We had a country music jamboree.
At this particular party all the children were girls ranging from one and a half to eight. The party could be adapted to any age or gender. All guests were invited to come in jeans and T-shirts or other western wear. We tied a bright red and blue bandanas around each child's neck. We gave the girls pig-tails with bright ribbons ($.40 a roll at Wal-Mart) and we put freckles on their faces with an eye liner pencil. Half of the fun was getting ready. Pictures were taken of each girl in their western duds some chose to pose with a stick horse. For chow we had a "Hot Dog Ho Down," served off of disposable aluminum pie plates. We turned on county music and danced with music shakers. We made the shakers by super-gluing the lid closed on old M&M mini containers filled half full of dried beans. The shakers also became impromptu microphones. We also had balloons for the girls to dance with. The only preparations we made for this party were done in a five minute shopping spree at Wal-Mart. We have theme parties about once a month so the children can spend quality time with each other, with minimum supervision, and more importantly so the parents have time to talk and swap stories.