The Birthday Express

This year my sweet little man turned 3 years old!

Last year for his birthday he received a few Thomas the Train toys, so I rented a Thomas movie for him to watch so he would know who the trains were.  Ever since then, it's been a Thomas day every day at our home.  We wake up to watch Thomas.  We eat Thomas snacks.  We wear Thomas clothes.  We play with Thomas toys.  We sleep with Thomas blankets.  So it was only fitting that Brazos had a train birthday party.

We {okay, just me really}had lots of plans for his party.  The original location for the party was at the Burton Train Depot.  It was booked and ready to go.  We were going to rent a "trackless train" from College Station.  The day was set and then they contacted me to let me know the original date would not work because the train driver was going out of town.  They gave us other available dates that would work, but we really wanted to stick with our original date.  Then they informed us that they would charge us an extra $150 just to travel to Burton.  Well that made up our minds.  We would have no "trackless train" and would stick with our original date.

We searched town for a barrel train, but never got a response from the folks who owned the train.  About this time, Matt came up with an idea.  At his work place they had a 30 foot box sitting in the yard in which parts were delivered in.  They were going to burn the box to get rid of it.  Matt told me that he could turn the box into a train for the kids to ride in.  I really couldn't imagine what he was thinking, but I knew that when he has an idea, it's usually a good one and the results always amaze me.  So this solidified our birthday plans - the party would be at our house on the day we wanted it and we would have a train for the kids to ride.  {The party had to be at our house, because this 30 foot train needed a big pasture to make wide turns in.}

Now it was time to create a train party!  I gathered all my ideas on Pinterest and went to work.  With a couple of trips to the store, several bottles of paint later, and lots of paper and hot glue, we had a train party ready for our little conductor!

All Aboard the Brazos Birthday Express!

Brenham Cake Pops amazed us again with train cake pops!

Candy trains and candy coal.  The coal was black Sixlets.

White chocolate train lollipops

Brazos informed me that he wanted "black" cake for his birthday.

Packaged Girl Scout cookies.  Being a Girl Scout leader has it's perks.

Candy trains were given as party favors to the "older" kids {adults} at the party.

Each party guest was given a hobo sack of goodies.

The goodies in the sack: train whistles, bubbles, train squirter, and Chugga Chew cookies.

I painted a big box from Lowe's to look like a train pulling a cargo car of goodies.

The food table....chew, chew!  Matt make BBQ baked potatoes for all the guests.

Paxton the Chip Train

Chug-a-chug-a, Root Beer!

Brazos painted the canvases and I drew the train.  I think he may have some new artwork in his room after the party.  He had so much fun painting.

I painted some old paneling to make Supak Depot.

We worked into the wee hours of the night to make the party props just right.

Percy

Mavis

And let the party begin!  Here are some of my favorite pictures of the party.

Brazos getting golf tips from his great grandma.

Here's the great train my husband imagined.  He added seats to the 30 foot box, wheels to each train car, made a barrel and a canopy for the engine, and stabilized the bottom of the box with pipe.  I painted the train and found the funnel at one of the HGTV garage sale wars for $2!  The funnel was actually the base of a side table.

The Birthday Train!!!!!

My mom made this watermelon train.  So cute!

My mom also wrapped Brazos' present in boxes and built a train!  It was hard to open!

Thank you all our friends and family who came out and celebrated with Brazos.  He truly treasures each of you and looks forward to times he has to spend with you.  Thank you for loving on him.  You all are amazing.



I wonder what next year has in store for us................