Our son was turning 4 this year and we decided to have a Western party. We invited the guests by printing off on the computer WANTED poster-type invites on parchment paper. We gave
each of our 12 guests a Western nickname like "Rompin' Ryan" and "Eagle-eye Emmy" and wrote their names on the invitations. "Give us a Holler and tell us if yer
comin' to M's Corral" was our RSVP.
Lots of kids called using their nickname to respond that they were coming to the party. Since my son loves dressing up we decided that all of our cowpokes needed to have an outfit. I found denim vests at the dollar store 2 for $1.00. They needed to be altered a bit to look more Western so I cut and sewed the fronts to give them this look. I was going to stitch a fringe on the fronts but decided to use 3D fabric paints, in tubes instead (it was quicker.) I drew a fringe and some extra-large stitching details on the fronts in navy, red and yellow. I bought plastic Sherrif's badges and used a piece of self adhesive velcro to attach them to the vests (fuzzy side on the vest prickly side on the badge). My son's vest was from the second hand store ($2.99). It was made up of a bunch of different types of denim and I painted some extra designs on his for an extra special Birthday vest. I found silver cowboy hats at the party store for a $1.00 each. I put the first letter of each guest's name on the front of the hat with a self adhesive red sparkle felt letter. For decorations my son and I painted 5 foot Cacti that we hung up around our house. I painted a large crest on brown paper with "M's Corral" with a horse, cacti and a mountain range. We taped this to the front door to let the guests know they were in the right spot. I bought a cheap horse calendar ($1 store), cut it apart and taped up the horse pictures around the house. I printed out a sign for our bathroom that read "OUTHOUSE". I put dollar store towels with cows on them in the bathroom and stuck cutouts of pigs and chickens on the mirror and wall. In the kitchen I strung fishing line across the ceiling in an X pattern. I took gold ropes with tassels on the ends (found in the Christmas decorations) and looped the ropes on the fishing line. I hung sparkly star garland around my light fixture and red balloons from the fishing line as well. I searched for cow balloons and only found black and white polka dot ones. They didn't look very cow like but I thought they could look like chickens so I cut a beak and comb out of craft paper and stuck it over the knot in the balloon to look like the chicken's head. I taped chicken feet to the bottoms of the balloons and hung them as well from the ceiling on the line. I had one little boy ask me how everything was just "floating on the ceiling like that?" I have a hoosier in my kitchen and tied red bandanas on the knobs and stuck cutouts of cows on the doors. I used a checkered tablecloth and found red bandana paper napkins. Hefty has animal plates - I did have to buy a few packages to get 12 farm animals - the packages have safari animals in them as well (the ears of the animals on each plate are like two little cups - they were great for the dips we had). We served chicken strips with sweet and sour sauce, veggies and dip, chips, crackers and cheese and pickles. We had "saspirilla" (fruit punch) to drink. For dessert I rented Wilton's Western Boot cake pan which has a boot, cactus and moon/sun and made a chocolate cake. We played pin the tail on the donkey, jump the rattlesnake (I made our rattler' from a piece of rope, a film canister filled with beans attached to one end and a face made of felt with pom-pom eyes and a felt tongue attached to the other end.) We coiled up the snake and played "Pass the rattler" (hot potato) as well. My son opened his gifts and we put on the Veggie Tales "Little Joe" Western video for the time that the kids were waiting for their parents. Since they got to keep their outfit the "loot" was a small 4" X 5" cow spot printed fabric bag ($1.99/m hallowe'en discount fabric) with a red ribbon drawstring filled with a few rocket candies and gold foil covered chocolate coins. I made up on the computer bookmarks that looked like WANTED posters on parchment paper (with the guests nickname and a funny crime - "Wanted - Chipolte Charlie - for putting hot peppers in the Mayor's oatmeal - $10,000 reward for his capture.") I had the bookmarks laminated and tied red ribbons in holes that I had punched in the tops. A few days after the party I sent out store bought cowboy thank-you cards with a picture of my son (done at a department store) all duded up in a Cowboy hat and bandana. We had a rootin' tootin' boot stompin' good time!
