Party Ideas: County Fair Party for Kids ("Come on Down!")
A few months ago, my daughter was introduced to both a carousel and a Ferris wheel at our local county fair. The look on her face when she rode both of them was totally priceless, and it took her a full month before she finally stopped asking me when we’d be going back. For that reason, it really didn’t take much brain power to settle on a county fair birthday party as our theme for her 3rd birthday party – which is a good thing, seeing as I don’t have many of those brain cells left anymore.
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STEP ONE: BUY SUPPLIES
One of the most difficult parts for me was somehow distinguishing this county fair birthday party from the farm-themed one we hosted the year before (see that recap here) because, at the end of the day, they ARE pretty similar. The easiest way was to just remove red from everything. I was lucky enough to find these Creative Converting plates and napkins from my local Dollar Tree, and – just like last year – I alternated them with plain pastel yellow plates and napkins to lighten up the color a bit. Add plastic silverware and cups to your shopping cart and you’ll walk out of the store with all the food supplies you’ll need for less than $20.
I know it’s almost impossible to think beyond what you’re doing at this very moment – especially with a little one running around – but I can’t stress enough how much money you will save if you’re able to come up with a general theme at least one shopping season before the party. In my case, I walked away from Dollar Tree with another $3 worth of summer-themed wall decorations and balloons that totally worked, even though they were being passed off as luau supplies. I also picked up a booklet of 50/50 tickets and some favor bags there, which came in handy later on (you’ll see).
STEP TWO: FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS
I knew from the beginning that keeping everyone busy (and injury-free) for the whole party – especially with 12 kids ranging in age from 1 to 6 – was going to be a difficult task. I thought back to the county fairs I had been to, and four things came to mind: food, animals, rides and games.
#1: Food
I probably spent a good month worrying about what food to serve at this county fair birthday party. We had some great barbecue the previous year that would have lent itself really well to a county fair, but I really didn’t want to repeat ourselves if I could help it. We eventually settled on sausage/peppers and grilled chicken (I wanted skewers because they seemed fair-ish, but we couldn’t find a place that would do that), along with some roasted potatoes, a cold pasta salad and pizza for the kids. Those came from LaCascia’s, the same place that had ironically made our cake last year (and where we got it from again this time). I made the salad, and the drinks were an attempt at being thematic – iced tea, lemonade and apple cider – and all came from the supermarket.
#2: Animals
If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know that my daughter likes animals. And while living in New England is not my idea of paradise, one of its few benefits is that animals are cheap to rent here. We found a New Hampshire-based traveling petting zoo called McDonny’s Farm (nice touch on the name) that rented us an entire farm’s worth of animals: baby goats, ducks, chicks, chickens, bunnies , and the pièce de résistance – a PONY – for less than what the food cost us.
#3: Rides
The pony was a big part of the “rides” portion, but we were able to borrow a ton of things from my sister-in-law, the coolest of which were a 6V ride-on train and a bounce house. While I obviously don’t expect you to own – or buy – these things, I’m mentioning them to remind you that asking family and friends to borrow things is a GOOD IDEA. Many times, they’re lying around unused and they’d be happy to see other people enjoying them.
#4: Games
This was the most important part of the whole county farm birthday party for me, not only because a lot of the kids didn’t know each other, but also because I actually wanted them to have a good time. The bad news for you is that it’s certainly the most time-consuming part of the whole event… but the good news is that it can also be the cheapest. We decided to create “stalls” of five different kid-appropriate games. Each of them was propped on top of something you probably already own: Sterilite storage bins with lids, which I just wrapped in brown paper and stuck a cardboard sign in front of to label each game. They were the perfect size for our age group, and if you don’t own any, start accumulating Amazon boxes and you’ll be just as good.
County Fair Party Game #1: Duck Pond
Find any old plastic bowl (this is TMI, but I definitely took an unused bedpan I was given at the hospital when I had my daughter and just stuck wrapping paper around it, which did nothing to mask it and definitely freaked a lot of the men out, but I didn’t care) and fill it with water (see photo below). Plop rubber bath toys inside. They float better if you hot-glue a metal washer to the bottom of each one or else you’ll risk them flipping over. We happened to have 12 ducks (thanks to my mother-in-law, who saved them from my baby shower four years ago), but you can use any combination of other animals you already own. She had the genius idea of using nail polish to write a number underneath them between 1 and 3, which became their “values,” and the nail polish comes off w/ acetone so your bath toys can live to float another day. Each child picked one duck and received tickets that equaled that value (yes, that’s where the 50/50 tickets from before come into play).
County Fair Party Game #2: Launch the Ball
I was fortunate enough to receive this from someone far more artistic than I, but it’s an easy enough game to make with poster board from the dollar store too (see photo below). Cut holes that are big enough to fit a ball through, and prop the cardboard up against one of your storage bins. We used bean bags from a cornhole game we already owned, but any projectile will work. Everyone got 3 tries and received the corresponding number of tickets. Their distance from the board varied based on their age – most kids were basically touching it, but we weren’t trying to make anyone cry at this party so I didn’t care.
