Farm Festivities

My son, my darling, my adored one, just turned three last month. Three! We had quite a year with him being two, so we decided to have a victory/birthday party at his favourite place: a farm.

This child has had a thing for farms since we took him to pick out a pumpkin on my birthday last year. If we tell him that we’re doing something exciting that day, he will automatically think that we’re going to a farm. We’ve learned that for him, the best part of any farm are the animals, especially pigs.

Now, I’m going to apologize for the quality of photos in this post – it seems that my good camera has stopped speaking to my phone.  I was trying to hold off posting this till I got them back on good terms again, but that’s proven very difficult so I’m just going to use the photos I have.  Updates may follow.

So, back to the birthday party – we chose Forsythe Family Farms as the venue, as they seemed to have the most comprehensive birthday party plans and the nicest, most accessible farm. The staff there were excellent from initial contact straight through to the post-party follow up email. We were able to order some fresh food and drinks through them (fresh fruit and vegetable trays, real apple cider, coffee and tea), in addition to some food that we brought on our own, and we brought our own birthday cupcakes as well.

We rolled up to the farm at about 9:30 the morning of the party, and the event space was already set up. Our event coordinator, Olivia, helped us unload our vehicles and also let us know what the plan would be for the day, subject to weather. It then started to rain as our guests arrived, which was a bit of a bummer, but fortunately it stopped just as Olivia was about to get the festivities started.

First off was a wagon ride through the farm, and a forest walk enjoyed by kids and their adult companions.

Then there was raspberry picking, with each child getting to take home her/his own little half pint box of berries.

Finally, it was barn time with lots of fresh vegetables to feed the happy animals. The pigs received a lot of attention/green beans from my child.

After all of this excitement, our guests returned to the party room for lunch – we ordered sandwiches and veggie wraps from the Metro grocery store in Oshawa, my Mom made an enormous Caesar salad, plus the aforementioned fruit and veg trays from the farm itself.

Then it was time for cake: nut-free farm animal cupcakes from It’s The Icing On the Cake in Leslieville.

We’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback on the party from all of our friends and family, and especially from Kian, who had a great time being there with all his nearest and dearest, showing them the place that he loves best. We are so lucky to be able to access such a great family-focused farm, and we couldn’t have asked for a better third birthday party venue for our son.  It tired him out real good.

Forsythe Family Farm is open every weekend from the Victoria Day long weekend in May straight through to Christmas Eve, December 24th, and many weekdays as well. Check here for location and hours.