19802

Pony Party -4yr- Cowboy Hat Favors

April 2009

Dena in Beloit, WI  USA

For my daughter's 4th birthday, she wanted to have a pony theme.  I had difficulty at first because items that would fit within the theme were not readily available at our local party stores.  So, I had to get creative. 

First, the invitations.  I ordered die-cut invitations online of a western girl complete with a pink cowgirl hat and red cowgirl boots.  To save money, I ordered blank invitations and printed them myself with our printer.  Most professional printers will allow you to do this and they have much more options to choose from than just your standard invitations.  Each invitation read:  Come Saddle Up for *'s 4th Birthday.  They'll be Fixins' and Fun and a Pony Ride for the Little Ones.  Wear Your Ridin' Clothes.  *'s Ranch (our home)"  I tied a small piece of twine to each hat as the "chin strap."  Everyone loved them and they truly set the theme for the party. 

Then the decorations.  I used bandannas everywhere as they are very inexpensive.  Each table had a red tablecloth with a bandanna in the center.  On each bandanna I put a centerpiece made of a balloon weight three balloons (on sticks) in our party colors (red white and blue) and a spray of glittery stars.  Each centerpiece cost approximately $4 and they truly added a cute touch to the tables.  Then I cut red white and blue bandannas into 4's and tied the ends together to make "streamers".  I used the bandanna streamers to decorate my serving table and various other areas in our home. 

Then I worked on the party favors.  I ordered cowboy/cowgirl hats from Oriental Trading for less than $1 each.  I turned the hats upside down and filled them with fun favors.  Each hat had a pony coloring book (which I found for 50 cents each) a box of coloring crayons and a bandanna for each child to wear (blue for boys and pink for the girls).  In the boys' hats I put water guns that looked like pistols from a western.  I found these at the dollar store.  For the girls I found flip flops on clearance that had ponies on them. 

For the food we served western BBQ fare with BBQ sandwiches hot dogs chips taco dip (on a horseshoe platter) veggies and dip etc.  All of the plates napkins and silverware went with our theme and I found them online at Birthday Express.  For the kids' table I wanted to make it special so I continued the theme and found cowboy/cowgirl boot cups from Birthday Express as well.  The kids loved taking them home at the end of the day. 

Finally for the entertainment we reserved a pony company to come to our home and give pony rides.  It may seem like an expensive option but they did the set-up all clean-up plus mileage for around $175 for a two hour window.  The pony company brought a few petting animals (a bunny chicks etc.) to keep the children occupied while others were taking rides.  They loved them and loved going for rides in our yard.  All of the parents thanked us for giving their kids such a fun party and my daughter wants to do this every year!"

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