Cowgirl/Cowboy Party - Rope the Pony

I was trying to buck the horse so to speak and have an inexpensive party at home. This party was a huge success and much easier on the pocket book then most of our others. Make sure you have time to shop around. Internet shopping was essential for me to get this pulled off.  

Invitation: I printed this myself; I took a picture of my daughter on her butterscotch" fur real pony. She was dressed in jeans white t-shirt boots with a white cowgirl hat trimmed in gold sequins that I found at a local party store for about $12. She had a red bandana tied around her neck.  I also purchased some of the scene setters at the party store that made it look like she was in front of a barn gate. I put "Saddle Up "girls name" is turning 5!" using word art in Navy blue font with her picture directly underneath. Then I put the following in the coordinating font.   Round Up Is from 2-4 p.m.  Day Date  Ride on Over to  Address   Yea or Neigh   To Lori  "Phone #"  I then inserted a rope border that I found in clip art. Just printed these on a color printer and tied them with jute rope or twine. These turned out cute and inexpensive.  

Decorations: Red and Blue streamers navy blue tablecloths for a food and gift tables and a red bandana printed tablecloth for a game table. Red and blue balloons tied with twine to old horseshoes. Horseshoe shaped confetti sprinkled on table. Old wooden child's rocking chair for the child to sit in while opening presents. 

Music: I made a CD that played in the background at the party. Included classic cowboy songs such as home on the range/back in the saddle again/Desperado/Mammas don't let you babies grow up to be cowboys/Happy trails/gun smoke/lone ranger themes/rhinestone cowboy/what'cha gonna do with a cowboy/cattle call with more up to date country songs such as that song in my head/Amarillo sky/the climb/she's country/it won't be like this for long/ my hallelujah song/country boy/the cowboy in me/ready set don't go/River of love/cowgirls don't cry/cowboy take me away/should've been a cowboy/butterfly fly away/where the green grass grows.  Party was about 2 hrs long and the cd was about 1/5 hrs still could have used a few more songs but put the cd on repeat.  No one seemed to notice.  

Games:

We had planned to have this party outside in our backyard but because of inclement weather we moved it inside and on our back porch. We passed out horse notepads to the winners. We had the following games: 

Pan for gold: Took aquarium rocks and spray painted them gold and mixed with a bag of play sand in a large galvanized wash tub and finished filling the tub with water.  We used sand sifters from the dollar store for the kids to sift out the gold.  This was setup on the back porch and the kids had a great time playing in the sand and water. 

Target shooting:  This was also setup on the porch. We purchased two guns that shot six foam darts.  We put two sets of three coke cans on the table with the red bandana table cloth.  The kids had fun shooting the cans over and over and over.  

Rope the pony: I set the butterscotch pony up in the living room in front of the same scene setter background that I used for the invitations and had the kids rope the pony with a hula hoop. Also took pictures of the kids riding the pony 

Activities:

Face painting: I had an adult face paint the kids as they arrived she did pretty extravagant face paintings but a simple horseshoe horse head cowboy hat star etc would suffice. 

Coloring table: I covered a kid's picnic table with white butcher paper and placed a small galvanized pail filled with crayons.  I printed coloring pages of horses and cowboys/cowgirls that I found online and placed a horseshoe on top of the stack of papers. Kids colored pages while they were waiting to play games. 

Costumes: As the kids arrived they were each given a cowboy hat.  I had originally purchased some at the local party supply store but found them online for half the price @ oriental trading. They had red hats trimmed in blue and blue hats trimmed in red. They were also given red or blue bandanas and sticker badges. 

Party snacks:  Since our party was mid afternoon we had several varieties of chips and dips. These were served in red bandana bowls that I found at the party store.  They had both large for chips and small size for dip. Navy and red plates napkins etc with cowboy sayings (cowboy western pattern) were found at the party store. They were cute with a rope on them and trimmed in bandana print. We placed the food on the navy table cloth and sprinkled the table with the horseshoe confetti. We also had canned and pouch drinks in a cooler but could put in galvanized tub with ice. 

Cake: Cake was sheet cake with a brown wooden fence piped around sides with red flowers and grass at edge with a cowgirl riding a pony painted onto a piece of fondant and then cut out and placed on top.  More flowers were piped around cake and Happy Birthday was piped in navy and navy candles were used. Hard to explain but was precious 

Favors: Goodie bags were kept simple and inexpensive since children were able to take cowboy hats and bandanas home. Goodie bags were from the "wild horses" party supplies. A handful of mixed candy horse stickers and metal sheriff badge pins (oriental co.) were all that were needed. "