But, its what she wanted so its what we did. Honestly, it turned out to be a pretty cute theme.
I didn't really want to go traditional cowgirl with red bandana print so I went floral instead. It all started with this free banner I found on pinterest (but of course.) I printed it along with the invitations and other decorations at office max for a very minimal price. I added doilies and some tissue paper tassels (there are all kind of tutorials for that.)
here's a screen shot of the invitation, you can find my free PDF here
See the tassels, cute for a "western" theme, right?
Then I came across some free printable wreaths and knew they were perfect for menu cards. Ok so honestly I caught a little flak over the actual need for my menu cards but I love the western names so I'm ok with that. we had
Cowboy Caviar
On the "Ranch" dip
Frontier fruit salad
Lil' Doggies (hot dogs we served for lunch)
Chow time chips
Queso
And an adult favorite "John Wayne Juice" which was a spiked Arnold Palmer
Party favors were very easy, my kids loved helping make them, and the guests loved them. In sticking with the theme we created "happy trails mix," isn't pinterest the best? I just filled the bags taped over the top and punched a hole through the bag and the "happy trails mix" topper then tied it all together with twine. We used multi grain cheerios, 1 bag unsalted pretzels, 1bag craisins, 1 bag M&Ms, and pre-made popcorn. It was way too much to fill the 20 favor bags so I just put the bowl out at the party and the kids ate it by the handful.
I made this welcome sign and stuck it to the front door. The door ended up just being left open (the perks of a February birthday in Houston, but it was still cute
Mostly everything was a printable from pinterest but I did buy a couple extra paper decorations and found the floral table cloth (Party City) that was a near perfect match to the floral on all the decorations.
I also like to put out pictures of the birthday girl so people who may not have known her all her life can see how she's grown. The baby with the cowboy hat seemed very appropriate.
Im not much on spending a lot on fancy cakes so lavender cupcakes and a glittery #7 worked perfectly.
I like to make sure to get a picture of each kid either posed or in action and include it in the envelope with the thank you notes. I think its a fun touch and its nice for the kids to have pictures with their friends. Here's this years Thank you note, the actual one had a picture Emma Bean in her cowgirl outfit instead of the bounce house.
You can download it free here
And that's a wrap guys. The kids had a blast and it took my kids 2 days to sleep off the birthday party. I can honestly say I get the perks to having a party at a venue but doing it home every year turns out wonderfully, we can invite as many people as we want and I love when my house is full of friends, family, and laughter.
Lastly, Happy Birthday Emma!
