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Park Pony Carousel Party -4yr- Hay Centerpieces

May 2006

Tracey in Glastonbury CT USA

My daughter is an avid horse lover and wanted her 4th birthday party to be horse/barnyard themed.  We needed to have the party at a site other than our home, so we chose to have it The Bushnell Park Carousel, a beautiful old fashioned, enclosed facility. We had originally wanted to have it at a friend's horse farm, but thought the horses might be too large/intimidating for some of our younger guests so we will do that next year! 

INVITATIONS:  I bought heavy red textured cards with a brown Kraft paper envelope.  I tied a light brown raffia bow around the top to look like hay and used a horse stamp, in black, to decorate the front.  On the inside, I used a matching light brown colored stock paper and printed the message from our computer in darker brown font  "our little horse lover ____ is turning four and we cant wait to celebrate with you!  So gallop, cantor, trot or run, just get here quick,so we can have some fun!  The info for the party followed, and at the end " Please give us a "whinny" to let us know if you can come!" 

DECORATIONS:  With the beautiful carousel, there wasnt much decorating needed, but my daughter did want more of a "farm" horse feel so I brought red table cloths, the rest of the "raffia/hay" and lots of my daughters plastic farm animals that she has from all different farm toys/sets.  I placed the hay in the center of the tables and placed the animals of all different sizes in the hay.  Balloons of red/brown/white were in the center of the table.  I brought red and brown plates/napkins to go along with the barn/farm feel and plasticware and cups as well. 

FAVORS: I bought red and white checked chinese food take-out containers at a party store and filled it with the hay, small plastic horses,  "COWTALES" (a long stick like candy),  a tootsie pop (mainly because the wrapper looked almost like a bandana) and a pair of sunglasses to wear "out on the farm". For some of the smaller guests, I included a box of animal crackers. The favors were a big hit! 

FOOD:  Because there was no place to cook or keep food cold/warm, we ordered pizza and had fresh fruit and other snack type foods. I had a white sheet cake made, with strawberry filling (my daughter's favorite) and placed plastic barnyard animals all over it, to make it look like a farm. We also had little individual bags of the old fashioned popcorn from the carousel for the kids to munch on. 

ACTIVITIES: The children were able to ride the carousel as many times as they wanted in the two hour party time.  We boughts books of tickets for the adults to go on with the children. When they werent riding, there was a great playground right outside and this gave them something else to do in case they needed a break from the carousel.  I took lots of pictures of the children on the horses and am in the process of making a picture thank you note for each family that came…. 

Overall, the carousel was a great place to hold a party many of the adults said it was very nostalgic, with the penny candy counter, popcorn machines,and carousel music piping over the organ.  My daughter just loved it and is already talking about another Horse party next year!

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