Plan a Wild West adventure your little cowpoke will never forget with our Cowboy Party Ideas! Read on for general party planning tips as well as great decorating, food, game, and activity ideas.

• Bales of hay
• Cowboy hats
• Sheriff badges
• Red bandanas
• Prizes for the party games
• Disposable Cameras

• Draw a “Wanted!” poster on the front of a sheet of construction paper, folded in half. Include a photo of the birthday child in the center of the poster. Print "You're Wanted at a Party!" on the front, and add the party details to the inside.
• Write the party details on a red bandana in silver or black ink. Fold the bandana and send it in an envelope.
• Buy some craft rope that is about 1/4" thick. Glue it, in the shape of a lasso, to construction paper. Write the party details in the center of the lasso ring. Mail your invitations in a padded envelope.
• Invent creative wording for the party details, such as:
  
  Calling all Cowpokes!
  Dust off your boots and mosey on down to (child’s name) Birthday Roundup!
  (Location Name or Family Name) Ranch: (give address of party)
  Ride on over at (date & time)
  Have your Ma or Pa call to let us know if ya can make it: (phone number)
  Doggone It! We'll miss ya if ya can't be here!
  There'll be games, prizes, food and tons of Cowboy fun!"


• Seal the envelopes with cowboy stickers.
• For a special touch, let us print personalized invitations for you! We’ll include your child’s name and all the party details, with a background design to complement your cowboy theme. You can also take a look at the blank invitations we offer. These are quick to fill in and mail, which is perfect when you want to send them quickly.

• Decorate the party space with toys you already own, such as stuffed horses, snakes, cowboy boots, and toy trains.
• Cover tables with red and white checkered tablecloths.
• Make table decorations by tying blue and red balloons to miniature bales of hay from the craft store.
• Use a toy train set as a table decoration, placing the cake inside the center of the track.
• Balloons are always a hit with children! Tie groups of five helium balloons to balloon weights and place them around the party space. For impact, use a mixture of our Western shaped balloons with our solid color latex balloons. Tie a balloon to the back of each chair, and tie a group of five balloons to the chair where the birthday child will sit!
• Make signs that say Welcome Buckaroos, (Birthday Child Name)’s Saloon, Outhouse, Park Your Horse Here, or No Fightin', No Bandits, and No Varmints! Hang the signs throughout the party space.
• Create a wanted poster for each child and give them a fun alias, such as Dastardly David, or One-Eyed William. Under the words “Wanted For”, add silly “crimes” such as robbing a bank, stealing candy, snoring, not cleaning their room, etc. Hang the posters around the party space. You can make your own or print copies of our Wanted Poster Pattern.
• Hand each child a cowboy hat and a sheriff badge as they arrive. You can also tie a red bandana loosely around their neck.
• Make a jail out of a refrigerator box by painting a brick design on the outside and cutting some bars where the children can look out. Add a few of the Wanted posters, and this will be a good location for taking pictures during the party!
• Use large appliance boxes to create a few western buildings. You could include a saloon, jail, stable, sheriff’s office, or bank and place them outside or in one area of the party room.
• Play Country music CD’s, or songs like Home on the Range, Back in the Saddle Again, Cowboy, Take Me Away, Happy Trails, or the theme song from western shows like Gun Smoke and The Lone Ranger.
• If you will be awarding prizes for games, make a sign for the “General Store” and place it on the table where guests will claim their rewards.
• Ask an older child or adult to dress as a cowboy and make balloon animals for the children. Use our easy Balloon Animals Kit that includes an instruction book, balloons, and balloon inflator. There’s no need to master the entire book! One or two basic shapes will delight your guests!
• If you're having the party outdoors, pick up a few bales of hay to use as seating (hay can be found at your local farm or nursery).
• Borrow some riding tack, such as saddles, stirrups, horseshoes, and cowboy hats to use as decorations.
• Hang a piñata in the party area. We offer a selection of traditional and pull-string pinatas, but any traditional pinata can be converted to a pull-string using our easy instructions.

• Make a sign from poster board that says "Grub" and hang it from the food table.
• Serve traditional cowboy fare, such as Sloppy Joes, chili, grilled hamburgers, chicken drumsticks, and hotdogs. For sides, include baked beans, cole slaw, tortilla chips, and roasted corn on the cob.
• Give the food fun descriptions like Best Rootin’ Tootin’ Hot Dogs, Best Rib Stickin’ Chicken, Crunchiest Cole Slaw, Howlin' Hot Salsa, and Most Sweet Tooth Satisfyin’ Dessert.
• Form store-bought biscuit dough into the shape of a horseshoe, and bake as directed.
• Let guests eat from metal pie plates.
• Serve milk, juice, and root beer in bottles or canteens.
• Mix a punch out of ginger ale and lime Kool-Aid and call it “Cactus Juice”.
• Make or purchase star-shaped cookies and write the word “Sheriff” on top in frosting.
• Serve chips, cookies or candy in a cowboy hat lined with a bandana.
• Fill empty glass jars with candy such as root beer barrels, candy necklaces, pixie sticks, and old fashioned taffy.
• Create a Horse Corral Birthday Cake from a chocolate 9”x13” cake decorated with white icing. Create a fence around the corral by pressing pretzel twists upside down into the cake all around the top edge. Then scatter green sugar across the top to resemble grass, and add some shredded wheat cereal in one corner to serve as hay bales. Next add crushed graham crackers as dirt, place several plastic horses inside the corral, and you’re done!
• Make S'mores, or supervise your guests as they make their own over a fire or grill.