Snow Rodeo - Sledding Party

My cowboy posse put together a terrific activity for a group of teen friends, but this activity would bring out a Yee-haw from any age.

The Snow Rodeo sent everyone out sledding -- with a variety of challenges to see who could stay on their trusty mount. Each guest named their sled (Bronco, Big Red, Slippery Sam, etc.) and "branded" their steed with the name written on a label and stuck to the back of the sled. (The "branding" stickers could be a fun and easy craft activity before heading out into the snow. Decorate and draw in western-style letters.)





Rodeo Challenges:

• Bare Backwards riding (go down the hill backwards)
• Riding double (two people per sled)
• Bucking Bronco (sledding over a series of bumps and jumps created just for this race)
• 8 seconds (who could make it down in exactly 8 seconds -- harder than you'd think)

Wrangle up some easy party favors with western neckerchiefs to wear over noses in the cold. Even the party's end can be fun with a race to "round up" the sleds and "corral" them in the take-home vehicle.

Giddy-up!

Cowboy Poetry in Motion

Sometimes mamas do let their babies grow up to be cowboys--at least for a high school western-themed dance. Their day-long activities were wrassled up for teenage fun, but could be adapted for a Cowpoke Party for any age.

Breath Mint Belt Buckles

To complete their western attire, these buckaroos made rodeo-worthy, blinged-out belt buckles from breath mint containers. We got the idea from a genius who connects his duct-tape belt with a homemade Altoids tin belt buckle. However, I was nervous using the Dremel tool on metal, so we opted for plastic containers. Plus, the oval shape seemed a bit more rodeo like.

To make your own, use a Dremel disc cutter to open up the "door" side of a plastic mint container. (We chose Frost mints which have a nice sized, oval box.) Cut out the door, extending the opening about 2/3 of the way along the container. This side will be the back of your belt buckle.

Next, use the Dremel to cut a 3/8" x 1-1/2" slot on the side of the container. This needs to be tall enough for your belt to slide through and wide enough to accommodate the belt's thickness PLUS the short end of the belt after it's buckled. After cutting, try the container on your belt to see if you need to make any adjustments. Slide the non-buckle side of the belt in the back hole of the container and through the slot on the side. Put the belt on as you normally would, buckling to the right space; the plastic container will be off to the side of the actual buckle. After the belt is fastened, slide the plastic container over your actual belt buckle and snap your belt buckle inside the back hole. This will cover up your belt buckle (making it appear as if the plastic container is now the buckle). The short edge of the belt will extend through the slot.

Once you've made any adjustments so your belt fits through your new "buckle," it's time to get downright fancy. Use a hot glue gun (or craft glue for younger kids) to attach wagon wheel pasta shapes, candies, letters, whatever you can dream up and that you want to look metallic on the buckle. We used hot glue to make a floral motif. Our dream-boy cowboys used sugar letters meant for cake decorating to form the initials of their dates.

When the decorations are set and the glue dry, use gold or silver spray paint to give your buckles a good shine. The hardest part is having the patience to wait for the paint to dry. It's worth doing two coats.

Now for any other decorations you want to add on top of the "metal." Our favorites were stick-on gems and rhinestones. The boys stayed rather reserved and classic, but wow, you could really go all out. Imagine adding colored beads, colored rhinestones, glitter, polished stones, maybe some nail polish designs for an inlaid look.

Giddy-up!

Circus Party

Create your own Greatest Show on Earth, inspired by Family Fun Magazine. Create an easy Photo Booth using a brightly striped tablecloth as a backdrop, then add in easy props like a clown sponge nose, mini umbrella (for a tight rope walker), fake mustache, strong-man padded muscle shirt, etc.

Cute game idea: Make your own "tight rope walk" by slightly elevating a 2 x 4 board on bricks.

Popcorn box cake: Stripe a sheet cake with red and white frosting, add actual popcorn or caramel corn to "fill" the box. This photo thanks to coolest-birthday-cakes.com.

Winter on the way? Cool party ideas

Punxatawney Phil says six more weeks of winter. What better way to make the most of it than a party?

Activities

- Creative snowman construction: pass out props, colored water in spray bottles (mix in food coloring), use old Halloween costume pieces, try self portraits, and more. Give cool prizes for the most unique Frosty friends.

- Snow sculpting. Don't limit the party to snow people. Try animals, vehicles, buildings, letters...go wild.

