Party Store

Invites
If your child is obsessed with tractors or farms, there is nothing better than a John Deere Tractor party!

Costumes
Remind the children to come dressed to farm in their denim farm clothes (over-alls, plaid shirts, or t-shirts). When they arrive, dress them in bandanas and straw hats.

Décor
Set out a few bales of hay. Have a tractor visible. If you don’t have either a riding mower or a tractor available, enlarge a picture of a tractor (Kinko’s enlarges pictures REAL BIG!). Laminate the picture and secure it to the side of a wagon. Voila! Instant tractor.

Tie lots of green and yellow balloons to any secure surface to add to the party mood.

Games and Activities
Give each child a ride on the tractor. Then, take their pictures! For even more fun pictures, let each child hold a long piece of hay or straw in their mouths. Send the pictures to them in their thank you notes.

Hide several small toys in a haystack. Include animal noses, small magnifiers, and wooly farm animals. Give each child a treat sack and let them have fun hunting for toys.

Party Eats
Have a contest to see who can shuck a ear of corn the quickest. Then, eat the corn for a healthy snack. Nothing is quite as delicious as fresh, raw corn!

More Fun
Let the children try their hand at farming. Put potting soil in plastic cups with small holes in the bottom for water drainage. Let them plant a seed in their own pot. Plant the seed about 1” below the surface and press the soil down gently.

Include a note of instructions tied to the pot. For example, “water me gently (like soft rain) every day until you see my seedling poke up from the soil. As soon as possible, plant me outside. I like being in the outdoors! The wind and sun help me to be more strong!”

Plant easy-to-grow, fast growing seeds like sunflowers. Children will love seeing the “law of the harvest” first hand!

More Eats
Make a tractor shaped cake following Wilton’s easy instructions. For even more simplicity, just make the cake, frost it, and use string licorice to outline the tractor parts!

Party Favors
Send the children home happy with their bandanas, hats, and filled treat sacks!