This Saturday, we feted my newest five year olds.
Since we didn’t throw a birthday party last year, I wondered if we’d be able to settle on a theme that boys and girl could get behind equally, yet it came surprisingly easy: They wanted to be cowboys and cowgirls and have a Western Birthday Bash!
I LOVE to entertain. I was so excited to have a theme I could do so much with that I decided our best option was to host their fifth birthday party at our home. One, I hadn’t created the guest list so I didn’t realize how packed it would be. Two, I got tired of bouncy houses and parks pushing us out in a certain time that this gave me flexibility. Three, I knew Bray could bring in barbeque from the restaurant and hay from the farm and we could really enhance our western backdrop.
I planned this party for over TWO months. I really really love planning parties. It’s one of the dozen careers I’d have in a parallel life. I found custom invitations from Etsy and she did an excellent job. Then I pinned a bunch of ideas from Pinterest and I pulled ideas from past parties I had done like Lillie’s tea party.
The day came and was GORGEOUS. I was concerned for a while but the cold front blew through and God delivered one of the prettiest days of the year for the party.
I installed a balloon walkway in reds and blues which were the colors that I used throughout the house for decorations – both girl and boy appropriate and the leading colors of bandanas (another key decoration). Bray brought home hay bales from the farm which we lined the front yard with and tied pretend barbed wire between the bales since I wanted to keep the kids safe in our front yard which faces a busy street. By our shade trees we installed a red and blue horseshoe game for our would-be-cowboys to play (Station 1). I found a door poster I could put their names on and lots of decals for the house along with these simple little faux wagon wheels that filled in the space.
The front entry had bandanas for each child, a gift bag to fill with treats to come, and a flower-filled boot:
Station No. 2 was a dress up station complete with ride on horses, cowboy hats, sheriff badges, and masks:
Station No. 3 was a Cowboy Creates art station – there were three projects to chose from: design your own bandanas, create your own Western scene with cowboy stickers and backdrop, or color your own wanted poster (these were the adorable creation from a woman on Etsy as were the crayons in the shapes of cowboy hats, boots, and horses):
We had a watering hole station for thirsty cowkids with tea and lemonade in dispensers as well as ice chests full of juice and water for kids and soda and water for adults, and then we set up our own chuck wagon buffet full of yummy barbeque (which was a bigger hit with the adults than with the kids).
Since we ended up with over 50 people in attendance, I was glad that the fourth station was rented – a Big Tex cowboy bounce house that became the main attraction, although the boot piñata was certainly a close second in the line up:
Tiara Cakes did a gorgeous job with the cake – I sent them all these images from Pinterest along with the invitation and said design something that works for triplets. Not only was the cake beautiful, but it tasted super yummy. I think the kids were shooting for fierce cowboys here, but it came off a little wonky:
It was such fun for the kids, but I don’t know that momma is going to sign up for anything this big again (famous last words, right?).