horse girl party

Having a severe addiction to all things equine, I knew a horse party was an inevitability for Ella's 10th birthday this year. Thankfully, she was more than happy to invite only 4 friends, making this party smaller but soooo much fun (and so much easier on overworked, exhausted mum).

To make things even MORE simple, I ran with Ella's desire to have teensy horse figurines at the party and decided to make EVERYTHING teensy. I had teensy bottles of juice, teensy straws, teensy cups, plates, even teensy trophies to award the girls. Everything was small - I even blew up balloons only half way. Teensy stuff equals smaller effort!

Decorations

Decorations began with the ubiquitous balloons floating on the breeze on the letter box, followed by a trotting trail of chalk horse hoof prints, down the drive way to the front door, courtesy of Ella and Bethany. As everything was teensy, I decided to decorate only one small part of the house (so easy!) - draping paper dolls above the dining table, tied together with black ribbon - some of them studded with little horse silhouettes - perfect for the horse girl theme.

There were also clutches of floating blue balloons and a silver trough filled with styrofoam and faux grass, and studded with teensy ponies. I printed letters onto card and cut them out with a circle punch, taped them to skewers and inserted them into the trough for a cute and easy birthday display.

And that was pretty much it! Goes to show that gorgeousness can really be simple.

Food

As soon as the girls arrived, they opened presents then went on a horsey treasure hunt which took them, via a series of cryptic clues, all over the house in search of the treasure (little plastic ponies). Then it was into the food.

I featured mini vol au vents, mini ham and cheese croissants, mini meringues, mini pretzels, mini juice bottles with mini straws, mini cheese cubes with olives and baby cucumbers, mini candy hearts, mini cupcakes with blue icing and horse picks made by printing off horse silhouettes, cutting them out with a circle punch and gluing back-to-back with a toothpick wedged between.

The girls had little place settings with teensy cups, silver platters and spoons, marked with a paper doll placecard and a bridle-like headband, which they all wore throughout the party.

Games

After the treasure hunt, present opening and nibbles, the girls got stuck into creating their own stables from paper and card. Leaving them to their own devices and hearing laments of "how do we do this?" as I left the room, I must say I was absolutely jaw-dropped to see the end result, 45 mins later. After much giggling, gossiping and superlative creating, I was absolutely stunned with the amazing stables these girls created for the miniature ponies.

Can you believe how good? I carefully assessed each delicately-constructed masterpiece and announced winners in 5 categories, presenting the girls with little gold trophies. They loved it.

Next was horse poo cakes. Made from a series of chunky parts like rice bubbles, lattice cereal, mini marshmallows, shredded coconut and sprinkles, the girls (who warmly welcomed Riley into the proceedings) gasped in horror at the torrent of chocolate diarrhoea poured into the mix, and promptly stirred up great plops and little nuggets of horsey poo, to much giggling (and nibbling).

This is SUCH an easy age - 5 hours flew by and the girls were lamenting home time - I had other activities organised but the girls were more than happy to play imaginative games in the garden and do each other's hair into whacky styles before the cake was brought out for everyone to devour.

The Cake

Snaffled from Martha Stewart's website, this lemon meringue cake recipe was so good when we made it on Ella's actual birthday, we couldn't resist a repeat for the party. Alas, I made the meringue topping early in the day and slathered the cake with it, only to have it all sink down and flop by 4pm. When you make it, ensure you create and slather the topping only an hour or even less before it's due to be eaten.

After a delicious toasting under the grill, the meringue cake nonetheless arrived resplendantly at the table with 10 long white candles. Inside was lemony bliss, layered with lemon curd, and the girls gobbled it up instantly before dashing back out to the garden for more horsey play.

So simple, such an easy afternoon - and proving you don't need to spend a lot of money or rope in a lot of kids to have a lot of fun - Ella's verdict says it all - OH MUM, BEST PARTY EVER!

Kids Parties A-Z