My husband and I adopted a four year old boy who not only had never had a birthday party, but he didn't even know when his birthday was or what we were talking about when we asked him what he wanted for his present. I was so heartbroken by this that I set to make his 5th birthday a real blow out. We chose a cowboy theme and sent out invitations to his new cousins and friends inviting them to a 'Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy Adventure in the town of Dry Gulch' with a picture of a bucking bronco on the front. Guests were told to wear their best cowboy clothes & boots -- but that hats and six-shooters would be provided.  We ordered straw hats in bulk from a party catalog and used them as the "treat bags."  We filled them with Lone Ranger masks and six shooter cap guns we got from the dollar store and passed them out when they arrived.    In preparation for the party, I went to a local appliance store and got 6 large refrigerator cardboard boxes which I cut and decorated into buildings for the town of Dry Gulch -- the sand circle left from our swimming pool in the back yard. We made a jail, Miss Kitty's saloon, Katie Elder's House, a General Store, a Barber Shop and the Sheriff's Office and lined them up on either side of the sand.  Then I took regular gravel out of our driveway and painted it gold with craft paint and buried them in the sand along with Sheriff badges.  We made gold digging one of the games.  The kids had 5 minutes to find all the gold and badges they could.  At the end, they could trade a badge for a small toy (including extra caps for their cap guns) or 5 gold nuggets for candy out of baskets in the General Store run by Mommy, of course. Surprisingly, some of the kids wouldn't trade the "gold" for candy -- they would rather keep the nuggets!    I bought my son a "Woody" costume from the movie Toy Story and gave it to him when he woke up that morning to wear for the party.  The cake I decorated with plastic cowboys and indians from the dollar store.  I made a blue river of frosting and set up the camps on opposite sides of the cake.    Our pastor is originally from Texas and he offered to bring his saddle over to the house and teach the kids how to "lasso a varmint".  So we got two hay bales from a farm and feed store. One hay bale we set up with a stick pony stuck in the end for the saddle to sit on and a few feet away we set up another hay bale with a plastic steer head stuck in the end for them to practice on. When he arrived with his big old Texas-sized hat and southern accent, he surprised me by passing out toy lassos to all the kids that he had ordered from the same party catalog we got the hats from. I must admit, the lassos made the party.   Daddy was "Cookie" and he grilled up hot dogs and hamburgers from the cook wagon. We served baked beans and I made hot dog and hamburger treats by taking two vanilla wafers and making a chocolate frosting "hamburger patty" and topping it with alittle red and yellow colored frosting for ketchup and mustard.  The hot dog treats were circus peanut candy with the center strip cut out for the bun and chocolate frosting piped down the center for the weiner and alittle piping of red and yellow colored frosting for the ketchup and mustard.  Coconut flakes colored dark green with food coloring represented relish.   The kids had shoot outs from inside the buildings, took turns being the sheriff and the outlaw, dug for gold all day in the sand, they all learned how to lasso and had a fantastic time playing cowboy. At the end of the day, I explained to my son that every birthday would not be this spectacular, but that I was trying to make up for all the birthdays he had missed with one party for them all.  This party was a major turning point for him in realizing what childhood really can be like and accepting his place as a part of our family.