- Make homemade snow globes. Instructions here: http://bit.ly/ntlosS

Games

- Snowman wrap-up. Divide into teams of two and wrap your partner in toilet paper. Once sufficiently "snowed in," add scarf, hat, and construction paper buttons. Fastest team to "freeze" their teammate wins! http://bit.ly/yHDlCN

- Find a list of fun-in-the-flakes games here: http://bit.ly/9hQJQy

Food

- Snowman on a stick. Slide three 1" banana slices onto a wooden skewer to make the snowman body. Add half an apple wedge on top as the triangular hat, then poke pretzel sticks into the center banana slice as arms. Mini chocolate chips become eyes and buttons.

- Top a drink with whip cream then add chocolate chip eyes and mouth, plus a candy corn for a nose. Works as a topper to hot cocoa or even a health smoothie.
- Penguin cookies: dip Pepperidge farm Milano cookies in melted chocolate -- about 1/4" on each side to create wings and 1/2" on the top for the head. (The belly remains the light cookie color.) Add candy or frosting for the eyes and a yellow beak from frosting or a snipped triangle of fruit roll-up. Some extra fun: sugar cubes make fun ice blocks and jordan almonds are perfect penguin eggs. (Ideas thanks to Family Fun magazine.)

Baseball Party: Take 'em out to the ball game

My 10-year-old's team just had an end of season party—appropriately, at the ball park. We watched the Salt Lake Bees, our town's Triple-A team, and had a great time. The tickets were affordable, the weather was dreamy, and it was even Kids Eat Free Night (can't beat that!).

A ball game is a terrific summer party, whether for a birthday, Father's Day, a neighborhood night out, or a team get together. If you don't have (or can't afford) a major league game nearby, check around for minor league or college games. Be sure to ask about special group activities. The Bees offer a "Field of Dreams" promo that, with advance sign-up, a little league team can attend the game at a discount, get a tour of the locker rooms, introduce themselves to the crowd, and stand on the field during the national anthem with the pro athlete who plays their position. They also walked away with free loot like team baseball cards, t-shirts, baseballs, and more. Sadly, the home team lost, but you'd never know from our group's home run smiles.

Bridal Shower: Cookie Flower Favors

Here's a fun take on the bride's bouquet. For a bridal shower activity, let each guest frost and decorate sugar cookie flowers. We ordered from a baker plain sugar cookies cut in a variety of flower shapes and put on wooden skewers. (You can bake your own, too -- just insert 1/8 - 1/4" wooden dowels when the cookies are just warm out of the oven. They need to be a good 1/2" thick.)

Everybody shared decorating bags with frostings in different pastel colors and with a variety of decorating tips. A colorful selection of sprinkles, colored sugars, and little candies finished the look.

Best part: Each guest selected one cookie to place in a vase for the bride's bouquet (a gift from everyone). Then, the rest were wrapped up in tissue, tied with a ribbon, and taken home by the guests to enjoy!

Kitchen Bridal Shower

Chances are, soon-to-be newlyweds need just about everything but the kitchen sink. Get their lives started right with a kitchen or house-warming shower.

INVITATION:

A microwave party invitation opens up to reveal the details about the shower. There's room for the time, date, place, etc. -- plus where the bride and groom are registered.

GUESTS:

Showers can be intimate gatherings with just the bride and her entourage. They can also be a great way to celebrate with friends and acquaintances who might not be close enough to attend the wedding itself. Include them in the festivities; a low-key open house is a great way for lots of people to stop in and share good wishes.

Our shower was an open house that included neighbors and church friends. About 35 were invited which kept a nice flow of 8-10 people coming through to visit with the bride throughout the night.

ACTIVITIES:

Bridal shower games can be fun with a smaller group. Should you have an open house (or people who'd just rather visit with each other), get everyone involved by sharing some advice or a favorite thought or memory about the bride. We had people write something they loved about the bride (so her groom would remember how lucky he is!) on pre-designed pages that match the invitation. At night's end, the pages were collected and bound into a book along with pictures of the evening. The bride received the book as part of her wedding gift.

