Hadley’s Highly Anticipated “Horsey Party” (a.k.a. Horse and Princess Birthday Party)

Princess dresses, ponies, pink cupcakes, paint, and precious, precious friends.

These are the things that contributed to the happiest birthday party we could have ever imagined for Hadley, and it was easy peasy! Lots of DeSpains were overjoyed on Sunday.

We’d never thrown a traditional birthday party with friends for Hadley before, and we decided months ago that we definitely wanted to do one this year. I assumed we would just do a big party at our home that I would relish in making extra “Pinterest-y”; I quickly realized that not only do I kind of loathe doing crafty, DIY party stuff, but I’m also pretty darn terrible at it, so we decided to seek out party options outside of the home. 🙂

Because Hadley is mega mega mega obsessed with horses and farm stuff in general, I reached out to the equestrian farm that we visited this summer for the Weeride to see what their party options were. Here’s what the owner emailed me back.

I DIED. This can’t be real life. I gushed with my mom and sister about how this seemed too good to be true, but we went with it and I’m so glad we did!

We told Hadley about it a while ago which was a mistake because she asked every. single. day for weeks if it was time for her “horsey party” yet (a phrase coined by her).

The girls wore princess dresses and the boys wore knight costumes.

They received unicorn names.

They played games.

They painted metal horseshoes that they got to take home (with a group picture) as a party favor.

They were able to spend time brushing and caring for the horses.

And then they were finally able to put on a helmet and take a ride.

We ended the party with homemade cupcakes, chips, and drinks followed by a mass exodus of very tired, happy munchkins.

The very best part of the entire party was seeing Hadley beam with joy from start to finish.

The second best part of the party was that my prep work consisted of bringing just the food items (plus paper products), and the clean-up consisted of simply putting the few things we’d brought back in the car. It was just so easy, and right now I’m in a season where I really really really like when things are simplified!

The only downside to having a party like this was that my guest list had to be quite short for budget purposes. If we had something at our house we would have been able to expand our guest list a bit.

Kansas readers, I can’t sing the praises enough of Mary Ann and her crew over at Ashwood Farm! I’d highly recommend popping over to her site and looking around at what she offers. We’ve personally only used her for the Weeride and the birthday party, but I’d bet that everything they have going on over there is awesome.

Happy almost birthday to my baby girl. You so deserved this special day with your friends! I can’t wait to show you these pictures when you’re older. We love you so much! Now I just need every second of the next nine days to wrap my brain around how you’re going to be three. Time truly flies.

PS: More posts from the day Hadley was born, her first birthday, her second birthday, and more.