A Cowboy Roundup

Kids from about 3-6 love cowboys and horses and will enjoy this party. They’ll get a chance to stretch their imaginations and pretend to be riding the range. 

Set Up: You will need to gather as many stick horses as you can. If you can’t find enough store-bought ones, a yardstick with a mop head fastened on the end will satisfy most imaginative pre-schoolers. If you can build an actual campfire at your party spot…great.

If not, consider making one from twinkling red and yellow Christmas lights and some firewood. Your young guests will be thrilled and won’t mind that it has to be plugged in. You will also need a bandana for each child and a brown paper grocery bag. If you want to get cheap western hats at a party store, they will be a hit, too.

Invitations: Use a western theme to decorate the cards such as horses, fences, cactus, cattle, etc.

Arrival: As each child arrives, let him or her put on a bandana and pick out a stick horse to use. They could also be directed to the first activity, which will be making a cowboy vest from a brown paper bag. If the children are very young, you may want to cut the armholes and front openings yourself, but they can all use crayons or markers to decorate them. They may also want to use scissors to make “fringe” along the bottom. 

Main Event: You should have several games and races for the stick horses to run in. Younger kids in this age group would love to gallop across the yard to “rescue” a stuffed animal from a cliff or swamp. Five and six-year-olds would like to play “Cows in the Corral” which is really just “Fruit Basket Upset” with a new name. You will have kids make corrals by joining both hands with a partner. Each corral has a “Cow” in it at the beginning of the game. There is also a “wrangler” who will try to catch the cows. When the wrangler yells, “Stampede!” the cows all run and try to get in a different corral before being tagged by the wrangler. Play several times so everyone gets to be a cow, a corral and a wrangler at least once. Kids will enjoy singing around your campfire, especially if you have someone who can play the guitar and teach them “Home on the Range” or other western songs. Have an old episode of “Bonanza” on hand if little ones get tired. 

Refreshments: Hot dogs cooked outside would be great, even if you use a gas grill. If you tease kids throughout the party that they will be having beans to eat, because “that’s what cowboys like”, they will probably be relieved when you give them jelly beans for dessert.