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Cowboy Theme -5yr- Wanted Posters

June 2003

Andrea in St.Petersburg, Florida  United States

Honorable Mention

For my son's fifth birthday we had a cowboy theme.

The invitations were printed on my computer on scroll paper that I purchased from a local office supply store I printed "WANTED" at the top and then wrote Cowboys and Cowgirls to help Deputy Derek celebrate his 5th birthday. Located at our ranch \*\*\*\*\*\*\*(address).Rodeo date and time is \*\*\*\*. Ya'll come fer some fixins and some fun and have yer ma or pa call and let us know if you'll be attendin! I added a little note at the bottom that we would be providing a hat, bandana & badge but if they wanted to come dressed the part they could.

I took a bunch of pictures of my son dressed in full cowboy attire blk & white cow print vest & chaps jean shirt, jean pants,cowboy hat, boots, gun holster and he had a silver gun and a lasso as props. The vest & chaps we made but the hat, boots & holster were all bought at Wal-Mart. I took the pictures in front of our wooden fence which made it even more real.I used a bunch of different poses. I took the same paper that I used for the invitations and I put little sayings on them like: WANTED $1,000,000.00 REWARD and then I placed one of the 7 poses in the middle of the paper and then at the bottom.

I wrote different sayings like…"Wanted for using his lasso to tie up his brothers", "Wanted for being our favorite 5 year old! If found please give him a hug from Ma & Pa!, "Wanted for drinking all of the orange juice at the pub! If found please frisk for oranges! I took the paper with picture attached to Kinko's (a local copy center) and enlarged my posters in color to 11x20! These are what I used as my decorations all around the backyard on the fence. They were the biggest hit!

No one could believe that I made them, and that they only cost $1.00 a piece! I placed one on the front gate with a sign that read Welcome to Derek's Ranch. I placed along the fence where the guests walked in 2 pcs of freezer paper about 7 feet long each and painted the words RODEO THIS WAY with an arrow. And the other one said have a ROOTIN TOOTIN GOOD TIME! I used cowboy table cloths that were purchased from a local party supply store and I used red & blue accents since those colors were in the party wear.

I wrapped the plastic wear up in the decorative napkins and tied raffia around them and placed them standing up inside a cowboy hat. I used plastic cowboy hats in the center of the tables for chips and candy. I also purchased three bales of hay from a local feed store to put in front of the fence for picture purposes, decoration and to park the stick horses at. I borrowed a ride a horse from a friend and bought the birthday boy a new one of his own as one of his presents.

For games we had a cowboy boot pinata, we searched for gold in the sand box, and I took one of the pictures I took of him blew it up and glued it to a big red poster board (the thick kind) and used letter stickers and wrote "Pin The Badge On Deputy Derek". I pre-cut yellow stars out of gold card stock and each child was given one. They loved pinning the badge on Derek they thouught that it was real funny to get it stuck to his face! I had a tatoo station with assorted tattoos and I had a bead station where you could make a cowboy necklace or bracelet.

For our fixins we served hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans and macaroni & cheese. We used galvanized steel pails full of ice to hold the water & juice boxes.

Our cake was from (Publix) our local grocery store. We had our favorite pose from his cowboy pics placed on the cake & yes the picture was edible. It was trimmed in the colors to match our décor. I never would have thought the picture cake would have been such a big hit!

When opening presents I used cow print material and cut it into 12 x 12 squares and shaped them into a circle each child had a place to sit and they took turns coming up and sitting on the bales of hay with the birthday boy to open presents. It helped with everyone staying seated and being able to see. When the child came up to give Derek his present he gave them a litte bag of gold (bubblegum) purchased from Oriental Trading company.

Their party favors were A coowboy hat, bandana & badge purchased also from Oriental Tradings. I also made a little acrylic frame (wal-mart) for each child with their name in paint pen with cowboy stickers. I took a polaroid picture of each child with the birthday boy all dressed up in front of the bales of hay. They got their frame with picture in it when they were ready to leave.

The party was the biggest hit I still hear about it from all of our friends and some people even asked what I would charge to throw a party! I laughed with 3 of my own I am doing good to get there's done! Best advice I can give is BE PREPARED and start planning way in advance! I hope your next party is a GREAT SUCCESS! This site has really been useful for me I hope I can return that to someone else.

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