorful sunset and put on the wall. You can even bring beach chairs and a play pool if possible. Have dinner or a picnic at the beach. You can have ocean sounds playing in the background and decorate with seashells!

Does she love Paris or want to go? Prepare a picnic with cheese, baguettes, and wine with French music in the air. Using butcher paper or poster board you could design your own tower. If you have the space in the house or outside put up twinkling lights to make your own private bistro. Ooh, la, la! Moms always appreciate the effort!

Other places to “pretend” go would be Hawaii using leis and items to decorate from a party store and Italy with the checkered tablecloth, Italian music and food.

Flower Pot

Buy a terra cotta pot and decorate. Using paints, children can put their finger prints around the edge or sponge paint the pot. Remember to put their name and the date with a permanent marker. Using items such as buttons, sea shells or fabric, children can create their own design for the flower pot. When the pot is dry, plant a pretty flower for mom to enjoy!

Dress-up

As each child enters the party welcome them with a cowboy hat and bandana or animal nose to wear.

Piggy Race

Blow up pink balloons and tie curled pink ribbons on the end. With a permanent marker make the face, or you can glue on foam or paper noses etc. For little ones, have them swat the balloon across the yard or room with a fly swatter. For older ones, divide into two groups and set up like a relay. Have them swat piggies around a certain point and back.

Duck Pond

Number the ducks 1,2 or 3 on the bottom with a permanent marker. If you only have two different prizes then only number 1 and 2′s on the bottom. Fill up a baby pool or large tub with few inches of water and place floating ducks in pond. Of course, watch children around any amount of open water!

How to Play:
Children pick a duck and look for the number on the bottom.
Children win the prize that corresponds to the number on the duck.

Have some toys that are considered “safer” for young children such as mini beach balls, sand molds or even small packages of fish crackers that you can have on hand to pass to younger children.

Hay Find

You will need hay, make it into a big haystack with lots of toys mixed in, I ordered plastic farm animals, bouncy balls and other toys. Have each child design a bag when you first come to party or just give bags to collect toys. I had the youngest children start first.

Hay Rides

Use a wagon or wheelbarrow with hay in it to pull children around yard or if you have a tractor, you can do the real thing.

Petting Zoo

We had to hire a company which also had options for pony rides. Be sure the petting zoo owner has access to water and shade for the animals. Also, don’t forget to verify that the petting zoo has current business insurance – ask for the phone number to the insurance company to make sure their coverage is up to date. If you live in an area where your neighbors may have pigs or horses then you are lucky.

Other Ideas:

Duck, duck, goose, blow bubbles, farm animal art projects, ring toss, parachute, musical chairs to country music, etc.

The food you serve at a party depends on the time of day the party is held, when we had our barnyard/farm animal party it was at lunch and we had a barbeque. Beyond the normal bbq items we served piggies in a blanket and other “barnyard” snacks. We ordered farm animal themed plates and napkins.

Piggies in a Blanket

This mini version is perfect for little fingers!

Ingredients:

Lil Smokie Sausages or hot dogs cut into thirds
Crescent Rolls

Cut each crescent roll square into 4 pieces, wrap around sausage, cook according to crescent roll package directions. Serve with dipping sauces such as mustard and ketchup.

Cornbread Muffins

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
3/4 (10 ounce) package frozen corn kernels, thawed
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease or line 12 muffin cups.
In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar, honey, eggs and salt. Mix in flour, cornmeal and baking powder; blend thoroughly. Stir in milk and corn. Pour or spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.
Vegetable Platter

You can arrange to make a vegetable garden. Include a sign that says Farmer “child’s name” Garden.

Haystack Snacks

Dry shoestring potatoes found in can. I put these on tables for snacks in little buckets, you could use baskets lines with red and white checkered napkins.

Chicken Feed

Any type of mixed snacks/crereals like Chex Mix or your own creation. For example, pretzels, Cheerios etc.

Decorated Sugar Cookies

Cut in the shape of farm animals, we also wrapped enough for all the guests to take one home as they left the party.

Other ideas:

Baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad, fruit salad, corn on the cob, chili, watermelon slices and deviled-eggs.

DRINKS

We served water bottles, juice and “moo juice” in a galvanized tub.

CAKE IDEAS:

The barnyard theme gives many choices for cakes or cupcakes. Farm animals like pigs, cows and sheep or a big red barn are popular with children.

Our cake was simple, a bakery designed a rectangle cake with a farm scene and we added the Little People animals. We also made a homemade healthy carrot cake for my one year old and any others that wanted a healthy choice. A cute idea would be to make homemade ice cream old fashion style or have the children make their own.

