odd question about bales of straw

[hereidrawtheline]

hello there I have never come in to the tack room before because I am green with envy that you all have lovely horses!!

I have 10 animals but sadly no horses, ah, one day. I get a bale of straw every now and then for my rabbits, I have 4 in a large enclosure. And while we are chipping away at it DS loves playing on it! It is the best garden toy ever!

His 3rd bday party is in August and it is farm/gardening theme as we grow our own as well and he is an expert! I was thinking of getting a lot of bales of straw so the children could sit on them, climb on them etc. Except for sitting I was thinking you could have 3 across then 2 on top to make a sort of climbing frame, or even use the bales to build a little house or something.

The only thing is, I dont have loads of money to spend and for myself I can only use so many bales of straw before it will get soggy & useless for my rabbits. So can you think of any way around this? I know it sounds bizarre but I was thinking, can you hire it for the day? Or buy in bulk for dead cheap, have it delivered then I suppose I could store it in the shed, or something?? It takes me about 6 weeks to get through a bale.

What do you think to this?

To add madness there are only 4 children but I like to make things as lovely as possible without spending too much.

Hi, didn't want you to feel ignored but I don't really know the answer. Perhaps find a friendly farmer who would lend you some bales? A friend of mine was helping to organise a school fete a couple of years ago that had a wild west theme. She wanted straw bales as seating and I'm pretty sure she managed to arrange a sort of 'loan', in that she bought them but arranged in advance with the supplier that she could get a refund if they were returned in good condition. Obviously she was lucky to find a supplier who was willing to be helpful as it was an event for children, I'm not sure how many people would do that. She was also lucky one of the other parents had a big trailer to fetch them in!
Straw is fairly cheap though isn't it? (I haven't bought any for many years as my old pony developed an allergy and new boy lives out therefore I'm not sure of current prices), so could you afford to buy some, then donate what you couldn't store/use to a local animal charity?
Btw, the climbing frame sounds like a great idea, we once went to a childrens' farm that had a similar idea in a barn and it was very poplular. I'd be wary of how you make a 'house' though, bales are pretty heavy if they topple over.
I hope you manage to sort something out .

thanks for your message - very good point about making the "house". It is pretty cheap, when I buy just one its about £2.50. I'll make some phone calls and look into it more today. I dont want to go overboard for this party, just, if its easy & cheap enough I thought it would be a nice touch.