Zander's Birthday Roundup

I recently added a birthday party idea link on the right margin, so now I just need to post all the ideas from all the past birthdays. This was Zander's cowboy party last year. Hope you enjoy!

Party Decorations

What cowboy party would be complete without a wanted poster? I found this at my scrapbook store. After the party, I used it in his birthday scrapbook.

Here is the saloon entrance.

Woody and Bullseye are the center of attention around here, so the centerpiece for this table was easy.

The Dining room was transformed into a cowboy room complete with blue tin plates, lanterns, and burlap sack chair covers. I draped a faux barbed wire around the light fixture for another rustic touch. The kiddos all got cowboy boot cups to drink out of and later they would be washed out and taken home as a favor.

Cowboy Grub

Lunch is served. I like to use containers that fit the theme, like putting my "happy trail" mix inside a cowboy hat with a bandanna to protect the hat. I also used various pails and old tin camping dishes for serving containers. Zander wanted "pupcakes" so I found this cupcake stand that worked perfectly. I baked the cupcakes in those new star shaped muffin tins by Reynolds Wrap. Each of the cupcakes was topped with a small plastic horse. Some of the other snacks included chocolate candy that look just like rocks, peanuts, homemade cowboy crackers and rattlesnake eggs (spotted jelly beans).

When I was looking for food for the party, I came across these. I called them Wagon wheels for the party, but I don't have any idea what they are really called. I think they are a Hispanic food. They were in the bulk food section at WINCO near the pasta and rice and they were orange in color and about 1/4 this size. I fried them in oil for about a minute and then drained them and coated with a sugar/cinnamon mix. They were tasty whatever they are.

For lunch we had beans and "little doggies," cowboy crackers, wagon wheels, snacks and chocolate milk served in cowboy boot cups.

It took a few tries, but Zander finally got all 4 candles blown out.

Activities

When guests first arrived we gave them a cowboy hat and made sure to get a photo of each of them sitting with Zander.

Then we mosied on into the kitchen for a cowboy craft. Even cowboys can be crafty ya know! These cowboys made picture frames to put the photo in that was taken earlier.

Zander received so many nice gifts. Here he is unwrapping his Woody doll.



Games
The guests had to "rope" a horse in this game. I wrapped a hula-hoop with rope to make this lasso.

The inspiration for this game came from Toy Story: "There's a snake in my boot." Just like the game I used to play at birthday parties where you drop clothespins into a jar...only this time we dropped snakes into a boot!

This was fun for the kids and entertaining for the adults. We tied powdered doughnuts to a dowel (or broom handle) and told the kids they could get the doughnut, but they couldn't use their hands! It was a tad messy with all the powdered sugar, but what's a good party without a little messy fun?