County Fair Party Game #3: Ring Toss
I again can’t take credit for this one, but it can be easily created from a clementines box and 12 glass bottles (beer, juice, water – whatever gets you through each day, no judgment). Fill the bottles with food dye and water and use rings you may already own from a different game – or make lassos instead from twine – to keep costs down. Every hooked bottle equaled a ticket.
County Fair Party Game #4: Pin the Tail
You can find a complete set of this pretty much anywhere; this one happened to be mine from when I was a kid (see photo), but I’ve bought them at my local supermarket for a buck on clearance and I’m sure you’ve come across them yourself at some time or another. We duct-taped it to a piece of wood just so it looked like the others. Closest 3 kids to the tail got 3 tickets, then the next 3 got 2, and everyone got 1.
County Fair Party Game #5: Tin Can Alley
Espresso may not be your drug of choice, but it sure is mine (especially over these past three years). Save your own espresso cans – or coffee cans, or bean cans, or any old can that you can collect six of – and wrap them in paper (see photo). Stack them on top of each other and use pool toy balls you already own (or any other balls, as long as they have some weight to them) so that each kid gets 3 tries. The number of cans they knocked down was the number of tickets they received.
County Fair Party Prizes
At the end of the insanity, the kids added up their total number of tickets (or came up with whatever arbitrary number they thought would make them the winner…) and stood in a line from most to least. All prizes had been purchased at the dollar store, and I used an old cork board to hold them up with thumbtacks – just make sure you’re the only person touching the cork board so nobody accidentally stabs themselves with the thumbtacks.
You have to assume that the older kids will have the most tickets, so put the items that would interest them up on top so the younger ones don’t get upset. It might not be a bad idea to keep a spare of everything in another room in case someone has a meltdown that their favorite toy was taken by someone else – Dollar Tree supposedly lets you return unopened merchandise for a while as long as you keep your receipt.
In the end, it was a mad dash for everything and I’m sure there were tears somewhere, but I didn’t see them so I’m declaring it a victory…
THE PIÑATA
The last “game” for our county fair birthday party was a true labor of love: a homemade piñata. This was the first time I ever had a piñata at one of our parties, mostly because I was never crazy about the idea of encouraging my kid to pummel the living you-know-what out of anything with a stick – but either I’ve mellowed out slightly or just become an angrier person because this year I was on board, just as long as the target wasn’t an animal (people, however, were fine – just kidding – only a little).
I settled on making a Ferris wheel. Believe me when I tell you that I am NOT artistic, but I’m still shocked at how easy it was, and the best part was that I literally made it two months in advance. If you’d like step-by-step instructions, I posted it all online here. It definitely took a little force to finally open it up (everyone got two turns before my husband ripped the rest of it open), but I’d rather have it be harder to break than to not hold the stuff inside (all of which, of course, came from a combination of the dollar store and Party City).
STEP THREE: DESSERT & FAVORS
When it came to desserts, I knew I wanted some type of cider donuts to go along with the whole county fair theme. Watermelon was always a safe bet (and allergy-friendly), along with a few apples for color. After seeing how simple the piñata was, I had grandiose visions that I would construct an elaborate carousel on top of my daughter’s cake using my sister-in-law’s Silhouette machine, but after 20 failed attempts at detaching the paper from the cutout, reality soon set in and I bought one from trusty old Amazon for $10.
While I wasn’t thrilled about spending more on a cake topper than on all our games combined (and its quality left a little to be desired, seeing as the horses all looked like they would fall off their poles any second), it ended up having a wind-up component so we actually still use it as a toy after the fact, which makes it (only) slightly less painful. I left the rest to LaCascia’s and stopped thinking about it from that point on.
The only thing still left to figure out was the favors. I toyed with the idea of cotton candy, but realized that most people don’t even like it and it makes a huge mess. Then I considered caramel apples, but figured those would end up being some type of choking hazard. I eventually settled on kettle corn and randomly spoke to a woman who suggested that I try Trader Joe’s brand instead of paying a specialty shop. It was one of the best tips I’ve ever gotten, and $2.50 a bag later, I was ready to feed an army (four people to a bag). I used the favor bags from the dollar store and went to the Avery Template page to print free labels. To be clear, you don’t actually need a specific type of sticker to use this. I took regular cardstock paper and just cut out the shape that the page created. For freeeeee.
It was another beautiful day, with temperatures being unseasonably warm for the end of September, which was huge because there was no way we were all fitting inside if it wasn’t. The biggest casualty of our county fair birthday party by far was our dining room wall, which apparently did not appreciate having blue putty attached to it. We’re now missing paint in the center of the house where our “Happy Birthday!” sign once hung, but I suppose that’s a lot better than some of the other possible things that could have gone wrong and thankfully didn’t… and I think the birthday girl had a really good day, which was ultimately the whole point anyway.
