A Rootin Tootin Cowboy Party

It’s awfully hard to believe, but we spent our Saturday celebrating one very special young man’s almost sixth birthday.

We rounded up ten little cowpoke friends and put them though an afternoon of cowboy training.  They had a rootin tootin grand ole time earning badges as they completed each phase of cowboy schooling at the W Corral.

As the cowboys arrived, they were greeted with a W Corral bunting and Wanted Posters (featuring their somewhat shady looking faces) nailed to trees coming up the drive.

First things first, the cowpokes got their grub at the Chuck Wagon.  We couldn’t hardly have ten hungry trainees on our hands.
Immediately following grub and some hearty swigs of sarsaparilla, we corralled the cowboys into the “Git Yer Gear” station where Honey conducted a brief session covering who’s who and each cowpoke’s assigned cowboy name, where things are on the W Corral, some repeat-after-me cowboy lingo and then what they had to do to earn their badges.  Let me just tell you that they were completely rapt with Honey’s presentation.  After the session, we broke the cowboys into their three training groups and they cowboy-upped with hats, bandannas and (darling) vests (hand made by Mother.)  A cow bell was too appropriate in both signaling the changing of stations and the summoning of the cowpokes.
First on the agenda was the Horse Riding badge in the Ride em Cowboy Relay Race.
Afterwards we broke into guided groups (thank you thank you thank you Mother, Uncle C, Auntie M and Honey) to visit the rest of the training stations.  
At Stable Hand Pony Grooming, the cowpokes were blindfolded with a bandana, spun around five times and then left to pin the tail on the horse.  On completion, the cowpokes earned their Pony Grooming badges.
For Boot Toss badge, the cowpokes took five paces back from the corn hole game and tried their hand at tossing bags though the hole.
To earn Steer Roping badges, the cowpokes tossed rope rings around glass Coke bottles painted to look like cows.
Strike Gold badges were awarded after the cowpokes panned for gold at the Feelin’ Lucky Gold Strike station.
At the coloring saloon, cowpokes made their own Wanted Posters and earned Crayola Corral badges.
All cowboys need to know their way around the horses’ shoe, hence they earned the Horseshoes badge after a friendly, no horsing around allowed, round of the game.
And after the cowpokes had made their way around all the stations, they came together again for a grand finale marshmallow shoot-out.  Honey fashioned a pvc pipe marshmallow shooter for each little cowpoke and they went to town waging a full fledged marshmallow battle.  These shooters were the impetus for the whole party, after the PCP fell head over heels in love with the one my Uncle John sent him nearly a year ago.
After the shoot-out, the little cowpokes were awarded their shiny silver cowboy badges as a symbol of their full fledged status and completion of training at W Corral.  
With all the activities behind us, we lit SIX candles and sang “Happy Birthday” to Gentleman Johnny. 
The dessert table boasted Bonfire S’mores, Snake in my Boot sour strips, Rope a Steer licorice sticks, Swing Yer Partner swirly pops, Cowpoke cake pops, a good ole fashioned birthday cake.
The Watering Hole served up Water fresh from the W Corral, Lucky Lemonade, Cowpoke Chocolate Milk and Sioux City Sarsaparilla.
We then bagged up the loose candy and used the cowboy’s bandannas to pack up the rest of the goodies for the road, wishing them happy trails on their travels.
It was a rootin tootin grand ole time indeed!
More details here:
Happy Birthday, baby.
xoxo
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19 thoughts on “A Rootin Tootin Cowboy Party

  1. This whole party is gorgeous! I absolutely love the typography on everything and all the games. I just threw an ocean themed party for my 5 year old and we had similar activities. So precious!

    I am writing an ebook on birthday parties. I would love to include some of your ideas! Please let me know if you are interested! Cowboy party is on my list and I have tons of ideas but no photos since ours will not be until next May when my son turns 4.

    Brilliant. I am pinning this!

  2. Love it all – haystacks with lollies, vests, marshmallow shooter – everything! It looks perfect and even better looks like a fanstastic time. You don't forget a thing.

    Betsy

    Read today's post – hope you feel better and have a great time with your family.

  3. The party decorations and activities are so creative, with lots of fun things to wear and do. I'll bet it was voted the best birthday party ever!

  4. Oh my goodness, I am loving this cowboy party. It is a little boy's dream! You added so many awesome details that made it perfect! I am going to feature this tomorrow from the Show & Share party. Thanks for linking up such an awesome idea!

  5. Wow, wow, WOW! What an amazing party! Is there any detail you didn't think of, girl? So impressive, and it looks like it was such fun. I love the dressup station, the "Wanted" posters for each guest, and the stick horses most of all…I am SO glad you shared this at Shine On Fridays! Pinning now…

  6. Just found your blog, and you have inspired me to try a bit harder in making parties fun! I don't kmow if it's a "southern" thing, but I love the whole treat table idea! I have never seen that here in Jersey… I look forward to more party inspirarion!

  7. ok not sure if my original post went through or not but I came across you blog while searching for ideas for my daughter and sons bday party. I love the cowboy talk board you made and was wondering if you had a close up pic of what you had on it. I would love to use some ideas off of it for our party thanks

  8. Here is what we had:

    Cowboy / cowpoke
    Hired hand who herds and tends
    cattle on horseback

    Ma and pa
    the people that raise y’aLL up

    Wagner corral
    farm where cattle, horses and sheep
    are raised up

    Chuck wagon
    Place to git yer grub

    Watering hole
    Place to wet your whistle

    The necessary
    Place for takin care of yer business

    Yee haw

    Rootin’ tootin’

    Giddy up

    Mosey on down

    Kick up yer heels

    Holler back

    Howdy partner

    Cowboy up

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