Simple Homemade Ice Cream

Ingredients:

Pint or quart-sized freezer bag
gallon-sized freezer bag

1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)
6 tablespoons salt

Put milk, vanilla and sugar into a pint or quart-sized freezer bag. Seal well.
Fill a gallon-sized freezer bag with ice. Add the salt. (We used rock salt.)

Put the smaller bag into the larger bag and seal.

Shake and mix until the ice cream thickens, about 10 minutes.

Yummy and lots of fun!

For great Farm Animal plates, click the ‘Farm Animals’ link below!

Farm Animals

Having a hoe-down in your backyard is a fun party for children of all ages. For our son’s first birthday we wanted to kick up our heels and celebrate with friends and family along with his playgroup buddies. So, we had a barnyard theme with a barbeque for lunch.

Decorating and Preparation:

To decorate for the party we found hay from a local farm and were able to return the bundled hay the day after the party. We used two bails of hay with a blanket for seating and opened one for the hay find. We arranged for a petting zoo, again from a local farm. This cost us about $100 because I did not have the pony, but of course this would depend on where you live. I thought it was well worth it, not sure if my husband would agree.

The tables had picnic and barnyard themed tablecloths and napkins. The center pieces were simply mason jars with raffia tied around it and daisies. I ordered the one year old barnyard theme plates, toys for the hay find and gift bags and the cowboy hats and bandanas several weeks before the party.

You can buy the whole KIT N KABOODLE FARM KIT online and save the running around town.

The cake was bought at a bakery and we used the Little People farm animals on top, but there are some cute cake ideas if you would like to make your own!

With a refrigerator and other medium sized box we made a barn. Give yourself a couple of days for this, to allow paint to dry etc. We taped the two boxes together after cutting out the sides we were placing together, so they could crawl through. Then, cut out the windows and cut slits for a door. Next, we painted the barn with two coats of red paint.

Farm Friends

As children begin to read they need lots of practice and this is a fun and different way to approach reading and sentence structure.  You will need a simple book that is at your child’s reading level, this can be attained from the library or your child’s teacher. Bookstores also carry emergent reading books. After reading the book,  write one or a few of the sentences out on paper or sentence strips.  Cut these apart and scramble the words. Have your child match the words to the text on the book.  Allowing them to look at the book and as they advance, you can take away the book.

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a mini fiesta. Decorate with little pinatas and tissue flowers, http://coolmomideas.com/arts-and-crafts/cinco-de-mayo-children-crafts/.

Cook up a few of these tasty treats, set up a table and enjoy!

Simple Homemade Salsa

Ingredients:

3 large ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

4 green onions, chopped (include the green part)

2 Tablespoon onion, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped

½ tsp salt

Squeeze in half of a lime

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Stir well and let sit for about 30 minutes in refrigerator to let the flavors settle. It is not a big deal if your little ones cannot wait!

Holy Moly Guacolmole

Ingredients:
4 avocado
1 medium tomato, seeded and diced
1/4 cup onion, peeled and diced
1 serrano chile, seeded and diced
1/4 cup crema (or sour cream)
1/8 cup cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice
salt and pepper to taste
Mash 2 of the avocado with the back of a fork or other mashing utensil. Add in the serrano, onion and cilantro. Fold in crema and lime juice. Add salt and pepper to taste. Dice the remaining avocado into 1/4 – 1/2 inch cubes.
Fold the diced avocado and tomato into the mashed avocado mixture. Serve immediately.

Muy, Muy Simple Guacomole

Ingredients:

2 Avocado

Minced or crushed garlic to taste (I just put in a spoonful)

Lemon or lime (whatever you have)

Cilantro (Fresh if possible, otherwise shake it in!)

Mash up avocado and mix all ingredients. My children love this version because it is more bland than other recipes and that is what they like at the moment!

Homemade Flour Tortilla

So I have never made this kind, here is a descriptive page found to make flour tortillas. This would be fun for older children.

http://www.myhomecooking.net/mexican-food-recipes/flour-tortilla-recipe.htm

Quesadillas

Ingredients:

Flour tortillas

Shredded cheddar cheese

Butter

Heat frying pan to medium heat, pace butter in pan. Place tortilla on pan, sprinkle desired amount of cheese on tortilla. you can fold tortilla in half, remove when cheese is melted and enjoy.

Other yummy treats include nachos, tostados, burritos, tacos, flan and the list continues.

Mouth Watering Salsa Recipes from Great Salsa. One bite and you will be begging for more. Find a variety of salsa recipes to suit any mood and palate, from the delicate to the asbestos. Enjoy!