FOOD:

Good girly stuff (can you say, chocolate?). A selection of homemade and store-bought treats can go a long way without too much effort. Our menu:

Homemade chocolate cake, cashew cookies, slush punch (easy but fancy)

Purchased cream puffs, pastries, sugar cookies shaped and decorated as bridal dresses

Fresh fruit

DECOR:

Pick something the bride loves:

Seasonal -- our shower was close to Valentine's Day, so we leveraged the holiday theme of hearts and love. It was easy to transition pink, red and white decorations into shower decor without feeling like a Valentine's party. Think blushing bride and use any of your seasonal decorations to give your shower a relevant feel.

Interests -- What does the bride love to do? At a previous shower, our bride was well envied for her closet's fabulous contents. We raided her shoe selection and decorated with them. Shoe boxes were wrapped in black paper and her colorful heels displayed on top of them. Inexpensive mini "glass slippers" came from a party supply store and served as decorations as well as favors.

Gift Specific -- Try keeping with the party theme of kitchen/home and decorate using gifts the bride may have already received (place a new toaster on a pedestal, arrange flowers in a blender, make a display of her dishes).

THANK YOUS:

As part of the bride's book with wishes from the guests, a few pages served as a record of gifts received. Not only could the bride look back at her friends' generosity, she can use the list to write thank you notes. Matching thank you notes were given to the bride as part of her shower gift from the hostesses.

Halloween Candy: What to do after the sugar rush

Curses upon whoever invented Hershey's Snack Size. When it comes to the candy, I. have. no. restraint.

Fortunately, nutritionist Julie Negrin has some great ideas for what families can do with your sacks of sweet loot to avoid a month-long sugar rush. All are very well mannered, of course; my favorites are the first two. Here are her suggestions, you can link to the full article here.

1. Give it away (at the office, or perhaps to a good cause)

2. Donate it to soldiers!

3. Send it to the Candy Fairy

4. Store it out of sight

5. Make holiday gifts

6. Create a game or candy art

Pet Store Party

When people ask if we have pets, my typical response is "yes, two boys." They're wild enough. But truth be told, they're dying for a pet. My answer: regular trips to the pet store. And we have so much fun you'd think it was, you guessed it -- a party!

INVITATIONS

Choose a favorite animal to be the star of your party (examples here on the wild and mild side). You might consider asking guests to bring a can or bag of pet food in lieu of a birthday gift (more on this momentarily).

ACTIVITY

Take a trip to the local pet store or animal shelter. If you've got more than 4-5 kids in the party, call ahead to ensure you'll be welcome. While most kids can entertain themselves the whole time just by peeking in the cages, looking for the lizards hidden behind plastic tree leaves, and making up wacky conversations with the parrots, you could come prepared with a few games of your own. Try an age-appropriate scavenger hunt (can you find the Yellow Canary? a 20-lb bag of Alpo? a furry purple kitty toy?). Learn where the animals originally came from. Or see what animal best matches each guest in the group.

A thoughtful twist is to turn the birthday gift booty over to the animals. Guests might be invited to bring a can of food, a dog toy, etc. in lieu of a child's gift. The group can then present the gifts to an animal shelter (or to the pet store who will often donate them in turn).

THANK YOU'S

Take each guest's picture with their favorite animal and send it home in a customized thank you card. If he/she gave a gift to an animal, you might include a "pawprint" of thanks from it too.

Tea Parties, Past and Present

So I got a kick out of all the Tea Parties hosted yesterday in protest of government spending. All political views aside (I'll decline to get into mine here), I love the clever factor. And, it got me thinking about (what else?) party opportunity!

Whether or not you make yours as a statement to the government, a Tea Party may be the ultimate in proper parties. Since they can lend themselves so well to teaching good manners (and even peaceful activism), here's a Tea Party invitation that's a lesson in etiquette itself.

Attached to the invitation is a tiny envelope with three dainty messages reminding kids of the three Golden Good Manners: Please, Thank You, and You're Welcome. Each is an instruction for the party.

Please arrive on time

You're Welcome to enjoy (describe your activity)

Say Thank You to the person who invited you

I used this originally for a classroom party. The kids were taught basic etiquette lessons for a couple of weeks, then attended a matinee play and a "formal" luncheon served by the parents at the school. Those students who remembered to thank their teacher for the invitation received a sticker with captions like:

Hello, my name is Well Mannered

RSVP is French for "My Manners Rock"

You know my name. Good Manners is my game.

Clearly, this invitation could be used for much simpler Tea Party celebrations. So grab your table manners, tea cups, and teddy bears. Heated political discussions are just a bonus.