WWYD? Birthday related

littleredfish

So DD is obsessed with farm animals and over the summer we met a rancher at a fundraising event that offers his animal services at events. He does traveling petting zoos and also hosts trail rides, horseback riding lessons, school tours and birthday parties on site at his ranch. DH and I thought it would be SO cool to get them to come to the house (if it was legal in our area to have livestock on site) or maybe go there (but it's roughly a 45 min drive). This is part of the email I got back:

Thank you for contacting us. We do birthday parties at people's homes a lot and yes it is Legal. We usually bring a goat, alpaca, donkey, pig, and sheep with lamb if available. We bring 2 ponies for pony rides and some small animals. (chicken/chicks, ducks/ducklings, and a rabbit) Sometimes these change a bit but you will always have the same amount of animals. We clean up after the animals. We also have treats for the big animals in the pens and some of the smaller critters.
We do have other packages like the little critter package. This package is things like a ferret, duck, chicken and more.
We can also do birthday parties at the farm. If you would like this please contact us with the numbers and we can give you a quote on the cost.
Unfortunately Saturday June, 7th is booked solid but the 8th is free.

Then she included for me a price list. Basically, the cheapest is going there, then the "little critter" package, then of course the 1st bigger option. What would you do? We never planned to go all out, but the idea is sounding so fun as we go along. I think it would be easiest to go there, but I don't want the 45 min drive to deter anybody. DH thinks the larger group won't fit in our yard (which it likely won't), so I guess that would leave the "little critter" package. Maybe I just answered my own question, but is that worth it? Maybe I'm just having big pinterest filled dreams of pony rides and real life is killing my buzz lol. I also don't want to loose the 8th since they sound popular and I don't want to miss our chance. What would you pick?

najzomax

I would need to know more about the guests. 

Are the other kids going to enjoy the big animals or be scared? I know of my daughter's closest friends one would love it and the other would be terrified!

Do all of the guests drive? Could car pools be arranged easily? If someone only uses city transit and can't get to the ranch that would be a problem.

Personally I would probably ask for feedback from the guests. If everyone liked the idea I would probably do it at the ranch.

GromMom

I would go there because then I would not have to get my house ready for guests and fell I had to cook. This is why we chose to have lo's party at the botanical garden, instead of doing a mega clean on my house and then cooking and stressing, I went to Costco and ordered cake and sandwiches. This left me time to bake cookies and I'm making animal shaped sandwiches with a cute bento lunch thing I got online. I just went to a home birthday which was fantastic with so much home made food, but doing all of that would just be too much for me right now. Its funny how once you decide to spend money on a venue its no big deal to buy sandwiches or a cake bit if I was doing it at my house I'd feel I had to cook.

littleredfish

The guest list would be comprised of about 4 kids DDs age, one 1yr old, and two 4-5yr olds. The rest adult (friends, god parents, grandparents, parents of 2 of the kids DDs age. I'd assume carpool of my friends would be easy, and we'd be willing to arrange it for the other playgroup parents.

ETA: I'd only see MAYBE 1 of the kids DD's age being scared, and obviously the 1 yr old wouldn't get the full enjoyment.

MrsH11710

I chose option 2.

Option 1: I would worry about having the party over there and only a few people showing up...is it worth it? And honestly, the 45 minute drive would deter me, as a guest. Maybe you can take DD to the farm a different day so she can see all the animals?

Option 3: If you don't have the space in your yard then that's a no brainer.