Cowgirl Party -4yr- BBQ Chicken, Beans & Cole Slaw

For my daughter Victoria's 4th birthday we threw a cowgirl/cowboy party in our back yard.

The front of the invitations had a picture of my daughter dressed in her favorite cowgirl outfit with the word Wanted" on the bottom the inside read "Cowgirls and Cowboys to join us for Victoria's 4th birthday party" I then put a schedule of events 12:00 barbeque 12:30 crafts 1:00 hayrides 2:00 pony rides 3:00 country line dancing lessons. Usually our guests are late and with a schedule printed out I hoped it would help get everyone there and time and no one would plan to leave early (it worked).

There were 26 kids and 40+ adults so organizing was important! I had overinvited figuring some people wouldn't be able to make it but every single person invited came. We even had people asking if they could come and a few extras showed up.  Each child had a tag in either red or blue with his/her name on it to make lining up easier for events. The tags were cut outs of horses with a gromet in the top and an elastic string to go around the neck. I bought a tent at BJ's Wholesale club it was the same price as renting one and a one time cost.

We borrowed picnic tables from all the nieghbors and covered them with red and white checked tablecloths. On each table there was a small metal bucket with red utensils wrapped in a white napkin tied with a blue ribbon. I bought a bunch of huge playballs to keep the kids busy between events and decorated everything with red and blue bandanas and red white and blue balloons. 

For the barbeque- we had baked beans in crock pots cole slaw roasted veggies corn bread hot dogs and barbeque chicken legs. We served it buffet style and the food was a big hit really went well with the theme too. For drinks we had coolers full of juice boxes and sodas (the small sizes helped prevent waste). As the kids finished up we passed out farm animal craft magnet kits from Oriental Trading to keep them happy and busy as we got the hay ride ready.

For the hay ride we borrowed my dad's tractor my neighbors large trailer and hay from a friend with horses to save money. We have a large yard and the kids enjoyed the ride.  The horses I rented were late which made the playballs come in handy. When the horses arrived the owner didn't want to walk them on the grass only up and down the street which caused a little problem trying to quickly get the party moved from the back yard to the front. Helpful hint for anyone renting horses: ask in advance if the owner feels the horses will be more comfortable on the street or in the yard.

In our case it had been a hot summer and the grass was finally growing back so he thought the horses would be stopping to graze too often. There were 2 horses so each kid got at least two turns a lot of kids were more interested in the swingset and balls and didn't even take a second turn which worked well for the kids who wanted to go on more.

Once the horses left we rallied everyone up for country line dancing lessons. My cousin and his wife are great country dancers and handled this part for me. I think the adults may have enjoyed this one better than the kids.

The cake was set up as a 3 dimentional barn with plastic horses in the yard. I used the Wilton doll house cake pan and set it on a 1/2 sheet cake to make it. 

For favors the bags had horse stickers little stuffed horses crayons and little horse coloring books we had printing that said "Thanks for sharing my birthday with me love Victoria" on the front. For the thank you notes we made post cards on the computer with a picture of each child on a horse at the party. It made a nice keepsake for the parents.

Victoria loved every second of the party and so did we. "