Party at the O.K. Corral!!

My oldest daughter is about to turn 6. I'm in the midst of planning her party. I stumbled across an older camera I had packed away (while cleaning my art studio this weekend), & it had some pictures on it of when she turned 4! (YIKES! That totally gives you a hint about how well my photos are organized.)

She had a cowgirl/horse party & it was one of the most fun parties I've ever planned for my girls! Being in September, I have the option of having her party outdoors. So, we invited guests to a park by the river & it was perfect! The wee western guests were greeted with their very own stick horses (the party girl got one that made horsey noises!), cowgirl hats (purchased at dollar stores & thrift stores), & bandannas (made from fabric I purchased at Walmart).

The table was set up with different colored checkered tablecloths. I purchased some red cowgirl boots at the thrift store & filled them with red & white carnations. Put the flowers in a heavy glass or vase first, & then place the glass/vase inside the boots. There was also a thermos full of hot chocolate, a crock pot full of little hotdogs & other yummy foods & drinks!

We had extra cowboy hats for guests to wear & bales of hay set around (blankets laid on top) for guests to rest their bums. Even great-grandma got into the action!! (That's my youngest with her cockeyed cowgirl hat!)

For games, we had a horse pinata. (I bought it. This party took a lot of planning so I did buy a lot of stuff instead of making them. I even bought the invitations, which makes me cringe. HAHA!)

My favorite part of the party were the next two games. First, I took a bale of hay & spread it around. (The hay was sitting on top of a tarp for easy cleanup after the party.) Inside the hay I hid all sorts of tiny little prizes & treats with a horse theme. On cue, the kids scurried to scoop up the goodies inside their hats.

Then, everyone was given some "silly string" for a Silly String Shoot-out! It was a fun mess & all the adults got involved too! Silly string was purchased at the dollar store, so I was able to get quite a few bottles.

I made the horse cake, following some instructions given at the Family Fun website. I used a chocolate chip frosting for some fun texture. Of course there were horse plates & horse cups. Also, not pictured, were all the plastic utensils wrapped in their own napkins & tied with a piece of natural twine.

The kids went home with all their collected goodies from the hay hunt game, their hats, their stick horses, bandannas AND a real pony horse shoe with their name engraved on it. The engraving was simply done with metal letters that were hammered onto each horseshoe. (Unfortunately I don't have pics of the personalized shoes.)

Because there were just a few children invited, I was able to do a lot more for the kids. My favorite part of any party are the favors & prizes, so I go "all out" there.


The birthday cowgirl had a blast! She even got to ride off into the sunset on her very first bike!

Check out this fun website with western slang.

Meow if you love to PAR-TAY!!!!

The kitty cat invitations were sent. A vintage image was copied & 'glitterized', & some cat-like wording was added inside to lure potential feline partiers to a meowing good time!

(Cat graphic was found HERE.)

And I found an excuse to use my old-school label maker!

Finally, the day of my 4 year old's cat party had arrived!!! We decorated the sidewalks & steps with our usual festive chalk art & birthday greetings...

& I stamped some appropriately themed images onto brown kraft paper that I measured & wrapped around the little tables that the party guests were going to be sitting at.

When the wee guests arrived they did a craft. I wanted them to make "cat collars" so I purchased metal circular tags from an office supply store. I wasn't sure about what to tie them on---string? ribbon?----UNTIL I spotted these candy necklaces at the grocery store. SCORE!!! They were purrrrrfect! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

For a game I decorated Easter eggs to look like mice. Why is it that plastic eggs seem to multiply in my basement? Am I the only one? For the mice ears I used this really cool felt I got at the dollar store--the back side is sticky! Whiskers, eyes, a nose & mouth were drawn on with a permanent black marker.

The hind ends were embellished with leather string tails--just hot glue 'em on.

And the mice tummies were filled with coins--dimes, nickels & pennies to be exact!

I hid the mice in the front yard before the party cats even arrived. I told each child to look for the same amount of mice so it would be even & we wouldn't have any "cat fights". (Geez, I can't help it!)

One of my favorite parts of the party were the hats I made! I could've gone the "cat-ears-on-a-headband" route, but my daughter's previous birthday was a puppy party & we did the whole "ears thing" then. I glued pom-poms on the top of paper cone hats & added tiny little pointy ears to resemble a cat. Just a subtle touch, but I loved how they turned out. I couldn't find any cat paper to make the hats from, so I went with something fun & celebratory instead.

I always make sugar cookies for my girls' birthday parties--for the adult party favors. This party featured goldfish cookies.

I loved how they looked in the cellophane bags. They reminded me of the bags of fish you win at carnivals. I was lucky enough to find this adorable ribbon on clearance at Walmart.

OK, the cake is always a bit stressful. The decorating part I LOOOOVE. It's just the initial frosting layer that is the un-fun part for me. And I admit that my cat cake looks kinda like a bunny. For starters the ears are too close together. And secondly, my daughter wanted a red cat cake. I couldn't do it because I just pictured red frosting stains everywhere. So, she then requested "light red" which is really pink, right? So, it could very well translate to a spring bunny cake.

The really long striped candles came from Target. I love them! The kids ate their cake & ice cream out of real cat bowls bought at the dollar store. They thought that was super silly! They also got to take the bowls home. I even created my second pinata EVERS! The first pinata I made was 2 years ago at Pazely's "Bug Party". It was a bee & it ended up being HUUUUGE. This cat pinata was rather simple. I'm giving a tutorial tomorrow on my blog, so stay tuned!

Sadly, I barely got any pictures of the pinata bashing because I went inside to grab bags for the kids to collect their candy in, but when I came out, eager Mr. WhiMSy love had already led the troops to battle. This poor cat was destined with only one life.

The kids were so adorable in their party hats. I actually bribed them to take this photo for me. Some didn't want to wear their hats & some were falling off & some were comlaining that the string was too tight. I took about 10 photos of them & they actually held the word "Cheeeeeeeeeese!" for that long! HAHA!

The goodie bags are always my favorite part of any party. I should've taken pictures of the items BEFORE they went into the bags, but oh well. I purchased some sweet little stuffed mice from spidercamp, I made some kitty buttons with my 1" button machine using images from vintage children's books, some goldfish cheese crackers, glow-in-the-dark cats from the dollar store (like the stars you stick on your ceiling), chocolate Kit-Kat bars, tons of stickers, real-looking mouse candy & the tags are from time2cre8 (they look just like my little toothless birthday girl!). Oh! And the ribbon, with cat paw prints, is from the Dollar Store.

I attached yarn to each birthday guests goodie bag & we draped & looped the yarn over sofas, behind lamps, down the stairs, etc & hid them in all different spots when the kids weren't looking.

The kids had to wind their yarn around the cardboard tubes to find their goodies!

YAY for birthday parties! MEOW!

Oh & next year she tells me she wants a mouse party. Um, I'm gonna have to break the cycle somehow. Pretty soon we'll have the whole animal kingdom covered. Where does it end? Amoeba?