The Cowboy Round Up

The 4th birthday party is probably one of my proudest party-planning accomplishments.  Everything came out exactly how I envisioned, we had amazing friends and family at the party, the kids had a blast, and the only injury I suffered was a minor 2nd degree burn from a hot glue gun.  All in all, that's a success to me!

When planning the party, my son asked for a cowboy party.  I am not a fan of hosting at our home. For one, it's probably a little too small for the events that I like to host.  Secondly, I really don't want to spend the time cleaning for the party, and then cleaning up when people leave.  Nope, better for me to leave the clean-up with someone else.  This is really all about acknowledging my strengths. I'd rather be the planner and coordinator who has a good time, than do any of the actual work!

So I started with the invitations.  I won't be posting a close up of the invitations since addresses and phone numbers are listed, so a description will have to do.  The background was a off-white paper, designed to look like a WANTED poster.  There was a photo of my son, with the caption underneath: WANTED: All cowboys and cowgirls to help celebrate Kevin's 4th birthday!"

Location was key for this party, because everyone knows I LOVE a good theme.  There is a local not-for-profit farm.  I remembered seeing a small picnic pavilion on a previous visit, so I called to see if they rented it out for parties.  And although normally reserved for weddings, they did rent out the farm.  Location found! 

Once that was done, I went a little crazy with the theme.  Pinterest is to blame.  I see things on there that some supermom does, and I HAVE TO DO IT TOO.  It's an addiction. I can't help it. (See blogs about Trunk or Treat for further proof that I am totally correct in blaming Pinterest.)  So of course, the first thing I had to do was build a western town out of cardboard.  Because every kid needs one of these, and it is totally normal, right???  I will say that my husband was an enabler on this one, building wooden stands that were hammered into the ground to hold the town upright for the party.

The party started at the pavilion, where the guests were directed to parking and the party. 

I had the cardboard town right by the pavilion, so the kids could play while guests arrived, and I also found a cute craft at Oriental Trading.  Each kid got a horse head to decorate with crayons, googly eyes, yarn, and ribbon, and then attach to a pole so every cowgirl and cowboy would have their own horse. 

They all also got sheriff's badges, bandanas, and cowboy hats as they walked in. 
The party then continued to the farm area, where we split into two groups.  One group got a barn tour and saw horses, pigs, sheep, and the cows. 

The other group got to go into another barn where they were able to pet bunnies, chicks, and baby ducks.  (My husband just pointed out that the correct word is "duckling" but I think the two readers of my blog both get that a "baby duck" is the same thing.)
Then the groups swapped and got to go to the other barn. 

After that, we headed to a grassy area where we were welcomed by the ponies I rented (yes, I know, go ahead and roll your eyes) and some games.  Think what you want of the ponies.  The kids loved them. I was awesome mom. 
We had several games set up and the farm also let the kids shell some corn that we would later feed to the chickens. 
I'm not a big fan of favor bags at parties (see blog post about our carnival party last year). So just like last year, I had prize buckets at each game so the kids could help themselves after "winning."  I also gave out bags so the parents wouldn't have to carry all of the goodies around.  Prizes included bendy cowboy figures, corn and pig water squirters, magnetic faces on WANTED signs, and mini western coloring books.

My enabler husband again came through with bringing Pinterest to reality when he built some of the games.  He's amazing...really. So in a short afternoon, he built two horses that we used with some hula-hoops for "Lasso a Bronco."  On a side note, these are now for sale to the highest bidder!!

 We also had a "Pan for Gold" game where I used an old sweater box, a couple of bags of sandbox sand from Home Depot, and some cheap "jewels" from the craft store.  The kids took metal pie tins and sifted the sand to find their "gold."

We had a corn toss, where the kids threw ears of corn into baskets. 

 

 And no western party would be complete without horseshoes, so we used a plastic set for the kiddos to throw. 

After breaking a cowboy pinata (more candy for their prize bag) and feed the chickens (followed by a healthy dose of hand sanitizer), the party headed back to the pavilion for cake.
Now for the previous 2 years, I've served meals at the birthday party.  This year, the party was from 1-3pm.  And it always seemed like we were coming home with as many leftovers as we'd taken to feed the guests.  So I opted not to have a meal this year.  I had plenty of drinks for kids and adults, plus did a candy/cookie/cake table instead. 

 This table was a little more crowded than I'd planned, but again....I was the awesome mom in the eyes of the kids.  The parents may not have loved that I stuffed their kids with sugar and then sent them home, but so far, I haven't lost any friends because of this. 

Kevin had his own cake with candles to blow out.  But since blowing without spitting hasn't been mastered yet, I had cupcakes for the rest of the guests.  The cupcakes were decorated with mustache rings, red, white, and blue chocolate starts, and plastic cowboy hats. 

 I found white Styrofoam cupcake stands, and used the offending hot glue gun to decorate with red and blue ribbon. 

I also made sugar cookies and put them in individual bags for the kids.  I was able to find cookie cutters for a cowboy hat, cowboy boot, a circle I decorated with cow print and a sheriff's star.

The table also had a stand with S'mores pops.  These are amazing and so easy.  Put a marshmallow on a stick, dip in chocolate, and then lightly coat with crushed graham crackers.  Amazing.

The table was also covered with candies and I made a bag of peanut-free Happy Trails Mix for every guest. 

Since I had every desire to capture each moment on camera for future blogging, Pinteresting, and scrapping booking, but had no intention of actually doing the work myself, I found a reasonably priced photographer to photograph the party.  She got great pictures of the action, and took the time to photograph just about every family that attended.  After the party, she stayed and did some of our family photos around the farm and some special ones of just the birthday boy. 

I used those to build a Shutterfly share site.  I sent all of the guests the link to the share site in the "thank you" notes so that they could download the pictures of their family. 

I had so much fun planning this party, and most importantly, my son had an amazing party with his friends.  Now to start for next year.....