Need Creative Home Made Ideas for CowboyWild West 3Rd Birthday Party for My Son.

I did a cowboy party for my son a few years ago and used Oriental Trading for a lot of the cute party favors and decorations. For a cake, I went to Walmart and had a really cute cupcake-cake made that looked like a grassy prairie with horses. The kids all loved it and I think it cost me around $15.

Have fun though! Cowboy parties are such a great theme!

I live near the Los Alamitos race track and have heard that they will loan hay bales for free. Could be a fun thing to decorate the yard. I have no idea how to go about asking for them, but thought I'd throw it out there...

have fun!
S.

gunny sack races sound wild west to me.
Set up a pony express obstacle course with household items- goal being to deliver the mail. Have them go over and under chairs and blanket tunnels.
find coloring pages on the internet
make a wild west town out of cardboard boxes.

Cowboy vests made from paper shopping bags.
Cardboard stars covered in aluminum foil.
horse bodies cut out of cardboard with straps to hang on shoulders - or horse heads cut-out and attached to sticks for stick ponies.
Straw cowboy hats and bandannas from oriental trading.
Red and white checkered table cloths
Cardboard 'saloon doors' in hallways

Pin the star on the Sheriff
Lasso the steer

Sounds fun!

Don't forget:

Lemonade or "Sasparilla" rootbeer
Rootbeer barrel candies
Bandanas can be found locally at Michaels craft store
Teach kids how to tie knots with shoe lace licorice
Talk in cowboy talk like.. YeeHaw or Y'all....
Use metal pie plates for your "grub"....
Have a "flap Jack" flipping contest... using tortillas and a plastic play skillet
Play with horseshoes... plastic of course...
Country music
Daisies make great centerpieces
Badges... gotta have badges, make everyone a sheriff for the day!!

Have fun!!

I go to celebrate express. It's an online party store and they have just about everything. I get lots of ideas there. Also, try the dollar stores. Sometimes they have cute little cowboy toy sets. Michaels has some stuff too. Instead of party hats, you could give each kid a bandana to tie around their necks. Get a large piece of butcher type paper and trace your sons outline on it. Color it so it looks like a cowboy and put your sons picture as the face (you can get it enlarged at Kinko's, office depot, etc)Then cut out the shape of a hat for each kid to "pin the hat on the cowboy".
Another great website for kid party ideas is familyfun.com. They have wonderful do it yourself party ideas that aren't very difficult at all.

My daughters birthday party was cowgirl/western theme...here are a few things I did. Bales of hay for seating, a texas bbq with corn on the cob, baked beans etc. I made cornbread and cut it into boot shapes with a cookie cutter. I made the cake and bought toy horses for the top. I made fondant horseshoes and used silver dragees. I also used cowboy hats as my table decor, flip em upside down, place a napkin in them (btw oriental trading had the cutest bandanna napkins) and they hold chips or crackers. I also put bowls in them to hold dips/salsa. I used boots as center pieces with fresh flowers (just slid a cup inside to hold the water and flowers.) We only had 4 kids coming so I bought them all stick horses at toys r us. They ran around like maniacs and the stick horse was their take home surprise. Another fun thing is to give each guest a cowboy name - buffalo bill, jesse james etc.
Have fun! Oh and if you live by a stable or know anyone with horses, get one over there for a pony ride!!!!

We had a pony party for my 3YO at JR Pony Ranch. It was great. They kept the kids busy the whole time. I prepared food and they served it. The kids prepped and rode ponies and were occupied with the petting zoo. We ate, they rounded up kids to open presents and then we ate cake. It was all on their schedule, so I didn't have to worry much about walking away from a conversation to go host the party. Of course, it was a bit pricey, but for me it was worth it and the kids all had a blast! If you are interested, here is their contact information: J R Pony Parties, 1744 Leonard Ln, Las Vegas, NV 89108, ###-###-####.

Otherwise, they used straw hats with bandanas for chip bowls, they used the wheel barrel as an ice chest and just threw a thick sarape blanket over top of the drinks and ice (it held well), and the kids washed up in an old fashioned water pump, so I guess you could have them wash up with a pitcher and bowl of water.

