Yee-Haw! Cowboy Birthday Hoedown!

Howdy, partners! My son turned 2 over the weekend and we turned our territory into a western ranch for the occasion. For the invitations, I used cowboy terms like "saddle up" and "mosey over", "bend an elbow and cool yer heals with the other buckaroos" etc. letting guests rsvp by saying, "Yee-haw! We'll be there" or "Dagnabbit, we can't make it." I made the envelopes out of brown paper lunch bags. I cut off the bottoms of the bag to do this, then I used the bottoms to make stand-up name tags for each deputy.
My son was the Sheriff, and all his friends were the Deputies. They got badges with their favor bags, which I filled with cowboy and indian figures, cowboy crayons and kazoos. Each cowboy (and cowgirl, his big sister) also got their own stick horse to keep, thanks to the local dollar store.


A few seasons ago at Hobby Lobby I found some great Snowman Cowboy decorations on clearance (80% off!!) and my son's room is already done in a cowboy theme, so I was able to use a lot of especially cute cowboy decorations.


We bought a new bale of straw to bring in the house (that we'll use afterward for our chicken coop anyway) and set it up between two catcuses that I cut out of green construction paper. We set up our bounce and spin pony next to it and as the buckaroos arrived they could pretend to feed the hay to the horse. It made for an adorable picture spot, too.





For plates I used 4-inch round tin pans to go with the cowboy theme, and I bought a pack of small rugged dishclothes to use for the napkins which I tied loosely with brown yarn with criss-crossed forks and spoons.


We served tacos with all the fixin's plus corndogs for the cowboys.


We used a fun, quality Cowboy Hat Dish for serving the chips and salsa out of, it came as an elaborate set of porcelain western serving trays from a sportsman trading store catalog which they discontinued so I got the entire set for just $11 including shipping!



My husband went all out in his cowboy apparel which, believe it or not, we had already on hand, including the leather chaps, a nod to his days playing shows as a drummer in various costumes.

For the party my husband made cardboard saloon doors to swing through the kitchen and dining room which was a great touch.



A horse is a horse of course, of course, that is unless of course the horse is a seven. I tried my hand at making a cake shaped like the head of a horse. I have never done anything like it before, I didn't think it turned out very well, but I get an A for effort, right? I even warned friends as they arrived to have compassion for my failed attempt to make a horse... I didn't have a horse pan, I cut it from a 9x13 and used the pieces I cut elsewhere for the ear and snout. Of course, my friend Leslie (bless her heart) got there AFTER I pled for slack and innocently asked if I made the cake into a 7. Ha! No, but I think I'll stick to store bought ones from here on out. ;) Maybe we'll say the 2 year old made his own cake... he ate it anyway and didn't mind one bit.



Opening presents and greeting grandma and papa...




One of the games I had the kids do after dinner was draw the pokey prickles on the catcuses, which they enjoyed. We also had the kids decorate their own cowboy vests out of brown paper grocery bags using glitter glue, feathers, crayons, streamers and star stickers.





All and all, it was a terrific hoedown and everyone, including the birthday Sheriff, had a knee-slappin', hats off good time!