Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Eight Things You’ll Need For An Authentic Farm Party!

This past Saturday, a group of Family and Friends hosted a surprise 40th birthday party for Uncle Andrew.

It all started last summer after an impromptu Family dinner. Everyone enjoyed themselves so much that we thought we needed to do it again. Not that we needed an excuse but we thought that after 40 years of “being Andrew”, he’d earned himself a party in his honour.

If you’re looking to have a farm hoedown of your own, here are a few things that you’ll need.

1. A Farm complete with tractor and pressure washer

150808-Andrews 40 Birthday15

150808-Andrews 40 Birthday3

2. A Corn Roaster and Smoker. Uncle Kevin welded a smoker just for the event! If you know him, you won’t be surprised.

150808-Andrews 40 Birthday4

3. A huge cauldron or a cow trough for beverages
150808-Andrews 40 Birthday5

4. Music. We rigged up an ipod to a gettoblaster but considered getting some local musicians to come and play. Next time…

5. Food. The more food produced in house the better; beets, green beans, apple sauce, corn, potatoes, green onions, lettuce and even the eggs were included in our dishes.

150808-Andrews 40 Birthday11

6. Camp Fire. You can have a traditional fire, one in a fire pit or try a Swedish Candle. It took a while to get going but once it did, it lasted well into the next morning and would have kept going if we’d kept feeding it.

150808-Andrews 40 Birthday7

7. A Chocolate AND Vanilla Birthday Cake.

150808-Andrews 40 Birthday12

8. People. While our table was overflowing, it wasn’t the food that was the highlight of the party, it was the people.

150808-Andrews 40 Birthday6

Judy and Eric (friends from Camp),
150808-Andrews 40 Birthday8

Will, Diane and Ben (my first cousin on my Mom’s side as well as The Kids guardians),
150808-Andrews 40 Birthday9

Steve and Bob,
150808-Andrews 40 Birthday10

Uncle Don and Aunt Bev, Fred, Marcella, Nanna and Jim, Liz and Kevin, John and Sally, The Zoo and of course Andrew!

150808-Andrews 40 Birthday16

150808-Andrews 40 Birthday17

BIG Thanks to Uncle John and Aunt Sally who prepared the venue, Kevin for smoking the pork, cooking the corn and coordinating the fire, Ed for barbequing the potatoes, Aunt Bev for cleaning up, Ben and Marcella for amusing The Kids and everyone that brought something for the meal.

Happy Birthday Andrew. Here’s to (at least) 40 more…
150808-Andrews 40 Birthday-TheOne

Have You Ever Hosted a Surprise Party?

19 thoughts on “Eight Things You’ll Need For An Authentic Farm Party!

  1. Soozle

    Looks like an amazing day 🙂 I love the rustic feel to the country!

    Is it an optical illusion or is the cake sloped?

    Reply
    1. Sarah Post author

      Dear Soozle,

      No pulling the icing over your eyes.

      The cake is in fact sloped (much to the chagrin of my Aunt Sally that baked it). The reasoning was because she didn’t have two equal sized cake pans so when she “married” the chocolate and vanilla cake, there was a difference in levels. No one noticed but if they had, we were going to say it was a “ski slope” as my brother loves to ski!

      Thanks for stopping by and sharing in our day. It was amazing.

      Besos Sarah
      Sarah recently posted…Find Out How You Can Save for Your Child’s Education with RESPsMy Profile

      Reply
  2. Elizabeth Matthiesen

    What a beautiful party, loved reading about it. I especially loved the Swedish Candle, I’ve never heard of that before. I’m afraid I don’t know anyone with a farm here. I used to go up during the summer and help out my cousin on their farm. Harvest season was always lots of fun with huge parties for all the helpers.

    Reply
  3. Carla

    Can I come to your parties?? Wow – looks like so much fun!!!! Love the corn smoker. But seriously, where is my invite 🙂

    Reply
  4. Rene

    Well well, it looks like a fabulous party. That Swedish Candle has me amazed, and the food, friends, and family must have made uncle Andrew feel really special. I only hope I have friends who love me this much when I turn 40!

    Reply
  5. Krista M

    My 12-yr old daughter no longer has traditional birthday parties. She actually prefers to have celebrations like these; with just her family, “camping style”, with a fire & great BBQ’d food, music & laughter. We go away every summer on her birthday weekend & have the best time.

    Reply
  6. Jason

    That’s awesome! Who doesn’t love a surprise party and and with a corn boil to boot? I love that you were able to have such a great time with the people/family in your life. Memories you’ll never forget.
    Jason recently posted…Dialysis And DonationsMy Profile

    Reply
  7. Aliya D

    I’ve spent much of my life in Western Canada, so western themed parties are pretty common… I love them and its a great thing for kids (so much fun and GREAT food). Happy 40th!!!!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge

Subscribe to Journeys of the Zoo! ⇒