18361

Pony Party -6yr- Party Themed Picture Frames

July 2008

Ray in Seattle, WA USA

Honorable Mention

My daughter's 6th birthday was in July, and throughout the school year, we had been to several parties for her classmates.  I wanted to do something unique, so we decided to have a Pony Party!  I wanted everything to be unisex since I knew that boys and girls would be there.  I also needed activities for smaller children so that my younger child and other families with younger siblings would have fun. 

First I found the location.  There is a great family IN Seattle,WA that has several acres of property that has been passed down for generations.  They train ponies and horses and have sheep, cows, chickens, etc.  Normally, they only do parties for their family members, but thanks to a mutual friend, they decided to let me have a party there.  So my advice to people looking for unique places is to use your network of friends and family!  Ask if they know someone who has a special spot that they're willing to let you use. 

Next I searched for great invitations.  Most horse items were My Little Pony" which isn't very unisex.  Finally I located a beautiful invitation at Party City in the specialty invitation section that had a horse behind a fence with a lasso.  Inside I could write the details and reminded everyone to wear tennis shoes or boots.  I used the colors in the invitation to drive all of the decorations which were lime green sky blue and white. 

I ordered cowboy hats and bandanas from Oriental Trading Company.  I picked up napkins 3 table cloths and balloons in those same colors.   For a special gift I went to Michael's and bought unfinished pictures frames for $1 each and a pre-painted wooden ponies for $0.59 each.  I got 3 small bottles of lime green blue and white paint and 1 bottle of varnish and 1 bottle of wood glue.  3 days before the party I painted the 20 frames in the party colors with different designs on each one. VERY CUTE and super easy!  Make sure to do a few extra though because there will always be more people than you anticipate.  When they were fully dry the next day I glued a pony onto each frame. 

I bought prepared sandwiches pre-sliced apples grapes chips water juice plates wet wipes a bag of long carrots a big bag of candy and hand sanitizer from Costco.  I bought a cupcake "cake" decorated in the party colors and bags of ice from Safeway.  I washed the grapes and cut them into individual serving sizes the day before the party. On the day of the party I put the balloons out to help direct people to the "farm" and loaded a very big cooler with all of the prepared food drinks and ice. 

Once the kids arrived they went on a tour of the property rode ponies and learned how to lead them.  The beekeeper was there that day so the kids got to watch how the hive was tended and see the queen.  They got to wash a pony chase chickens feed horses and ponies.  Once all of that was done I sanitized and wet-wiped everyone's hands and prepared to eat.  Since all of the food was prepared I didn't need any utensils!  

We ate at picnic tables and I even brought a couple of blankets if some parents wanted to have a "picnic".  We sang Happy Birthday and I let every child pick their cupcake. It was wonderful not having to search for a knife to cut the cake!  We opened presents and my daughter had a chance to tell everyone thank you.  Once the food was done the kids rode some more picked blackberries and generally wore themselves out.  I brought two garbage bags to clean up everything quickly. 

As it was time to go I gave each child a cowboy hat and bandana and sat them on a pony for a picture.  Then I gave them the picture frame with some candy and told them I'd send them a picture to put in the frame.  The kids and parents LOVED it and didn't want to leave.  By giving them the frames at the party I saved a ton on postage.  I'm still getting notes and calls about how wonderful the party was.  It only took about two weeks to pull the whole thing together and my daughter and her guests felt special which is the point.  Have fun!"

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