As for games, they didn't have time to play any, but the old apple bobbing comes to mind...gross! Actually, any of the old games will work well with a cowboy party. Sack race, wheel barrel racing (on partner upside down and the other one holding the ankles), musical chairs, etc. At the state fair they had a large sand box with plastic fruit and veggies that they dug up. They can see who gets the most fruit and veggies in a time period.

Have fun!

Oriental Trading Company http://www.orientaltrading.com has tons of cute stuff for cowboy parties. I also just went to Yahoo and typed "party ideas cowboy theme" into the search engine. I got tons of sites with great ideas for decorating, invites, activities, and cake decorating. Have fun with it... there is lots of info out there!

Try looking at www.orientaltradingcompany.com for ideas. They've got some great themes goodie bags. Or you can build your own for cheap!

We used a cute idea for a baby shower that might work for your party. One of the women previously mentioned daisies as a centerpiece. We purchased kid's cowboy hats from Oriental Trading Company and turned them upside down to use as flower pots. We put the bandanas underneath them alternating red and blue hats with red and blue bandanas. You can give hats to the kids and raffle off the planters to the moms.

What everyone said - oriental trading!! Here's an idea for favors...I did a cowboy party a couple years ago and for favors I got cowboy hats (just over a buck each at OT). I took a bandana (Cheap also OT) and wrapped whatever goody items...candy,super ball,stickers, whatever, inside the bandana, tied it closed, put that inside the cowboy hat and gave that to each child to have fun with and wear at the party. Use masking tape to put their names inside the hats so you won't have a fight later!! If you know someone who has one of those fake fire things that people use at Halloween, you can use that to do a campfire in the house or yard (or you can just make this out of some sticks and construction paper)and have the kids sit around it and someone tells a wild west story. Of course hot dogs served by the fire, easy...HAVE FUN!!

Hi M.!
How exciting!
You might want to go check out Cakecentral.com and coolest-birthday-cakes.com, they have great galleries of almost any type of cake you want to see. They are both free and have a ton of resources for those of us that like to do their own thing! Good luck and have fun!

I would recommend that you check out the website Familyfun.com They will have a bunch of really great ideas for your party. In the magazine, they often give a bunch of great ideas for a themed birthday party. On the website you can search old articles and find great/low - cost ideas that you can make yourself. I really like this magazine and subscribe to it. Best of luck on your party.

I used cowboys boots filled with fake sunflowers as centerpieces. I tied 3 boot together with red gingham ribbon and filled them with the flowers. Looked really cute. We borrowed boots from people we know - kids and adults.

I loved this idea. Get a bail of hay and open it up on a tarp (so you have easy clean up) mix in lots of goodies, toys, candy, coins etc. Let the kids hunt/dig for the treasures.

For invites use brown paper and burn the edges to make it look really old. I searched for cowboy invite wording and found lots of ideas. Address the invite to "Cowboy so and so" or Cowgirl. Or make wanted poster type invites. Or make wanted posters as decor either with your sons pic or the guests pics.

Use old cowboy boots to hold a small vase of flowers.

Put a cow head/horns (plastic of course) on a bail of hay and have a rope/lasso out for the kids to practice ropin'. Or that could be a game too.

Use bandanas as your treat bags.

Good luck. Im looking forward to watching your responses as I cant wait to do a cowboy party!

Oriental Trading has lots of cute little "things" like plastic horses, bandanas, hats, sheriff badges, etc. They have an on-line catalog. Have fun!

cheapy cowbow hats as chip bowls (oriental trading co)

bales of hay

those are my only ideas...have fun

Get a couple of hay bales and stick a "horse on a stick" in on one side and viola... you have a couple of horses. Take pictures of the kids riding the horses. You can also use these "horses" to practice lassos. Make some rope rings and do a ring toss onto the horses on sticks!

Have fun!

How fun! My best friends mom made my son a teepee out of fabric and used pvc pipe for the posts. She got a pattern at the fabric store and found inexpensive fabric at walmart! It is really cute and my kids love to play in it. I had it out at my sons bday party and the kids all loved to hide out in it.

I am currently researching a farm party for my three year old. I found this website with round-up theme ideas.

http://holidays.kaboose.com/farm.html

Good Luck and have fun!

we once had a cowboy / western theme at the carousel in SM. I used a cookie cutter to cut out small sandwiches for the kids. My son wore a red bandana.