I’m going to be honest…one of the many reasons why I couldn’t wait to have a baby was so that I could plan a birthday party that was for someone besides myself. Judge if you must, but I already had a “Birthday Party” Pinterest board created waaaay before Keaton was conceived, so you can imagine how excited I was to finally get to put it all together.

Out of all the themes I went back and forth on, Western theme seemed to be the one with the most possibilities. I knew I wanted to do something extreme, but seeing that my one year old wasn’t close to walking, the swapmeet sized bouncer was out of the question. So I  kept it simple and just rented some farm animals – you know the basics…pony, pig and goat. This party was already off to a great start!

I wanted this party to be more than exceptional, so I had to bring the big guns in – my mom. God has definitely blessed this woman with a ton of creative talent and I was about to put her gift to great use. For starters I definitely needed some ponies on a stick. Sure, I could’ve easily bought some generic ponies on a stick, but they wouldn’t come close to what I knew my mom was capable of making. Her ponies were vibrant in color and unique and she proudly stated that each of them had “personality!” – something the store bought ponies lacked. The kids were ecstatic over these ponies. It was fun to see which pony they decided to choose.

Like I mentioned the cowboy theme seemed to have endless Pinterest potential and I really had fun recreating a lot of Pins. Of course I had to set the scene with the birthday boy’s name made out of rope. We had to have a wood palette w/ decorations and burlap bunting hanging from it, and we definitely needed some Cowboy hats and scarves. I dressed old school milk bottles with bandanas and topped them off with brown striped paper straws and used Keaton’s wagon as our drink cooler.

I know this was just a party for a one year old, but you can’t have a party without games… so being consistent with the theme, I wrapped a $0.99 hula hoop with bandana print fabric and drug out Keaton’s rocking horse for a quick game of lasso the pony. Easy enough for the kids to master.

I also had a baby pool laying around, so I went to Home Depot and purchased three 15 lb bags of sand ($3 each) and bag of tiny rocks from a craft store. I spray painted the rocks and then combined the sand, rocks, and a little bit of water to form a “river” where the kids could pan for gold. I also bought a 12 pack of miniature pie pans from the $0.99 store and poked holes in the bottom (to allow the water to drain). This game was a big hit with both the kids and the adults.

I love photo props/booths so I cut a frame out of cardboard, threw some brown paint on it and printed out some western themed letters that I ended up just gluing on.  It wasn’t the prettiest thing that I created, but it served its purpose.

Overall, the party was a huge success. Friends and family chatted at cow print covered tables, livestock roamed freely, and kids showered the pony with endless pets and carrots. The boot shaped piñata ironically got stomped opened and then worn… This party was definitely one for the books.