I need to glue stuff in a park?

Self-adhesive Velcro or glue-gun Velcro, prior to the party, to the ribbons and where the reins would attach, same with the eyes. It might work.

Glue specifically designed for such projects can be found at most craft stores. Or you could ask someone at the store, they may or may not know.

Use buttons for the eyes, and just get a really long needle that you can pass all the way through the head.
Sew metal or plastic rings to both sides, and just let them tie the ribbon to that.

As @lillycoyote suggests you could also buy the self-adhesive velcro dots for the eyes, then pre-sew one side to the head for strength.

If you are daring, you can look into super glue gel: http://www.amazon.com/Loctite-1363589-4-Gram-Control-Adhesive/dp/B003Y49R7G/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1408637983&sr=8-4&keywords=super+glue+for+fabric

That risks kids getting superglued, though.

Magnets.

Pre-glue the magnets to the inside of the horse head, then to the inside of the eyes and the ends of the ribbons (folding over, of course). Not only are they easily attached, they are easily swapped and updated in the future.

You can buy cheap, strong magnets at the hobby store.

Lots of great suggestions!

@lillycoyote and @ibstubro Really like the Velcro and magnet ideas—except knowing how kids are, the stick horses will probably have eyes for 2.7 seconds before they’re lost forever (into the black hole where little toys and parts go). Definitely some potential to this train of thought though. Hmmmm…

@ibstubro I would love to do buttons for eyes. (I really like how it looks.) But they’re choking hazards for the little ones. So if I used them, I wouldn’t trust glue, Velcro or magnets. They’d have to be hand sewn—but there are 17 kids coming to this party! I don’t think trying to hand-sew 34 button eyes (while keeping an eye on the little munchkins) is gonna fly.

@AshlynM and @RocketGuy The issue with glue isn’t the risk of supergluing the kids (ha!), since I would probably do most of the gluing. The issue is set time. Telling 17 rambunctious kids not to touch their stick horses until they dry sounds like toddler torture. Unless you guys know of a particular one that sets quickly?

@ibstubro Really love the idea of pre-sewing in some rings to attach the reins! Will definitely do that. Thanks!

Thanks for brainstorming, guys!

That’s why I suggested superglue – 60 seconds cure.

@RocketGuy Thanks! I couldn’t find that in the amazon description. 60 second cure time means <60 second set time, right? Sixty seconds doesn’t seem long until you realize you have to glue 34 eyes (+whatever else they might want to decorate). The hoard might descend upon me before the glue sets. :P

Ooh, just found something called mitre bond. 15 seconds set time. Plus it has an activator pen so I can avoid aerosol activators. Sweet.

This party is totally going to end with a bunch of eyes stuck to my fingers, right?

LOL @fluthernutter if you’re lucky the eyes will only be stuck to your fingers.

Sewn button eyes:

If you can get different colored buttons of the same size, take a large needle and ‘sew’ through at least 2 of the button holes with (doubled) yarn.

At this point, a horse head is trailing 2–4 PAIRS of yarn from the would be button holes?

Tie the yarn loosely, bows or whatever.

When a kid chooses a button eye, you just have to thread the button onto the yarn, and tie in a knot.

@lillycoyote Ha! I should post the catastrophe results!

@ibstubro Hmmm…that actually might work! A couple of knots and the eyes would be good to go. You, sir, are pretty good at this!

I’m a problem solver by nature, @fluthernutter.

People learn to watch what they say around me. “I wish I had…”, “I can’t find…”, “If you ever see…” usually ends up with ”Thanks so much, but I don’t need any more!” lol

Just this week a friend that was desperate to make sauerkraut got about 30 gallons of precut cabbage for $10. She was thrilled, but I expect that her need for cabbage is satisfied. Yesterday I man mentioned in front of me that he was looking for a couple envelopes the size of a credit card, but had had no success. Immediately I said, “Just go to the florist and get a couple meant for gift cards,” and out the door he went.

Just in case anyone of you might be interested, here’s what the finished product looked like!

I riffed off of @ibstubro ‘s idea to put in rings. I sewed in a little cord loop that they could put the reins through.

After all of that fuss about glue, I didn’t use any glue at all! Sewed in manes of various colors (this rainbow one was for the birthday girl) for them to choose from, fabric markers to decorate and they could choose different reins (totally forgot about these during the party though).

Thanks, guys! Even though I didn’t end up using glue, you guys were awesome!

^ Wow!! Looks like a store-bought one!

Very cool, @fluthernutter!

Thanks!
Though I don’t think a store-bought one would use toilet paper rolls (for the horn) or so much duct tape. :P

Well, you had to ruin it. That horn seemed magical before. Now…it’s just a toilet paper roll :/

Hahaha!

What I meant to say was that it was highly unlikely that a store bought item would utilize toilet paper rolls such rare runes and duct tape ancient magicks.

Yup. That’s what I meant to say.

Oh, good! You were probably confused, right? That’s okay! I love the unicorn! <3 :]

How many did you make? That’s a hell of a lot of toilet paper to unwind just for the rolls! DO NOT tell me you save toilet paper cores on a regular basis!

I sewed sixteen of them!
(But only ended up mounting thirteen of them.)

Erm…I don’t not save toilet paper rolls?
When you got little kids, you never know when you’ll be tasked to make them some binoculars or a ballerina kitty cat ;)

Too funny.