Cowboy Birthday Party


hitchingpost

Friday afternoon we had a birthday party for my son who turned seven years old.  He wanted a cowboy birthday party and a homemade horse for everyone to take home.  We had a great time and here’s the summary of what we did.

cowboyparty

We invited our guests to dress as cowboys, and when we greeted them at the door the first thing they saw was the hitching post.

*Edited to add:  I wrote a tutorial and drew a pattern for making your own stick horse, found here.


Twithhorse

Each of them got to pick a horse.

addeyes

Because a cowboy’s best friend is his horse, we had a table with permanent markers waiting and they got to add eyes and any other markings they wanted to personalize their horse.  Then, because we had guests from both school and church, we had them introduce themselves and share the name of their horse, which brought lots of smiles.

wantedposter

Before everyone came we turned a small hallway into a photo booth with our wanted poster hanging from the beam above.  I had some eyeliner pencils in my pocket and we drew a mustache and beard on their faces before taking their pictures in the poster.  We also had a bandana for every boy to tie around his neck.

wanted

This week we will print all the “wanted” photos in sepia tones and he will give them to his friends with a thank you note.

thegroup

We took some group photos at the beginning so I wouldn’t forget.  Next came the games.

horserace

We had to have a horse race, of course.  (Or two.)

shoottherabbithole

We did a bean bag toss, which was called “shoot the rabbit hole.”  For every shot they got through a hole, they got to eat a rattlesnake egg (jelly bean).

rattlesnakejump

We drew a rattlesnake head and taped it to the end of a rope.  My son held one end of the rope and shook the other end.  The boys had to jump over the moving rope without it touching them.  This we called the rattlesnake jump.

tugofwar

We had a tug of war.  Several, actually.  They loved this.  I like to mix up the teams each time.

snatchtherat

The one game request my son had was for Snatch the Rat.  It’s turned out to be a favorite game.  I blogged about it here.

messhall

When the games were complete, we moved to the mess hall for some grub.  We served hot dogs, root beer, potato chips and cupcakes.  We also had a bucket of peanuts.

grub

Let me tell you, it’s awfully funny to hear wound up seven year old cowboy talk around your kitchen table.

gifts

We opened gifts.

candles

We blew out candles.

Aranchhand

I was grateful for all the help I got from my ranch hands.  They raided closets to look the part and helped everything run smoothly.

done

And then it was over.  The Bar T.H. Ranch closed and we cleaned up the place.

happyT

We were left with one very happy cowboy.  And a happy family.  It was a great party.

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