Pony Party -3yr- Pony Tails

Pony Party 3 year old  We held the party at a nearby vintage carousel where I rented a private party room for two hours. We had 17 young guests ranging from 2 to 9 years old. Most parents also stayed.  Invitations: postcards of the carousel horses with all the pertinent information printed on the back. Of course I asked for an RSVP "yeah or neigh". 

Craft: When the guests arrived, I had a craft activity for them to do. I cut out chunky pony bodies and separate legs from cardstock. The bottom of the body and the top of the legs had narrow "v" shaped slits cut so when you slotted them together, the pony would stand up. The guests decorated their own pony with felt pens, crayons and stickers. 

Game: When everyone had finished making their ponies, we played "pin the tail on the pony". Before the party, I drew a large pony (copied from a My Little Pony book) and let my daughters decorate it with crayons and stickers.

I made the "pony tails" using fancy knitting yarns in beautiful colours - some were sparkly, some braided, some had beads. I attached each tail to a ponytail elastic, so the girls at the party could wear them in their hair. Get it - pony tails!!!!

We used masking tape to stick the tails to the pony, and everyone got to keep their tail after the game was over.  After the game and some tattoos that I had on hand in case we needed more activites to fill the time, all the kids went for a ride on the carousel. While they were riding, we cleaned up the craft stuff and set out the food. 

Food: I'm not really into cooking, so I just bought prepared stuff at Costco - with a horse theme. We had cold cuts, sliced cheeses, and alfalfa sprouts (think alfalfa hay) with assorted buns and squeeze bottles of mustard and mayo to make sandwiches; carrot sticks and other veggies with dip; and apple slices and other fruits with dip. We had apple juice and water to drink. 

Pinata: After everyone ate, we had a "pinata". My kids and I made a barn from cardboard covered with paper mache. We painted it red with white accents around the doors and windows which were flaps cut in the cardboard. There was a surprise taped behind each door or window: some horses, a chicken in an upper window, two girls holding hands, a big birthday cake with three candles, a "Happy Birthday" banner. The bottom of the barn was a flap that could open with a ribbon attached. We used this as a center piece. It looked great surrounded by all the ponies that the guests decorated when they arrived at the party. 

When we did the "pinata", I held up the barn and the birthday girl got to pull the ribbon which opened the flap and released all the goodies.  After the pinata, the kids went for another carousel ride. We cleaned up again and got the cake ready. 

Cakes: We actually had two horse themed cakes that my mom made, one here and one at an earlier family party. I'll describe both. The first one was my favorite. It was a barn made using two loaf pans - a smaller cake stacked on top of a larger one. It was iced to look like a barn with a roof line, doors and windows. The barn was placed on a large sheet of cardboard covered in green foil. We found a miniature pony set which included fencing, three ponies, jumps, and a bale of hay which we arranged around the cake. It looked really great. 

The other cake was made using a Wilton rocking horse cake pan. The horse was decorated like my daughter's favorite My Little Pony. The "happy birthday" line was on the bottom rocker. I can't describe all the details here, but it was beautiful. 

Goody Bags: After the cake, it was time to go. I handed out the goody bags which were cellophane bags with a picture of a pony running in a field. Each boy received a wind-up horse, the younger girls got a My Little Pony knock-off and the older girls got a glass carousel horse suncatcher. These were all a $1 each at various $ stores. Each bag also contained a chocolate carrot that I got on sale after Easter at a specialty chocolate store, and a few other goodies. 

Comments:  -cutting out all those horses from the cardstock took much longer than I thought it would. -because I had chosen this theme months ago, I was able to pick up stuff as I saw it. Eg. I got the goody bags when we were visiting a petting farm. They were perfect for the theme, but I wouldn't have found them if I had tried to put this all together at the last moment. -even though I made most of the decisions months ago, I was still up late the night before finishing all the "pony tails"!!!