Howdy Partners

Friday night we had a small hoedown at our place. We invited all sorts of towns folk to mosey on over and eat some cowboy grub, swim in the watering hole, and wrangle up some candy. We was celebratin Big Cowpoke's seveth birthday. Here are the invitations that I made. We were all set for a wranglin good time. We had planned for some games, some swimming, and some cake. Big Cowpoke couldn't wait. My sister helped get our back porch all ready for the hoedown. This is our grub table. We were all set up for hot dogs and hamburgers. Instead of giving the kids plastic goody bags, I had ordered some bandanas and put some stickers and stuff in the bandana and then tied them up. I also had found some plastic boot cups, that were very cool. We filled those mugs up with root beer and then made floats. I think the Towns folks likes those better than the cake!! Well almost better.
Here I am with Cowpokette waiting for our party guests. We had a few games to play for with the Towns Folks. We had the old ropin dummy and the watering hole. We also had a game called "Needle in a Hay Stack". Instead of having a pinata, I took our baby pool and filled it with candy, plastic snakes, and hermonicas, then topped it off with some hay. We also had a High Noon Shoot out. I had some pop cans set up on a barrel and some water guns for the kids to shoot out the cans. Most of my cheap water guns were faulty so we only played that for a few minutes. The favorite game was the "Rattle Snake Stomp". I found some really long skinny ballons, the rattle snakes, and some string. We tied a balloon to each kid's ankle. We moved the kids to the driveway because the grass here is really prickly and would pop the balloons. Everyone held up their balloons until it was time for the intstructions. Isn't my neice just too cute? We gathered all the children in a circle where I explained the rules. 1. No pushing 2. You must stomp and pop the other town folks' rattle snakes 3. The last town folk a rattle snake wins. You can see as I was giving the instructions I was also starting to get out of the way. It was super crazy and fun. We did learn that the town folk that were not wearing shoes could not pop some rattle snakes. But they all had fun non the less. After the Rattle Snake Stomp we went in search for the Needle in the Haystack.
The youngsters went first. We thought it might be safer that way. I do not thing they were too sure of what to do. They lightly picked through the hay. Then we let the big Towns Folks in. The big Towns Folks were wild. Some just dove right in. You can see the little Towns Folks all trying to scatter. You just never know how those Towns Folks will act when they get out into some fresh air. Sometimes they go crazy or they just get really excited for candy and treats. Big Cowpoke was trying hard to find some candy. He was having a hard time. He must have been on the side of the hay stack where there were not any goods. Most of the hay was tossed out of the pool and all of t he candy was retreaved. Talk about some crazy fun. After all this running around it was time for presants. The Towns Folk on the right is Big Cowpoke's best bud. He opened his presant first. This is my favorite part of a birthday party. I love the presants. It's so much fun. This was Big Cowpoke's favorite gift. It's a necklace that has a gun charm on it. He thought that was so awesome. Then the most tastey part of the entire hoedown, the cake. My wonderful sister made this cowboy cake. She did such a wonderful job. She made it look so easy. I will have to learn how to do this. She really does a great job. It looked so very tastey. You see that fringe and rope? They were made with chocolate. They were so yummy. It tasted like a tootsie roll. The wonderful cake maker brought out the cake to all the Towns Folks. All the Towns Folks were saying, "That is a fake cake. It looks like a cartoon cake!" They were so funny. A quick birthday song and then a birthday wish. And then Big Cowpoke blew out the candles. You should have seen those Towns Folks start grabbing for candles. They all wanted to lick a candle. Soon the crowd went silent. Awh.....the sweet sounds of Towns Folks eating cake. It was nice to have all the Towns Folks calmed down and eating. Bear liked that everyone was eating too. He is such a good dog. Towns Folks were dropping food right and left and he would not eat it unless they told him it was okay. Such good boy. We had the most beautiful Southern Belle grace us at the hoedown. She loved having all those Towns Folks around her. She is such a ham. We then watched a City Folk try to jump a fence. I don't think he made it that time. But he did make it over. I think he ended up climbing the fence instead of jumping it. That there City Folk is my brother in law. He is super crazy. He runs in super marathons and tries to jump barbe wire fences. But he is super fun Dad. Holy Smokes, that makes my hands sweat. The Little City Folk loves to fly and laughs the entire time. They have been playing this game since he was a little baby. Weeeeeee!! We had a great evening. I even had one Towns Folk say, "This was the best birthday party ever!". He was too cute. I hope that Big Cowpoke had a great time and Happy Birthday Big Cowpoke!