Digging for Gold

The first game we played was.....digging for Gold!  I had spray painted a heap of small stones gold, punched small holes in aluminium pie trays, dear hubby made a mud bath in a clamp, and the boys went right ahead digging for gold

 They had a blast........seriously........we had trouble getting them out of the mud!

 even my little one joined in........a great time was had by all the boys......   But what else do you expect, you throw boys together with mud, and water... and they are content!!

my apologies to all the mums for the muddy clothes!!

the idea came from here

the bday boy

Here is the bday boy, when his friends sang happy birthday!  The only time my boys may stand on the table!  Having a blast and enjoying all the attention!

 and here is one of his mates dressing up as a cowboy...

Cowboy Party Bags

Recently our eldest boy turned 8!  I can't believe how fast these past 8 years have gone!  He is growing into a handsome lad, mostly quiet, sometimes noisy and a very gentle boy.

I host birthday partys with the kids every second year, and this year I chose the theme Cowboy for his party.  It matches is big bday present to the tee (more on that in another post).

I never took a photo of the invitations...but here are some photos of the party bags...

I printed this on brown paper bags, which can go through your normal printer.  I found a tonne of chocolate coins and filled up the party bags with these...

 then with some twine, here are some 'Reward' bags

 and here is a whole lot more.... 

  They totally completed the party :)

Horses

A cowboy party is no good without some horses...I have had this tutorial bookmarked for quite some time already, the pants had been laying ready...and finally I found the courage to give it a shot...

 

Here is horse number 1......

The pattern is from ikatbag......one of my favourite blogs/websites to explore...

The pattern is very simple to follow and I had a blast whipping up one horse in an evening...

now this one is a real wild horse....look at its eyes, looking mean, or almost scared...

and here is the smaller horse.....a tad more gentle looking

and adored by my little girl..

These horses haven't yet had their sticks added to them.   The pants are courtesy of my sister A. 

 

Party goodies

I recently had a great find in the new Reject Store in Kwinana. Cowboy gear for $2 each!

The packs contained a sherriffs badge 

 two spurs...

 and a gun complete with a belt and some bullets...

I bought enough so all the boys at the party could dress up as cowboys...
The checkered tablecloth is courtesy of my mother.

Cowboy Cakes

Off course with a cowboy themed birthday party there needs to be some cowboy cake.  I found some lovely images off cupcakes on google images when trying to find the perfect cowboy cake.    These ones where easy to replicate.  

 

The week before the party I spend baking about 40 muffin sized cup cakes, of course chocolate flavour.  The recipe comes out of one of my favourite "symply too good to be true" cookbooks.  They whisked up very quickly in my thermomix.  I then froze them. 

 

On the morning of the party, I iced them all using a simple butter cream icing thermomix recipe.  I pushed one pringle onto each cupcake, found some white/brown coloured marshmallows, add a touch of liquorish.......and voila..........here are the cowboy cakes!!

 

They were delicious and very filling! 

Additional Family Member

Our latest family member is this fine new dog.  A lovely 12 month old German Shepherd!!  We love dogs you see, especially our little girl!  We are looking forward to having a loyal companion for the years to come!