The Ladybug turned 9 back in August. So why am I just posting about her birthday now? Well, partly because we didn’t have her party until November. Awkward? Eh, maybe. But she wanted to invite school friends so we decided to wait until after school started. And September and October are just really busy times for us with school starting and soccer and lamb harvest and just everything. Besides, this is Tidewater Virginia. November is just Fall here, not winter.

We didn’t sleep outside, but we did spend the rest of the party time outside doing outside activities. And I have to say, just about everything turned out exactly as I’d hoped. We don’t do birthday parties for our kiddos every year. We do a family dinner (maybe invite the grandparents) with a special cake and gifts, but that’s mostly it. Maybe a special family outing like to the zoo or the playground…but we don’t do the themed plates and send out invitations and pass out goodie bags every year.

Every couple of years we’ll just say, hey, we haven’t had a party in a while, we’ll do birthday parties this year. (Remember the Tinkerbell birthday?) This is one of those years.

We invited 4 girls (meaning a total of 5 of everything) since we were planning a sleepover and offered to take everyone to church with us Sunday morning. (I needed to be able to fit everyone in the car!) I made her invites all from paper scraps and supplies in my workshop.

Time…2 hours, plus overnight drying time.

Cost…nada.

Then we planned everything around being outside and enjoying the farm. It ended up being pretty low cost and simple!

Mr. Fix-It put together a tarp tent and built up a good campfire.

Time…About an hour.

Cost…nada.

I developed a nature scavenger hunt for the girls to do as a group. The list included things that I was 99% sure they could all find, based on our regular family nature walks. (Turns out we must have picked up all the turkey feathers because “bird feather” was the one thing none of them could find!)

I formatted the lists to be 1/2 of an 8.5 x 11 sheet (portrait orientation) so it created two on each sheet. I trimmed around all four sides of the scavenger hunt list so it was a tad bit smaller than 8.5 x 5.5. That made the booklet step easy. To make the booklet, we cut 8.5 x 11 sheets of scrapbooking cardstock in half (again, portrait orientation) and glued the scavenger hunt list in. Preso! We decorated the front with some Fall stickers I had in my stash.

Time…About an hour to come up with the list and about an hour to assemble.

Cost…nada.

{Oh, and to save you the hour to come up with the list…here’s a printable for ya! Nature Scavenger Hunt}

Then we decorated a plain paper lunch bag with stickers for each girl’s scavenger hunt finds and added a colored pen.

Time…I would have taken 10 minutes. The Ladybug spent about an hour.

Cost…$1 for bags at the dollar store–and we have a lot left over! The pens were bought on clearance for something else and I just repurposed them.

Then, because I detest the cheap, plastic, throw-away junk that normally fills party favor bags, we made fabric drawstring backpacks as goodie bags. The bags certainly took the most time and resources. I used this tutorial and after the first one, they came together quickly. I also ordered fabric by the yard and cut it myself because it was much cheaper that way and I couldn’t find any pre-cut fat quarters in the fabrics I wanted for a price I was willing to pay. Pre-cut would have made them come together a little quicker, but I have a straight edge and a rotary cutter, so it wasn’t that big a deal and it saved a lot–especially since the bags are fully lined, so you need double the amount of fabric.

The bags, including fabric, grommets, cotton rope for straps (make sure you match your rope size to your grommet size!), and contents totaled about $6.50 each, except that I miscalculated with the flashlights. I got them at the Dollar Store and was very excited because they were pink! I forgot about batteries. I guess I didn’t have to put batteries in them, but we did and batteries alone were $8! (I only buy Duracell.)

Time…3 hours of cutting and sewing.

Cost…$6.50 each, $32 total. (Plus $8 at the last minute for batteries.)

The food was super simple too. The girls cooked hot dogs over the campfire for dinner–and I already had like 14 packs of hot dogs stashed in our freezer from when they were on sale over Labor Day for $1.00/pack! They ate right by the fire out back. I started by setting up a table on the porch, but they were having such a good time by the fire I just carried everything out to their log benches. We had chips, baby carrots, grapes, popcorn, and trail mix for dinner and snacks.

The Ladybug requested an ice cream cake at the last minute. I wasn’t expecting that, but I’ve used this recipe for years now–it’s easy-peasy and awesome!!–so I made it happen.

We also did S’mores when it got dark, of course. We got chocolate bars from someone else who had them leftover from Halloween and we always have graham crackers around for snacks, so we only needed marshmallows. And sticks. The sticks took the most effort of the whole party!

The food was a piece of cake. {grin}

Time…Cake, 30 minutes to make ahead and freeze. Dinner and snacks, pretty much no prep. Just pour in bowls and carry out. 

Cost…Food and Snacks $15. Cake $7.

The Ladybug told me she was very happy with how it went, which is the deciding factor of course. I was really happy with how we were able to use the farm itself as the “party.” I love how this party seemed to suit us and Ladybug just the way we are. {smile} Plus, the boys got to spend the night with the grandparents so Mr. Fix-It and I got to be fully engaged with the girls throughout the evening. It was a blessing to talk to them, get to know them a little better, and be part of the Ladybug’s day.

Now we’re on to planning the Cowboy’s 7th birthday (just a few weeks!). Wish me luck!