Watson’s Cowboy Party: The Details

I have absolutely LOVED looking through all of the pictures that everyone has sent me from Watson’s Cowboy Party! There have been so many, though, that I’m a little overwhelmed trying to organize them into a post, so it may be kinda crazy, but here goes….

First up, we had a very cute cowgirl greeting everyone in the front yard as they arrived! She had her outfit set out and ready to go days before the party and was so excited to actually put it on! The Birthday Boy was excited to see the pony arrive…And he and Daddy hopped on to get the first pony ride of the night!Baby Girl wouldn’t go near the horse {although she had been talking about riding it for weeks}, but lots of other little cowboys and cowgirls enjoyed the rides! Dressing up was definitely not required, but we loved seeing all the little ones that came in their head-to-toe cowboy gear! Baby Girl didn’t have an actual cowgirl outfit, so we settled for a bandana dress…And some pink boots that Aaron and I brought her back from a boot shop in Texas last fall. Are they not the cutest things ever?!?!? We asked guests to leave a little note for the Birthday Boy. The notes were pinned in a shadow box along with the birthday invitation and now the shadow box hangs in his room as a sweet reminder of all of the special people that came to celebrate his first birthday with us!We set up a game of ‘Ring the Steer’ and added a little western decoration to the backyard.Of course, one of Daddy’s contributions to the party was the alcohol. We had a large guest list, so we opted for keg beer, but kept it “western” with a couple of small pony kegs. {Side note: I wanted to dress up the area to make it look like a little stable. Get it? Little ponies in the stable. My husband thought I was nuts and nixed that right away.} I figured cupcakes were a better ‘grab-and-go’ option than a cake for an outdoor party, so I had cupcake toppers printed to coordinate with the invitations {thanks, Mel, for all of your wonderful work!}. I’d like to say that we had a variety of cupcake flavors to suite everyone’s preference, but really I just ran out of the white icing and at the last minute grabbed the can of chocolate out of the pantry. I think it turned out much cuter to have a mix anyway.I’m sure cowboys didn’t do much in the way of floral arrangements, so we went with simple sunflowers in mason jars. Since all the little guests would have to take turns on the real pony, we had plenty of stick horses ready to for rides! Jack enjoyed his stick horse while Callie enjoyed a ride!Even our teeny, tiniest guests went for a ride! The pony was popular, which meant the line got a little long…So we went ahead and served up the barbeque.Even the Birthday Boy was made to eat dinner before having his cake. He wasn’t happy. Nor was he happy with the idea of wearing his birthday hat! Stripped down to nothing but a diaper and his bandana bib, he was ready for his smash cake!! He had a little taste…Then didn’t hesitate to dig right in! He refused to leave any on his plate. {We were able to sneak on his birthday hat while he was distracted by the cake.} This Birthday Boy can put away some food. He ate almost all of the cake! While the Birthday Boy had a quick bath, the other kids took a swing at the piñata. Please ignore the fact that it’s actually a pink and blue boot, but it’s all we could find, and Ms. Chollet insisted we have a piñata!And last…on the way out, we had a few little treats for the guests to take home.

Cowboy Cookie mix…

A cd of cowboy songs…

And a bag of Happy Trails Mix.

I know the Birthday Boy, Baby Girl, Aaron and I all had a blast at the party, so I hope the guests did as well! It was so nice to celebrate Baby Boy’s first year with the people that mean so much to us {and we missed those that couldn’t make it!}. Happy first birthday to our little cowboy!