Horse/Cowgirl Party to celebrate her 4th Birthday

This year Campbell picked a Horse and Cowgirl themed party. Although only 4 she was quite specific as to what she wanted at her party. She wanted "Chipper" Aunt Jessie's horse to give rides to all her friends, a hay house and hay rides. Living in the country none of these were out of the question. While it may have seemed extreme to some of our more urban friends this was a very cost effective party.

This balloon wreath was easy to make
and can be reused.

 Chipper was the more difficult piece to the party. We do not have a horse and we probably never will. Matt is not a horse lover in fact really does not like them. My sister, aka Aunt Jessie had to trailer Chipper over to our house from the farm he lives on about 5 miles away. Campbell and Parker love Chipper and usually ride him once a week. They are both developing a love for horses which I do not think Matt is very fond of. He did a wonderful job and truly loves kids. Campbell was excited to let her friends ride and some of them even trotted. 

This is Parker riding on Chipper. He does a good job for being
two.  He likes to go fast.

From horse rides we moved on to feed the bottle lamb and our guests loved feeding Lily the bottle lamb. We of course hand sanitized and then moved on to dinner. It was a very specific dinner per the birthday girl. She wanted hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, homemade apple sauce, beans and chips. I almost forgot to mention that the drink of choice was apple cider. We served Hirsch cider, one of my favorites. It can be purchased at Schacht's Farm Market if you do not want to drive to Chillicothe.  It would not be dinner at our house without dinning in the pasture. The sheep and donkey were happy to pay our guests a visit while they were eating around the fire.

The old water trough is not used as a
serving table for our pasture dinners
and parties, very useful!



The kids are getting ready to eat dinner.
This table was made by my grandpa and I
out of old wood from our barn.



What party would be complete without a cake? I have traditionally made my children’s cakes because I enjoy baking not decorating. I was out of town for a few days so I decided to order the cake from a friend who has a cake business. Queen Anne's Cakes are tasty and look AMAZING. This cake sparkled, twirled and had cookies and candy on it.

Campbell is getting a taste of the frosting. She said it was good!

Looks like these ladies had a fun hayride.

After cake we went on a great hayride through the corn and into the woods. We played in the hay house and used florescent necklaces to light the way through the tunnels.

It was such a fun party for us to host. It was a great chance to provide some fun experiences for our friends children and bring back some simple fun. This is our kid’s everyday life and the party made me realize just how lucky my children are to live the way we have chosen. We shared food, fellowship and a little about agriculture. We talked about the difference between sweet corn and field corn, how to make homemade apple sauce and many comments on my alternative use to an old water trough.



Anna climbs out of the hay house army style.

This is most of the group. This is us taking off.
I hope they all made it back.

Campbell during dinner...serious I
am sure she is reflecting on her party.

We had a boot pinata. This was a hit!

The ice cream cone made quite a mess but we
had to make sure all the kids went home
as sticky as possible.

We served cake pops and we used them in a
pair of old boots to serve as the center piece.

My aunt took this fun photo of the hayride through the barn door.