Shabby Chic Lil Cowgirl Birthday Party

Our Baby Love turned SIX this week! And to celebrate her birthday we had a BIG cowgirl party.

The venue: The tool barn at her maternal grandparents’ farm.

The challenge: To make the most of the farm surroundings, add burlap and apple crates and marry it all with silver, pink, and lace. FUN, FUN, FUN!

When the idea of the party at the farm was born, my assignment was to help with making things pretty. Baby Love’s mamá had the vision, and I started gathering the goods. (That’s why I need a nice, big basement! LOL) This is the beginning of the transformation. You can see that at this point we’d already grabbed an awesome old ladder and old shutters (far left) and put them into play.

And we transformed it to this:

The dessert table was the main attraction. We also had a food table and a table for the drinks. The backdrop and tablecloths are pieces of a 15’x12’ drop cloth from Lowe’s that I cut. (Some day I’ll tell you the story of washing and drying and cutting a 15’x12’ piece of drop cloth :) . )

Some close ups:

Remember all those hydrangeas I’ve been drying? Some are in a big bin in the basement, and to the party they went! Our first thought was to fill the other apothecary jar with pink- and cream-colored macarons, but there were lots of guests, so we opted for wafers, which turned out to be an excellent choice, especially given the number of children in attendance.

This was Baby Love’s own cupcake and decorated marshmallow. The lollipop stick on her marshmallow includes a flower left over from her tussie mussie I made for her dance recital (you can see that post here).

I’ve seen lots of small glass bottles for children’s drinks, but being worried about safety, Mr. Chickadee and I started saving plastic chocolate-milk bottles (lovely excuse to drink chocolate milk!!). I spray painted the bright blue caps tan to fit our color scheme, and decorated them with twine and ribbons. The tags were used by parents to identify their children’s drinks.

Mamá painted real horseshoes, pink for the girls and copper for the boys, as party favors. I stumbled into these galvanized tins (already rusty, YEA!) at TJ Maxx a few months ago. They had three—one bigger than the other two—and they all came home with me!

  White and semi-sweet chocolate-dipped marshmallows were a real treat for the kiddies!The lollipop sticks were decorated with various ribbons and lace to continue the color scheme.

 

Mamá made the darling garland that will now go in Baby Love’s room, as will the sign with her name on it.

The plates on the plate rack are the romantic Duchess pattern by Paden City (you can see them in more detail here). Their soft colors were perfect for the occasion.

The ladder ultimately filled the space between the dessert and the food tables.

“Ava’s Party…Welcome” by Baby Love, with a drawing of herself, the garland her Mamá made, and of the ladder. ;)

The pink Depression glass cups and saucers and juice glasses came along in my bins just in case, and they came in handy as fillers for the ladder, as a vase for the perfect rose (see below), and to hold the pink-and-white paper straws on the dessert table.

A perfect rose, well suited for Baby Love.

Transitioning to the food table…

We were feeding about 60 people, so the serving pieces needed to be BIG…oh, now I remember why I needed those big Longaberger baskets and crocks years ago! We briefly toyed around with the idea of china and flatware (our son, Baby Love’s Papá, is a chef who does occasional catering jobs, so he could have brought enough), but logistically it didn’t make sense.

And the drinks…

I’ve done “a year in review” with this Pottery Barn vase for each of the babies’ birthdays, but certainly never thought that she had noticed. Well…this year she asked me if I was going to do all her pictures again! Goes to show you, you never know what they’re noticing and what they like. So Yes, Baby Love, I’m doing it again!

There was even a piñata!

Everybody dig in! (And yes, the birthday girl wore a pink saucer tutu, pink-and-black cowboy boots, and a denim jacket.)

~ Confetti from the piñata in her tutu ~

 

And a few final (whew!) glimpses of The Lil Cowgirl Birthday Party ~

Our little three-year-old nephew, Vinny, came prepared for a cowboy day with his vest, chaps, hat and boots, (though he wouldn’t get on the horse! LOL).

And there were plenty of cowboy boots in all sizes…

This is how Grandpa Ken kept the barn warm for us.

And would you look at the size of these {tractor??} tires?! The horse blanket served to disguise them a bit. And why an empty frame?

To take a picture of Baby Love and each of her little friends on the horse! Each picture will be included in the child’s thank-you note.

It was a PERFECT day. Packing everything but the kitchen sink was well worth it. As Mr. Chickadee and I unloaded the car (just about every inch of an SUV-ful), we talked about all the sweet moments of the day. Sometimes it’s those moments after the fact, when you have time to reflect, that bring it all into full focus…when the memories start to formulate. A precious time…do you find that too?

Those of you who’ve done out-of-town weddings probably know exactly what this was like…and I bet the love and the memories made it all worthwhile, yes?

NOTE: Some of the items I use in my posts are in my Etsy shop, but many are not, simply because I haven’t updated my shop. If you see something you like and wonder if it’s available for sale, email me at coral5252@gmail.com and let’s talk!

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From my nest to yours~

Zuni