My Little Pony Party (3-4yr) Hobby Horses

My sister-in-law and I decided that since both of our little girls love My Little Pony so much, and since their birthdays were only a week apart, we would combine their parties.     

My living room was decorated with bunches of ballonns, corresponding the the colors of their favorite Pony characters.  They were weighted with the Pony toys.  We also had crepe paper streamers and a large Happy Birthday Banner with both of the girls' names on it.  We were happy to find plates with the My Little Pony characters on them.  The adults used pink and purple paper plates.  We had pink plastic cups and the table was covered with purple wrapping paper, with a pony carousel, found on ebay, at the centerpiece.    

When the kids came in we led them over to their new Ponies (hobby horses I made a couple of days before).  They are very simple to make and absolutely adorable.  For each Hobby horse, you need a pant leg from an old pair of jeans or slacks(2 feet long), yarn, scissors, a ruler, and a pool noodle.  Decorative eyes, or other appliques are optional.  This require NO SEWING!!  Just turn the pant leg inside out, and tie and end closed with the yarn.  Decide where the eyes will be and mark a pencil mark.  Then, 2 inches up from the eyes, make eight vertical slits in the center of the pant leg about 3/4 inch long, about 1/2 inch apart.  To make the horses mane, take 35 8-inch pieces of colored yarn and wrap them together in the center with another piece of yarn.  Do this four times.  Then weave the bunches through the eight slots in the pant leg. 

Ears can be made by sticking the back pockets of the jeans through 1/2 inch slits on both sides of the mane. I found this idea on FamilyFun.com, searching for homemade hobby horse.  It was so easy and only took a couple of hours to make six horses, one for each kid.  Instead of a wooden dowel, I used a pool noodle because it seemed safer, and was more colorful.  I also ended up going to the thrift store and buying a pair of pink slacks and a pair of yellow slacks instead of using a denim color, because it went well with the theme.  I used purple, yellow, and pink yarn for the hair. I had two boys at the party, and they loved their denim horses with white and red hair. All the kids had so much fun with them, and their parents LOVED them.   

The kids picked out their horses as they came in and we went outside to ride them.  Once all the guests were there, we did a Pony Race, using crepe paper at the finish line.  We would have done an obstacle course if we had more room.  We also played a game in which 6 adults (one for every kid) attached a tail to their back pocket (we used colorful cheerleader pom poms, found at any party store).  The kids played a game of tag in which they had to pull the tail off the adult.  Last adult standing with their tail intact got a pair of movie tickets, and the kid with the most tails got a box of candy.  The adults loved this, and everyone had a lot of fun with it. 

Next, we had Pony bowling.  I set up six of my daughter's My Little Ponies and each kid took turns bowling a soccer ball at them, trying to knock over as many as they could.  Some parents took a turn too.  No prize for this game.  Just a lot of fun.  We then did Pin the Tail on the Pony (We used a Pony poster that came with one of her toys and then attached tail-shaped strips of colored construction paper, but if you don't have access to a poster, you could also print out a picture of a pony and blow up the size at a copy store).  Then we did a pony pinata filled with candy.   

The cake was a simple white sheet cake with both girls' names and a large rainbow with puffy icing clouds.  We used the pony toys from a fast food kid's meal and set them around the cake.  The girls loved it.  The girls then opened presents while everyone ate cake.  For Party favors, the kids got to keep their Hobby Horse ponies.     Everyone had a great time, and many of the parents said they couldn't wait to use some of the ideas for their own parties, catering it to different character themes.