all aboard the party train!

grayson has an amazing, undying love for trains. there was never a question of what he wanted his party to be about. "i want thomas! momma i wanna thomas party!!"

now can i just say this-- i had a girl first.. i had a few friends with boys arianna's age and it was always ALL about the thomas. i had no idea who thomas was. i had no idea the degree to which thomas the train can define the 2-5 year old male's entire world.

thankfully i like thomas. he is okay by me. i like the claymation .. the short, simple story lines.. i like all the unique character qualities in each of the trains..i love the old episodes with the british accents... grayson pretty much just loves that it is about trains. :)


as i have talked about before we do birthdays up pretty good around these parts-- it is their day to be celebrated and i see it as my job to bring my parental A game to ensure that happens... but i have realized this.. better is not always bigger. in fact when they are turning 3 bigger is usually just a terrible idea. my goal for this party was basically just an over the top magical play date.. a couple of friends doing exactly what grayson would want to be doing. perfection. :)

the night before the party lucienne helped me corral the balloons.

 and the next morning when the kiddos woke up... they were welcomed to
the party train!! :)

before we go any farther let's test your recognition skills of thomas and friends...

how'd you do??

 you thought this was going to be all about the party and now look-- we've learned something. i just care you know-- about you.. about thomas.. about you and thomas and all his friends..; )

and dude- if i have to be saddled with this useless knowledge well so should you. :)

 i made four trains out of diaper boxes and then drew their character's face for the front. seriously-- i had no idea all of their faces were so different!! um james has wrinkles-- wrinkles!! and emily--is clearly smug about something..probably the fact she's the only girl has something to do with it. you know how hard it is to draw underlying emotions on a train face??  and since i had my own little harsh critic critiquing every stroke these trains had to live up to some pretty high standards. :)

i put the excellent mr. nate in charge of building a working railroad crossing and he came up with this fabulous model. it was a huge hit-- and there will be lots of tears on the day we need to take it down. :)

 i made a train track out of craft paper and streamers.. i knew it would be rapidly destroyed... i did not anticipate the the actual destruction of it would become one of the favorite activities of the entire party... i am just glad i didn't take the time to paint it or do something that involved anything harder than laying streamers.. that way i could say tear away without cringing. :)

 here grayson is chanting with glee "it's a mess! it's a big big mess!!!" and this is is what i'm working with. people who not only make messes but thoroughly in the depths of their soul enjoy it. resistance is futile.

conductor hats, bandannas and little wooden trains whistles...

we played red light/ green light with our trains...

 it is always a little frightening to me as they all inch closer and closer knowing that you are in fact their target...

there was a train pinata...  
some of us had amazing form...

some of us weren't quite sure what we were supposed to do with our first pinata expereience...

and some of us were very enthusiastic. :)

oh you've had enough trains? there is never too much train when you are rockin a train theme people...

with peanut butter and jelly tracks... nate was telling me i was out of control. i said that this was right smack in the middle of control-- as opposed to the elaborate village i had originally thought of that included gingerbread houses, broccoli trees, and some sort of lemonade river that i hadn't quite gotten the details nailed down on. i know... that would be the crazy train that my perfectionism normally sends me on.. but i am getting better! even these tracks looked a little wonky to me but i went ahead with them because seriously -- they are 3 year old boys -- enough already. grayson loved it-- and said 'momma made a train out of food!! come see ari, come see!' and that's all i needed to hear:)

 so lunch was basically a mad dash to grab your favorites off the fruit train and the non crust pieces of track. it was great. :)

 for the cake i made a little train and then let the kids go nuts decorating it themselves... raisinets, m &m's and gummy bears on chocolate cake?? sure why not. :)

 thanks for jumping on the party train with us friends!!!