Texas Schleichers: Ryan's Train Birthday Party

A few months before his 2nd birthday, Ryan became obsessed with trains and spent hours putting them together, pulling them along, and taking them apart. At first I was resistant to having a train party for him since that's what we had done for Ian's 2nd birthday. But, with a few tweaks, we decided we could have a train party for Ryan that was similar to Ian's -- and yet very unique! :)

Getting Ready
It was a HUGE blessing having Grammy and Papa in town a few days before the party to help with all of the last-minute preparations. Even though I had been working on things for weeks, it still felt like I had a lot to do when they arrived. As always, they jumped right into help!

Papa cleaned off the driveway to get ready for our train tracks,

Grammy blew up balloons,

Papa hid the train cars for the scavenger hunt,

and Grammy helped to mastermind and create the #2-shaped train track for Ryan's cake.

Grammy even helped an hour before the party to get our sweet boy to take a short nap on her lap -- since, for the first time ever, our birthday boy refused to nap in his crib. I think he knew it was almost party time!

Decorations
We all worked together the afternoon of the party to get the house looking like a train station. Grammy designed some semaphore signals, while Kim made a few Railroad Crossing and Schleicher Station signs.

The back of the semaphore signals said "Tank Choo for coming."

Grammy helped Kim cover diaper boxes with plastic tablecloths to make trains (with Thomas-character faces). These were not only festive decorations but useful for the kids to play with -- and a fun favor for the kids to take home!

Matt designed a train track on our driveway.

We also made a railroad track of duct tape leading to the front door.

We set up our dining room table with the "guest book" (a train board book in which everyone wrote a personal note to Ryan) and the favor bags (with a wind-up train from Oriental Trading Company and a candy train that Kim hot glued together).

Stations
We set up some stations for the kids to rotate through at their leisure when they arrived. We thought this would keep the six toddlers (and their older siblings) busy! Some of the tables were set up outside ...

... like the one where they could color train pictures (including a dot-to-dot picture and a color-by-number picture),

blow bubbles ("Blow off some steam"),

and make a train magnet.

There was another inside station where kids could play with trains and tracks we had set up.

Finally ... party time arrived! At first, the kids were interested in playing inside with the trains and tracks.

As more friends started arriving, though, we encouraged the kids to go outside. The big boys were especially interested in the BIG bubble blowers. (The homemade bubble solution worked GREAT for these.)

The little ones were more interested in the battery-operated bubble blowers.

Some kids spent time at the train books station, though it turned out to be awfully sunny there!

The station Ryan most enjoyed was coloring train pictures,

though he actually preferred getting pushed on the swing by Papa for a long time!

Most of the older kids gravitated to the train magnet-making station. It involved a few different steps, including attaching various foam shapes together with glue dots.

Most kids needed some help from Mommy or Daddy,

but they turned out really cute in the end!

Games & Activities
Once the kids had some time at the stations, we started the big-group activities. We let each child choose a train car box.

Owen

Most kids were pretty excited about this, but (of course) Ryan was one of the few that was NOT excited about wearing a box!

After at least most children had "put on" their train car, Matt and I took turns passing along various "orders" from Sir Topham Hatt,

including going to touch the slide in the backyard

and following the leader all the way down the railroad track to the mailbox. The older kids (who moved MUCH faster) got at least twice as many "jobs" to complete as the younger crowd.

The kids looked so adorable that we just HAD to take a group shot before we moved on to a different activity.

Ella, Caleb, Ryan (and Matt), Ian, Ethan, Samuel, Caleb, Owen

Our next game involved a "Troublesome Truck" who dumped his whole load of "coal" (newspaper that was crunched up and held together with black duct tape) and needed help getting it all picked up. Matt and I specifically planned this game with Ryan in mind. After all, he LOVES picking things up. He likes things neat and orderly and also likes making piles of his toys in various containers. In typical 2-year-old fickle fashion, though, Ryan wanted NOTHING to do with this game. Ha ha! At first, Matt played the part of the Troublesome Truck dumping the load,

after which all of the kids (except for Ryan who just wanted to sit on Momma's lap and hear a train book) eagerly picked up all of the coal as fast as they could. (Matt timed them.)

They wanted to repeat this activity a few times, including having the big brothers dump the load

and including parents and grandparents in the pick-up process (this made it REALLY fast).

Our final outdoor activity was having each child find three hidden train cars (an engine, a freight car, and a caboose). Papa had taped plenty of cars all around the backyard.

The kids ran around quickly to find three unique cars

... and then they headed inside for some train poems, songs, and books.

The Food
Then, we ate dinner! We had juice, water, and lemonade to "chug, chug"

and a salad bar of sorts to "chew, chew."

The lettuce, fruit salad, bread, and condiments were in the middle, but everything else was in a train car.

Some of the salad toppings included grilled fajita chicken, black beans, cheese, carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, croutons, and sunflower seeds.

We made a regular sheet cake since we were worried that there wouldn't be enough with only the "2-shaped" railroad track.

Grandpa and Grandma had sent Ryan a new train for his birthday that we put on the tracks. As soon as Ryan saw the new train on the cake, he wanted to take it off and play with it. We told him he'd have to blow out his candle first.

The Cake
This year, Ryan loved having everyone sing to him and waited eagerly to blow out his candles.

He was able to successfully blow out one of the candles,

and Ian helped him on the other.

As soon as the candles were out, Ryan insisted that he could "play with trains!" So, we took the new trains off the cake for Ryan to immediately begin pulling along the picnic table bench. :)