Claire's Wild West 5th Birthday Party

 Claire had her friend birthday party yesterday for her 5th birthday. As we were planning it Claire was back and forth about what she wanted to do. She thought maybe she wanted a tea party. When I asked her who she wanted to invite she rattled off a bunch of boy and girl names. I told her I din't think the boys would like a princess tea party. So when I suggested a western theme she was WAY excited. She loves cowgirls and
horses.

 

The prep... Tori and I spent HOURS putting this all together. Claire won't appreciate all the work that went into her party until she is a mom doing this for her own kids.

 I saw these darling cowboy root beer bottles on the Internet and HAD to do them. Then we had to add the moustache straws for the bottles.

The cute paisley bandanna cupcakes. 

 These were the party favors we made. "Happy trails to you" trail-mix.

 Tori spent 2 hours making this darling banner for Claire. It is so cute I think I will leave it up for a month.

 We had a jail and an outhouse. (The kids got a kick out of the outhouse. I think each kid announced that they had to visit the outhouse during the party at least once...some twice)

 The swinging Saloon doors to get into the party.

Claire was SOOO excited for her guests to arrive. I thought she was going to attack each of them.

Top Left to right: Kiera Godfrey, Allee Brown, Claire, Blyss Miller, Kelsey Gathercoal, Caleb Judd, Lily Condos
Bottom Left to right: Bentley Stewart, Ezra Haws, Zoey Hulse, Ian Haws, Brad, Kaybree Gathercoal

Blyss and Claire....Cutest cowgirls ever.

As the cowgirls and cowboys arrived we had them pan for gold.

We had them sift through sand to find the gold nuggets.

Allee and her cute toothless grin.

What handsome cowboys!!! Caleb, Ezra and Ian 

Wyatt loved digging in the sand

After panning for gold we played "Snake in my Boot" We had them drop snakes into Claire's boots.

Blyss

Waiting patiently for a turn with big grins. 

 Lilly ...She is Claire's preschool buddy.

Then we headed inside to bust out some good ol' cowboy dancing . I was laughing so hard I could barely take a picture. They all really got into it. It was so funny to watch them Do sa do, swing their partner, and kick their boot heels together.

We were going to eat after all the square dancing but Randy derailed the party plans because he found some kind on nest in our BBQ...he needed to clean it out and let it burn for several min before we could cook our hot dogs. So we improvised and opened presents.

After presents the kids became official sheriffs to track down WILD BILL. He stole all our goodies. They counted to 43?? most of them lost track after 20.  Then they scattered to find the bandit.

Wild Bill was quickly captured by a dozen 4 and 5 yr olds...

...then dragged to jail.

I didn't know my son was an outlaw!!!

Then it was finally time to eat.

 The root beer was a huge hit.

Allee

Bentley ... All the kids were talking in a cowboy accent. Bentley had the best one. He was totally in character. I bet he went home talking that way.

Jacob ... He told me he didn't like cowboys and thought it was weird that we were dressed up and talking weird. But he still wanted the root beer. Too funny.

Caleb

 Kaybree

Zoey and Blyss enjoying the cupcakes. 

Wyatt really enjoying the cupcake. He had a full cowboy beard.

Ian

Ezra

Caleb... I love the face he is pulling.

Harrison chewing on the topper to a cupcake. I think he thought it was a sucker  He thoroughly enjoyed it.

Waiting for parents with our cowboy moustaches.

It was a fun party. I love that Claire is surrounded by TONS of kids her age. I love this neighborhood.

...But I'm Glad I have a few years until she gets another party.