Train Party

When Mr. C turned three, I knew I wanted to give him a train party. A few months before his birthday, he loved trains, so it seemed to fit. Of course, as I prepared for the party, I found that his interest waned, but he still loved this party and talked about it for a long time afterwards.

I made the banners from triangles cut out of colored cardstock stapled to ribbon–simple, but cheerful.

I made train related signs, and put them up everywhere, such as the one above and below:

Mr. C’s birthday is during a cold month. I didn’t have much hope of the kids going outside, so I made sure there were plenty of stations for the kids to enjoy. I had a place for them to read train books from the library, a ton of cars and car toys out in Mr. C’s room, a football stadium,

a place to color train pictures,

and of course, train tracks.

Linking most of these stations together was a giant train track made out of painter’s tape–Mr. C’s favorite part!

We also played Pin the Caboose on the Train. I made the train partly from coloring pages I found online. Each child had a cardstock caboose that I printed out with his or her name on it. They were nervous at first, but they caught on quickly.

Of course, I had to make a train cake, the idea for which I found on Parents.com. It was very simple–made from pound cake and candy. The only problem was that it was too small to feed all the guests. I wish I had made a longer train!

I found these cute treat boxes at Hobby Lobby, put the kids’ names on them with stickers, and filled them with train stickers, a train whistle, a candy stick, and homemade cookies.

We had a great time, even though Mr. C didn’t play with his trains for long after this!