Western Party 10yr - Cork Gun Shoot

For my daughter's 10th birthday party we had a western party. 

The invitations were printed on a wanted poster (scrap book paper) and had clip art pictures of a cowboy and cowgirl on each side of the wanted sign.  The invitation said "Wanted all cowboys and cowgirls to mosey on over to Sheriff Ashley's 10th birthday party at the Byrd Family Corral."  We then listed our address.  The R.S.V.P. said to "make sure you all call soon, as there is only so much room at the hitchin post for your horses." We also asked everyone to wear western clothes. To deliver the invitations we made paper mache boots the size of a ladies size 5 boot, spray painted them brown, painted the heels black and painted each child's name on the side of the boot with cream colored paint.  I had found tissue paper on the internet with cowboys boots on it, we stuffed each boot with the tissue paper (like a gift bag) and then rolled the invitation up tied it with rafia and placed it in the middle of the boot.  My daughter then handed them out at school.  

We had the birthday party in our back yard and in the front yard, to greet the guests we had two bales of hay and had two cowboys standing on the hay  holding ballons.  We had a table were, when everyone came to the party we greeted them and gave everyone a cowboy hat, a sheriff badge with their name written on it, and a bandana.  My friend brought her horse over and we had horse back rides out in the front of the house.  As each child got on the horse we took a picture of them (to be used later for a part favor).   

In the backyard we had a table set up that all my daughter's friends could gather around and decorate their party bags with western stickers, stamps, crayons, and markers, while waiting for everyone to get there.  Once everyone arrived we turned them loose on the different game centers. 

We had a corkgun shoot out center, the kids shot a cork gun and tried to knock down the pop cans with corks.  We had a gold panning center were we had filled a small plastic wading pool with sand, fools gold, and water.  The kids panned for gold using pie tins, this was a big hit. 

We had a lasso center were there was a stick pony placed in a bale of hay and the kids tried to lasso the pony.  We had pin the mustache on the cowboy and a bean bag toss as well.  At each center the kids received prizes with a western theme, there were handcuffs, harmonica's, bags of gold gum, beanie baby horses, bendy cowboys, and candy. 

After the games were over we had hotdogs and hamburges buffet style.  The kids all sat in a circle in the backyard while eating.  When the kids were done eating we had cupcakes that we had decorated to look like a horses face and icecream.  When it was time to open presents we played musical presents.  We played country music and started passing around a horse shoe.  When the music stopped the child holding the horse shoe got to give my daughter their present. My daughter in turn gave them their party bag. 

When the presents were over we roasted marshmellows, made s'mores and listened to a professional story teller share a western ghost story to wind down the party.  It was a great way to end the party as it had gotten dark by now and the stars were out.  We had tiki torches lit and it gave off a nice glow in the backyard.   

The next day we went and developed the pictures of each kids on the horse and framed them in pictures frames we had covered with a western print fabric.  My daughter gave out the picture frames with the thank you cards.  It was a great party and enjoyed by all, some of the kids still have their boots and are anticipating this year's party.