Buckaroo Bash 2yr - Wanted Poster Invite

Gunnar's Buckaroo Bash 2003 for my son's 2nd birthday we chose a Rootin' Tootin' Buckaroo Bash since he was so into horses at this time. 

I started the party planning by designing the invitations to look like WANTED posters using a cool Western font, with pictures of each of the kids (and grandparents) invited on each invitation.  They said:  WANTED, name of child (or grandparent) under the picture; then, (FOR BEING SO DARN CUTE, or FOR HUGS AND KISSES) under the name; Gunnar's Turning Two and we want YOU there!; date and time at the Stover Ranch; Reward: A Buckaroo Bash! With cake and ice cream and lots of fun!  I printed the invitations on some creamy colored stationary and burned the edges for an authentic old west look. I rolled them up and tied them with a piece of twine before placing in an envelope to mail.  Everyone loved their invitations.  Most parents said they've kept them posted on their refrigerators! 

Decorations:  The party ware that I found was Royal Blue and Red with a Cowboy riding a bucking horse, matching napkins and red forks.  I used blue tablecloths for the food table, present table and Gift Bag Table.  I used red and blue streamers and rope, with the rope wound up like a lasso in the middle of the streamers around the room.  I also had bunches of red and blue balloons tied up throughout the room; sheriff badges scattered on both tables and a pair of child's cowboy boots (one on each side of the cake at an angle) with a red and blue bandana folded inside each one on the food table. I also had cowboy hats turned upside down with blue bandanas in them for liners for the finger food. The gift bag table was decorated with alternating gift bags and cowboy hats (described below) .

Food: The cake was shaped & looked like a horse's head!  I got the design for it from www.familyfun.com.  It was very easy to make and all the guests ooood and awwwd over it!  We also had haystacks, trial mix, smores and little pigs in a blanket, ôhoedownö punch (just plain red-gingerale punch).  Activities: I didn't do a whole lot in this area since all the party guests were ages 2 and 3.  I did make a cd that contained western songs like, Home on the Range, Bonanza, Wild Wild West, Ponderosa, etc. to play in the background and the kids liked dancing to the different beats.  I had several stick horses that the kids played with and rode around the room.

And last I projected and traced a picture of a Precious Moments Cowboy playing a guitar Toddler life-size onto a piece of cardboard and painted it. I cut out the face to have a Cowboy Cut-Out to take pictures of all the kids standing behind it with their faces in the hole. I took the pictures with a digital camera so they could be cropped, then had them developed into 4x6 prints to send with the Thank You Cards. Before cutting out the face, I took a digital picture of it and cropped it to use on my Thank You cards, Address Labels and on some items in the gift bags. 

Gift Bags:  All the guests received a gift bag that looked like denim jeans with their names painted in red.  Inside the bags, they had a bag of trail mix with plastic cowboy & Indian figures mixed in, tied with red and blue curly ribbon.  A bottle of bubbles (I took off the packaged labels and made my own with the picture of the cowboy described earlier and the sticker said "Gunnar's Buckaroo Bash 2003" and I made Cowboy and Cowgirl picture frame magnets from Oriental Trading with each child's picture already taped in.  To finish off the gift bags, I tied alternate colors of red and blue bandanas folded triangle style around the handles with a sheriff's badge pinned to it and a matching (the drawstrings were either red or blue) straw cowboy hat. 

The party was great!  Everyone had a blast.  Now its time to start planning for next year!