For my nephew's 4th birthday party we thought long and hard of what to do - finally we came up with a Go Western Cowboy theme. My motto is I would much rather spend my time than all of my money! So i used every daily necessity i had for this party. His invitations were made from yellow manila folders. I was able to get 4 invitations from each folder. I went on tne internet and downloaded a font from fontface.com that resembled an outlaw/western look. His invitations were approximately 5x7 cards and in black and whitet o save on ink. At the top of the card it read: WANTED! CALLING ALL COWPOKES! MAKE YOUR WAY INTO TOWN FOR A ROOTIN TOOTIN BIRTHDAY HOEDOWN -DEE IS TURNING 4 - JOIN US AT THE (LAST NAME) CORRAL FROM 3 TIL SUNDOWN . I took pictures of the birthday boy ahead of time with his cowboy hat on and westen wear with a mean "outlaw" face. From my PC I posted his "mugshot" on the card to resemble a wanted poster. After printing each of them and cutting them out i stacked them all together and sat at the stove and burned the edges for a worn look! we mailed them out and they were the talk of the town! People still have them posted on their refrigerator long after the party. Approximately 60 kids were invited to the party (we have a big family). The party would take place at our house. we have a very large yard so there was room to run and play. For the decoration we found an old wooden door and painted in white and hanged a welcome sign on it along with some horsehoes. we put a couple of pairs of old cowboy boots with fake blue bonnets sticking out from them. We put a huge bale of hay in front of the door and a longhorn skeletal head there and used that area as our photo area. There was also a sign on the door knob that said DEE's 4th birthday. We used large sheets of green paper and cut out 2 huge life size cactus and stapled them together and stuffed them in the middle for a 3-d effect. we used old sticks to stand them up all over the yard. We had tables and chairs with rope tied everywhere. we used lassos to rope off the party area. At the edge of the driveway we painted a sign with arrows pointing different ways telling the guest THE PARTY IS THIS-A-WAY! NO HORSIN AROUND - THE SHERIFF IS OFF DUTY & PARK YOUR HORSES ROUND BACK! Upon the arrival of each kid we handed them a cowboy hat and a sheriff's badge! The parents loved it! They were given the opportunity to take pictures of their kids and with their kids at the picture scene! We paid to have 3 miniature horses come to the party also for 2 hours - so every child had a chance to ride. We also had a tee pee moonwalk for those kids that wanted to jump! We played a game - "needle in a hay stack" but we used different small western goodies. we took a bale of hale apart and scattered it everywhere - the kids were then told they had a certain amt of time to find as many items as possible - we made it very hard! But it was fun. Next, we had a huge pinata in the shape of a cactus. I bought one pkg of the brown lunch paper bags for $1.00 and used a couple of $0.25 sponge stamps(bucking bronco, star, cowboy hat, etc)from wal-mart to decorate each side of the bags. Each child got a bag to fill once the pinata was burst. I filled the pinate with approximately 15lbs of candy. Each child (starting with the birthday boy 1sT) was given 2 swings. Candy was everywhere. For the food we had small buffalo wings and fries. We had child-size long tables for the kids to eat at but instead of chairs they sat on bales of hay with red bandanas covering the tops of them. The cake was custom made to look like a rodeo corral.  This was by far, a blast to host and a blast for my nephew and guests.