What to do at a horse party

There are some pretty terrific online lists of horsey party activities. We checked out Pony Party Ideas, the "Horse Power Party Planning Guide," and Birthday Parties for Kids. Mama Squirrel could have put an entire list together of really fun things to do outside--relay races, tag games and those sorts of things. If Crayons had been a little bit younger, she probably would have done exactly that.

However, this year we simplified the list. Counting on a sunny day, we planned for a sack race and horseshoes in the back yard, and a Bingo game afterwards.

And yes, it was sunny and quite hot for May.

The sack race was kind of lukewarm--some of the girls were still feeling shy and didn't feel too excited about into putting their feet into garbage bags. The horseshoes game was a bit more successful--Mr. Fixit showed the girls how to play and a few of them even made "ringers."

However, the next time Mama Squirrel looked out the back window, the game was over, and there were girls all over the swing set, girls hula-hooping, girls playing with the toy lawn mower, and one girl playing badminton with Mr. Fixit. You take one warm day in Ontario, one big back yard, and a couple of swings, and kids will more or less make their own party.

We finally got everybody back inside for Bingo. Mama Squirrel had taken our old Bingo cards--they're really old, worthy of the DHM's Rattery stash--and covered the BINGO part with paper loops (stapled together, slid over the cards) that said HORSE instead. So--under the H, 1; under the O, 16. Everybody got a chance to make a HORSE--after you won once, you had to stop playing. Each winner got to pick a little plastic horse.

And they opened presents, and ate, and then--everybody wanted to go back outside! Some of them stayed outside for the rest of the party, and the rest came back in to play with the gifts--Anna Sophia's new clothes were very much appreciated, thank you (you know who you are).

So while Mama Squirrel would have loved to try a few more of the organized ideas, and might have if the girls had seemed to be running out of things to do--she admits that sometimes it's better to let your guests just have fun than make them play Musical Saddles.

Horse parties--enough of this galloping around

"I want a horse party"--sounds simple, right?

A lot of the horse-and-pony-party websites assume that you must have unlimited funds and/or local stores brimming with cowboy toys. Some peoples' descriptions of their children's parties sound more like the Calgary Stampede. We wanted to have fun, but maybe not on that scale. Still, how hard could it be to come up with a few horse-themed decorations or toys?

Mama Squirrel can now understand why people end up buying the whole thing online.

We went to a party-ware store that had one mylar horse balloon--and that was it, the rest of the store seemed to be all 40th-birthday parties and adult Halloween costumes.

We went to the bulk store and couldn't find anything neat or original (which turned out to be a good thing since one of the guests has peanut allergies and can't have anything from the bulk store). Jellybeans and pretzels would have been fine, but we were hoping for something sort of cool, like gummy horseshoes.

We went to the "bargain store"--like the dollar store but they charge more. They had no party stuff at all. And very few horses.

We went to the Big Z department store, looked in the toy aisle and found nothing except big toy sets. We did pick up some striped paper plates and napkins, and two packages of dried-fruit snacks.

We went to the Craft Store. All the horse stickers were in the scrapbooking section and priced accordingly. We settled for plastic harmonicas, two packs of balloons, and a Toob of tiny horses (which ended up as game prizes). Mama Squirrel also bought a big ball of brown yarn--which became horses. (Note on the harmonicas: we would probably have been better off with the kazoos they sold, since those are supposed to sound kind of bad anyway.)

(We already had stuffing and scraps of other yarn for manes and saddles. Mama Squirrel would point out that the pattern, while quite good, has a couple of quirks. There's no mention of tails, and there's also no mention of stuffing the legs--but since we didn't want collapsed horses, we thought it must have been just an omission. Also, if you'll notice, all those seven horses were made by the same person using the same pattern--and some of them are quite different, depending on how firm they are stuffed and on the angle that the head is sewn on. No right or wrong, just pointing out how much Results Can Vary.)

We thought we had some clear gift bags, but remembered that we used them up at Christmas. Tin pails would have been fun, but not at Craft Store prices. So Crayons potato-printed paper lunch bags (we made a horseshoe and a star print), and we filled them with the fruit snacks, harmonicas, and crocheted horses. It might have been nice to have a few other candies or smaller things, but as Mama Squirrel has already pointed out, such things were not exactly plentiful (and we didn't think we could handle any more stores).

For decorations, we blew up the balloons, put out as many horse toys and books as we could find, and sidewalk-painted horseshoes coming up to the front door. (Ponytails added a welcome message with chalk.)

And Crayons took charge of the front-door table.

Horsey Birthday Food

Photos from Crayons' party:

The tablecloths were deep pink sheets (not white, but the photo makes them look washed out). (We went looking for a plastic tablecloth, but the dollar store was closed. So you use what you have.)

Did we have a horse's head cake or other fancy creation? We did not--no offense to those who do take the trouble. We just went for green icing and sprinkles. There was one large cupcake at each place, with a candle to blow out; and a plateful of mini-sized ones for seconds.

There was also a star-shaped container of raw vegetables--horse treats. (The star-shaped dish came at Christmas with cookies inside it.) And a plastic pailful of apples.

I made Rice Krispie squares for "hay bales" and stacked them around a barn-and-animals toy (Crayons' birthday gift a few years ago). (The mere idea of Mama Squirrel making RK squares makes certain parties laugh uproariously, as she has made several less-than-successful attempts in the past. But these turned out fine.)