a little boy's cowboy party, part 2 - decor and party

Here's the rest of Ian's cowboy party (the first post is here)!

 

I used some of the blue jars to hold the silverware, and the plates were a bit of serendipity from Hobby Lobby (clearance! ye-haw!)

At the beginning of June I was 3 1/2 months pregnant and finally had my energy back. I had a bunch of ideas from my Pinterest idea board that I wanted to do - and actually got most of them done! Looking back, I should have taken more photos of the details (like cactus on the front door to greet our guests or the little cows and horses we dug out of the toy bin to scatter around the room), but these give an idea. :)

the view from our front door (can you spy the cactus? there are a few against the half walls)

looking from the table to the drinks bench, kitchen and the "chuck wagon" - I've added the red, white and brown star garland to the shop if you'd like one for your own cowboy :)

red, white and kraft stars

the red were from the dollar store, originally gold and silver foil from Christmas that I spray painted (and I think I like them better this way - can use them for the 4th and Christmas, too!) and the white and kraft are from this tutorial.

 

Cowboy Ian!

He and Em loved running back and forth under the "wagon". It was simply a small folding table with a cloth, and John attached the cardboard "wheels" to the corners with twine.

What Western themed party would be complete without some "snakes"? :)

and of course, some silly stick on mustaches!

the cutest little buckaroos, ages 3 and 2 (the backdrop idea is from here), so excited for the party to start!

 he wasn't too sure about our family birthday hat, though. :)

His favorite gift was the lawnmower. It was also the first to be opened - he was so enamored with it that we almost didn't get to the rest of the presents!

Darling boy, we love you so much. You are all boy, but also a bundle of love and tenderness. This next year is going to be wonderful!

little boy's party, part 1 - party prep

so, back in June our little guy turned 2 and we celebrated with a cowboy party (and it totally fit his interests right now!).
Here is belated re-cap of the decor and party, so you can enjoy the fun too!

Ian is really excited about cowboys right now (Roy Rogers, guns and anything that he thinks can be turned into a gun, horses, cowboy hats, "bad guys" ... you name it!), so we decided to throw a cowboy themed party.You can see a bunch of the things I pinned as inspiration on his party Pinterest board (who'd have thought when he was born 2 years ago that we'd say such things?!).

A few days before the party John brought home some large sheets of carboard that we (John) cut into 4 large circles and several cactus shapes. The circles got wagon wheels drawn on them and on the day of the party got fastened to the sides of a folding table to make a "chuck wagon" serving table.

The birthday boy loved "helping" - actually, he loved directing what we should do and then dancing on the cardboard cut-outs!

John took the cactus outside and spray painted them dark green, and I got busy making some paper stars ... and I'll post about the actual party later!