Cowgirl/Horse Birthday Party For Katie

Last Friday night we had Katie’s cowgirl/horse party, it was a hit with my sweet 5-year-old birthday girl! It was pink, brown and white everything since my little girl is not only a horse lover she is by far a girly girl also. I really enjoyed planning and making everything for this party because she was more involved this year since she is getting older and more opinionated. This is her first party inviting more than just close family and a few family friends in our living room. She helped me plan and make food, decor and games. Katie getting to help made her celebration more special to her. I can tell she has great memories of making this party happen, and then enjoying it with her friends and family.

The invitations were put together by her daddy and were adorable, sorry no pic, but big props to my husband on a really amazing invitation! Katie really enjoyed inviting people 🙂  The food was simple finger foods and cupcakes. We made chocolate and light pink cherry icing cupcakes with chocolate fondant horse heads on every other one. Then edible pearls on every other one.

I also made a fruit dip, chip dip and pigs in a blanket.

I also made haystacks, this is a no bake type of cookie I’ve been eating since I was a kid. It is a super simple recipe of butterscotch chips, peanut butter and chow mein noodles. They are easy to make and yummy to eat! I also thought they were a cute play on the theme 🙂

I also made s’mores on a stick, some with melted semisweet chocolate and some with melted white chocolate with light pink food coloring. They are just marshmellows dipped in the melted chocolate and then rolled in graham cracker crumbs. They only took us about 30 minutes to make and were a big hit! I stuck the sticks in a small hay bale I got at hobby lobby for 2.99, I loved the look of them on the food table.

We served pink strawberry lemonade at the birthday girl’s request.

We also borrowed a big galvanized steel tub and filled it with ice, pink strawberry kiwi kool-aid bottles, and rootbeer bottles. We put a sign in it that said watering hole 🙂

Well that pretty much covers the food end of our cowgirl party I’ll add a few more pics of the food setup 🙂

Now I will move on to the decor side of what we did. We used some pretty white, pink and brown paisly fabric I found at hobby lobby on sale for the table cloths. Then I used some burlap I found $2.80 for 30  ft. as a runner down the middle of the tables. I used my ball canning jars as small vases, 3 per table with some gardening twine we had tied around each in a simple bow. Then we put a few “shabby chic” style white flowers we got in bulk for 3 dollars in each to finish the tables.

I guess the next thing I’ll mention is the amazingly cute rope letter K my awesome husband made for the party. He went to Lowes and got the rope for 9 dollars and used some medium gauge steel wire we had to run it through the rope. Then he was able to shape the K and the circle of rope around it to give it a brand look. I loved how great it came out and I’m so grateful for a husband who doesn’t mind helping me accomplish my big ideas 🙂

Next I will show the gift table, it was really simple. I just threw four extra burlap sacks that we borrowed on the picnic table and put gifts and sherif’s badges for the guests. I love simple and cute decor like this was.

Finally I will show you the games, well most of them. First is the pinata, I tried making our own for the first time ever. This was a bit harder than I thought it would be, but I loved the results and Katie did as well and that is what really matters to me. Eric designed the front of the pinata and we had it printed at the local office supply store, have I said what an awesome hubby he is? I’m crazy thankful for him! I used poster board reinforced with cardboard for the circle and then put the front and back on which consisted of tissue paper and Eric’s design. My sister and I hot glued tissue paper squares around the edge to give a cute ruffle look. The kids loved hitting it open! My son even tried hitting it with a football 🙂

We also did a photo booth and the kids loved it 🙂  I took an old large frame and painted it light pink, put a couple of Katie’s stick horses over there and a small pink chair from home. It made for some cute pics!

Another game we did was a sack race! It was the simplest 🙂 we just borrowed some burlap sacks and let the kids race. It was so sweet and fun to watch.

Last we did a kids version of horseshoes… sadly I didn’t get any pics of this game 😦 I made horseshoes from felt and filled them with rice so they resembled beanbags and they were safer for young children to be throwing around each other! It cost $1.10 for the brown felt and my sister and I sewed and filled them one night while watching tv. We used pvc pipe we had in the garage spray painted light pink for the two poles to throw the horseshoes at. Wish I had pics it was cute!

OK, long post I know here are a few last pics I loved.

Thanks for stopping by and reliving a sweet little cowgirl/horse party with me 🙂

Johanna