Cowgirl A's Birthday Party

Miss A got a set of Disney Princess books for Christmas this year.  She treasures (her words) these books.  I do not love reading the princess books, so we have a one princess book rule at bedtime.  For a long time the princess book Miss A loved the most was Cowgirl Jessie (I think Miss A, E and I could probably recite the book from memory).  After weeks of reading about Cowgirl Jessie and the rest of the Toy Story gang, I decided that a cowgirl theme would be perfect for Miss A's third birthday party.  A few Pinterest searches later, I was ready to go.

We invited a posse of little friends to come over to celebrate Miss A's 3rd birthday.  When the kids arrived, each got a cowboy hat and bandanna.  I also had some sheriff stars, but we couldn't figure out how make them stay on.  As soon as I got the cowboy gear on the kids, I took a few quick pictures with the Wanted frame.  

The decorations for the day were pretty simple.  I bought a few yards of red and white checkered fabric and flowers but pretty much everything else we already had on hand.  Lots of mason jars and tin pails.  Of course, I also had to find a way to use some of my favorite shots of a 2 year old Miss A, so I printed about 20, put them on cardstock and made a big 3 on the wall.

My biggest project for Miss A's party was creating the wild west town.  When I first searched Pinterest for some cowboy party ideas, I saw these cute western towns.  I had hoped ours could be outside too, but our deck and backyard were still under a foot or more of snow, so down to the basement they went.  

It took me some time to find appliance boxes to use, but a local warehouse gave me a few the week of the party.  E was out of town at the time, so when I sent him a picture of our wild west town, he took it as a sign that I had officially lost my mind (but admitted that it was pretty cool and the kids would probably really enjoy it).  

I ended up cutting the boxes apart and taping them back together so the writing on the boxes would be on the inside (I initially tried to paint over it, but even with dark brown over the top, you could still see the writing really well.  I had some brown packing tape that worked perfectly to get everything taped together without it being too noticeable.  This also saved me A LOT of time.  I cut out the doors and windows with an exacto knife, and then added some details with paint.  I did the bricks with a sponge and it only took about 10 minutes.  I got the whole western town done during one afternoon nap.

I also found the idea for the cake here via Pinterest.  It was really easy to make the cake, though adding the M & Ms did take some time.  Did you know there are fewer brown M & Ms in a bag than the rest of the colors?  Neither did I until having to send E out on a last minute M & M run.

Based on some advice from my dear friend Heather, I've been trying to make sure to get a picture of the birthday girl with just E and I.  So far, I've remembered.  Let's hope I can remember every year.  I think it will be nice for the girls to have those pictures when they get older.

Overall, the party was a success.  14 little ones plus 14 parents all in our little house.  It was loud, and sometimes a little crazy, but the birthday girl had a blast!  One final picture, one of my recent favorites of Miss A, my little 3 year old!