Eliza's 5th Birthday

Back in the fall, we had a service auction activity with the women at church.  When Mike saw that someone was offering pony rides for a child's birthday party, he thought that would be a great one to bid on (and hopefully win).  We knew Eliza would LOVE having a horse party.  I won the pony rides, but kept it a surprise.

Eliza was thrilled when she saw the horse trailer at the gate as we were setting up for her party.  

Eliza helped Susan get the ponies situated while Mike and I finished the party set-up.

Eliza took the first ride (and sadly I was so busy setting up and doing other party things throughout, that I didn't get a good picture of her).  Oh, and you can't really see it well in any of the pictures, but I made Eliza a suede vest complete with fringe so she could have a festive outfit.  It matched her suede fringe boots that she forgot to put on.

Caleb did a lot of riding!  He loves horses too.

We had haystacks for lunch (you may know them as Hawaiian haystacks), as well as some yummy snacks.

Eliza and Caleb helped me make horse treat bags for all the kids to take home with them.

 

Earlier in the week, the kids and I worked on a craft for the party.  On freecycle, I got a bunch of old horseshoes.  The were rusty and some still had nails in them.  Eliza and Caleb helped clean them up with a wire brush, then I spray painted them silver and gold.

The kids painted them with cotton swabs and toothpicks.  We turned a bunch of Mike's t-shirts inside out for the kids to wear as smocks.

Some of the older kids got very detailed and creative.

I cut triangular bandanas for all of the guests.  It wasn't anything fancy (just cut with pinking shears), but the kids really liked them.

I love the way the pink and white balloons match the pink and white blossoms on the fruit trees in the background.  It really was a gorgeous day for March!

Mike showed the kids how to play horseshoes.

They had a big kids' game and little kids' game going on.

A horse party wouldn't be complete with out a Pin-the-Tail game.  Mike printed a horse picture from the internet and then drew a big one up.  I must say I was impressed.  We used pieces of crepe paper with the kids' names written in marker for tails.  The kids used their bandanas for blindfolds.

Apparently we just got a video of the birthday song and candles, but not a good picture, so you'll have to use your imagination.

Josh was pretty pleased with the whole cupcake thing.  After he finished his own, he scavenged ones that others had dropped.

Yee-haw!  I love this guy.  He was my special helper :)

On her actual birthday, which came before the big party, we had chocolate peanut butter pie.  Eliza did her own hair and accessorizing for the occasion.

We had a couple presents for her, including some new clothes for school.  (You can tell this pic was post-pie-eating.)  She also got wonderful gifts from her friends at her party, but I didn't get any good pictures.

Later, after her party, she got some surprises in the mail from some special folks in Ohio.

It was love at first sight!