Yee-Haw! Ashlee & McKell's 7th Birthday Party

We celebrated Ashlee & McKell's 7th birthday party with a big YEE HAW!! A few months ago, the girls finally agreed on a Cowboy/Cowgirl themed party. It is getting more and more difficult as the girls get older for them to agree on what kind of birthday party they want. This year it almost ended up as a "Tinkerbell Cowboy Party". Thank goodness Ashlee conceded to drop the Tinkerbell idea. So a few months ago, the planning began.

This is the first year that Ash and McKell have been in different school classes which made inviting people a lot more difficult. It is also the first year that they both wanted to invite not just the girls, but the boys as well. Again, making things more difficult. I am a real sucker for not leaving anyone out, so I did the only thing I could think of -- invite BOTH 1st grade classes --BOTH boys and girls. Add on cousins and neighborhood friends, and you soon have an invitation list of 75. Yes, I know I am nuts. Yes, I know it is crazy. Yes, I know I do this to myself. But it's what I do.

So, the party was a big success. We had a lot more kids show up than I thought - 45 kids in all. And we had a great time. A huge thanks to my sis-in-law Tiffany (my fellow birthday party crazy person), Rob's brother Jon, My parents, Jennah's dad who took all the pictures, and anyone else who helped us so much.

Here is a look at the partyThe birthday invititation

Some of our cute little cowgirls waiting to open presents

One of the games we had was "Roping Steer". Tiff brought down 2 of her plastic "steer" from WY for this. We decided that teaching 45 first graders how to lasso would take all day, so instead we let them use swim rings. This is Jaydee, my cute niece.

Waiting for the hay ride

Our cute neighbor, Kennedi.

Another station was "Grandpa's Hay Rides". My sweet Dad brought up his riding mower and trailer and took the kids on hay rides around the circle. I would dare say this was a favorite for most of the kids. Some awesome friends of our in our ward, the Howlands, even provided the hay for us.

Another station was the "Cow Branding" station. It was a relay type game. Tiff had these cool little branding irons that she and her dad made. The kids had to dip them in pancake batter, run across the lawn, and brand the cows. It was hilarious to watch!

Ashlee decided that riding the steer was more fun than roping the steer!

My cute niece, Mary, ready to brand the cows!

McKell was in absolute heaven will all of her friends here! Below is her good friend Belle.

Another station was the "Barrel Racing". We had an obstacle course set up and the kids rode stick horses, 2 at a time, through the "barrells". (Above is Ashlee. Below is my cute niece Anna)

Giddy Up Ethan!

After each activity, the kids got a little prize to put in their bags that they made. All sorts of cowboy stuff - branding tattoos, little horses, sheriff badges, etc.

Rob, as usual, was a great sport and a big help. This is him demonstrating the Barrel Racing.

Because there were so many kids (this is just half of them), we divided them into 2 groups - red and blue. This is my red group off to do the games. Before the games, we had a cowboy picnic with hot dogs, chips, and "cactus juice" (green juice).

Cayden really wanted to be a helper at the party. He actually really did help out a lot. Now that he is getting older, he wants to be more of an asssitant to me. He met everyone at the gate as they came at the "Buckaroo Check In" where he wrote their name on a star badge for them to wear. He also wrote a cute speech welcoming the kids to the party and named himself "Sheriff Cayden" for the party.

Chow time!

All of the kids made their own cowboy loot bags and bandanas when they came. They all turned out so cute!

Our final game was "Pin the Badge of the Sherrif". Pretty self explanatory.

Happy Trails until next year!