Cowgirl Up!

Today was Anna's friend birthday party. I am not a big party person and this is the first kid party I've ever attempted, so I was a little nervous, but it went well. Anna likes Woody and Jessie from Toy Story, so I thought it would be fun to do a cowboy theme.

Here's Anna's birthday sign. Matthew noticed that is said ANNA on it, so at least one of the party guests appreciated it. I love bandanas so I tried to use them as decorations.

Our food table before the food.
Matthew saw the table and said, "thank you mommy for decorating this room so nice."
Anna saw the table and asked, "Where's Bullseye?" That' Woody's horse. So I guess he was conspicuously absent.

Anna's wanted poster. Oddly enough Anna was also wearing a sheriff's badge at one point, so not sure if she's an outlaw or what.

As a nod to Prospector Pete (from Toy Story 2) we did a little panning for gold - by far the most popular activity of the party. I painted some rocks gold and buried them under a bunch of dry pinto beans in our water table. The kids really liked sifting through to find them and didn't make as big of a mess as I was expecting.

Here's Anna's bucket, with a few beans in there too.

We had the kids dress up like cowboys - well Matthew did, but the little girls didn't want to. Anna put her cowboy hat, bandana and sheriff's badge on and then immediately wanted to take them off. Oh well.

Then we rounded up the horses (Easter egg hunt style). Here's Anna collecting a few horses. They were "hidden" in easy to find places.

The gold nugget table was frequently revisited.

Finally we had lunch, which everyone liked...

...and brought out the cake. The cutest part of the party for me was when Anna saw her cake coming and we sang happy birthday. She lit up and quietly sang happy birthday along with us.

She even knew just how to blow out the candles. Good job Anna!

She loved the cake (BR ice cream cake)

We tried to get her to open presents in the middle of cake, but she was not interested until that cake was gone. Matthew was anxious to help her open her presents.

Here's a horse she got from Grandma and Grandpa Keeler.

And Matthew trying to ride the horse.

Here's Rex - a present from our little friend Halle.
Anna was scared of him at first 'cause he roars, and she would run away from him.
But I think she has gotten more comfortable with him now.
Matthew was happy to take care of him while Anna was running away.

We also threw beanbags into a rope circle, decorated our metal treat buckets with stickers and had a pinata. Matthew liked the beanbags, but it wasn't very popular with the 2 year old girls. The pinata was fun, but we needed help from the big people to get it open. Overall it was fun, and the kids had a good time. Success! Now I'm not so nervous about throwing a kids party. Matthew is already telling me he wants an Army themed birthday party when he turns four (not Air Force, Army). So we'll see how that goes. Happy Birthday Anna!!