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We celebrated Avonlee’s 1st birthday with a good old fashioned country picnic on our little farm. You can join in the fun and get ideas for throwing your own picnic party by checking out these precious moments we captured!

Decorations

We kept it pretty simple with a homemade birthday banner & wreath on the front door. Pops of pink, our favorite framed photo of Avee, and an uplifting chalkboard scripture added girly flare to our farmhouse’s porch. Since the party was taking place in our front yard, this made a perfect backdrop for our lil picnic. Now all we had to do was spread out the picnic blankets and vintage quilts under our 100 year old maple tree…

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Party Play

Though the weather was clear and sunny, not everything went according to plan. The day of the party we learned that four of the little girls we had invited were not coming due to illness.  So we decided not to play country relay games with the few remaining kids, but instead just to enjoy being together on a beautiful day. Exploring the farm, serving tea in the playhouse, swinging on the new tree swing, and chatting together on the picnic blankets seemed to keep all of our guests busy.

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Gifts Galore

After playing for well over an hour we decided we better let Avonlee open all her gifts, so we gathered on the picnic blankets and quilts spread under the giant maple tree in front of the farmhouse. As big sister Camdyn brought the brightly colored bags to Avee, one by one she opened them in amazement. Avonlee loved all her new toys and cute clothes, but most of all she loved being the center of attention.

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Her 1st Cupcake

Next it was time to sing and light the candle. We all were wondering what Avonlee would do when she had a cupcake placed in front of her for the first time. It did take her a while to figure out that the cupcake was edible, so she just smiled and played with it. When mommy put a tiny taste of the frosting in her mouth she finally realized what a treat she had on her tray and dug in. The shots we captured are priceless…

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Picnic Time

Just as we were about to start bringing out the picnic baskets full of sandwiches, veggies, fruit, chips, and drinks to our cozy spot under the maple, clouds of smoke began filling the air. It was then that we realized the ranch half a mile down our country road had chosen this very moment to do their annual pasture burning and the good old Kansas wind was bringing it all to our party! This was yet another blow to our picnic plans. We knew the smoke would only last about an hour, so we all just headed into the farmhouse to enjoy dinner around the farm table and wait out the smoke. ( Since our kitchen is still only half renovated we have our refrigerator, microwave, hot plate and coffee maker in our dining room, yet somehow we managed to fit all 11 people comfortably.) Then it was back outside to play…

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Bonfire & Pink S’more Finale 

As the sun began to set and guests began to head home, Michael and Grandpa lit the bonfire. One of the great things about having Avonlee’s birthday so close to Easter is that all the Easter candy goes on sale. I picked up several packs of pink Peeps and they became the secret ingredient to our pink s’mores that we roasted over the fire together. It was the perfect way to end a very special day and I have a feeling that this creative snack is a new birthday tradition for Avonlee in the making…

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To get a behind the scenes look at all that went into planning and hosting “A Country Picnic” on Bryarton Farm, Check out the first two posts in this three part series:

Part 1 The Invitations

Part 2 Party Prep

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