Cowboy Birthday!

Our "baby" turned 7 years old January 21st, and he informed me a couple of weeks before his birthday that he has never had an offical party with friends.  Sure, we celebrate each & every birthday, but it is usually just the fam partaking in the festivities.  This year we broke bad & invited some friends over for some cowboy fun.  I checked the weather in advance (the 10 day forecast) & it was calling for mid 60's & cloudy...unusually warm for January so of course I thought that would be perfect weather for an outside party at the house.  Even the day before the party the weather was still saying mid 60's but possibly showers throughout the day.  Well, let's just say they were no where close to getting the right forecast -- it was mid 40's and complete rain all day.  So the party got moved into our garage & some of the games got nixed, but still they all had a blast.  I guess you can't keep a good cowboy down.  :)

We had all the normal cowoby fixins...pigs in a blanket, cheese, fruit, chips and salsa, and of course some root beer to wash it all down.  Zion was beyond excited just at the fact that he was having his first real birthday party with his own friends.  It really was precious to see his face seeing all the decorations. 

I first showed him the invitations we were sending out to the kids & he loved them so much he taped one to his bedroom door (and actually I think it's still there).   Then he was equally as excited with all the wanted posters that were made for each of the kids who were coming.  I had fun with the challenge of spending a small amount of money, but making the party a memorable one for Zion.

Each kid had their own hat, bandana & badge (the necessities of a real cowboy).  Then they got to take home their personal wanted poster & trail mix for the road.

Like I said before, we had more activities planned for outside (roasting marshmellows, sack races, horse races, etc.), so it was kind of a bummer for the rain & cold to mess everything up, but we rolled with the punches and still had fun.  We started the party with playing musical chairs (didn't go quite as well as I thought, but hey, it was a starter).

Of course we had to have some chow.

And what would be a party without cake, ice cream & presents.

When all the eating was done, there were more games to be had.  Of course every good cowboy knows how to shoot cans, so we gave them all a try.  Then we also had the well known throwing of bean bags into cowboy hats.  After that there was just a free for all of cowboys against robbers & just plain, unorganized fun.

I think they all a good time (I know our kids did), and that is what it really was about.  Who really cares that my list of games couldn't be done because of the weather.  Zion will hopefully remember this birthday for quite some time & know that it was all about having fun with his friends.