Nick and I spent several weeks before Ethan's birthday deciding if we should do a low-key gathering somewhere outside the house (easy!) or do a train-themed party at our house with all the train bells and whistles (not-so-easy!). It's always a balancing game deciding between what is easy and low stress vs. investing time and thought into making your kids days special. I don't know how long it will be until Ethan moves on from his train obsession into a new interest so we decided to have his train party to celebrate capturing exactly who his is right now--an amazing, energetic, train crazy 4 year old! If you need some b-day party ideas, especially train ideas--get ready because I'm about to blast with you with pics of all the goodness!
We started by sending out ticket invitations to all the kiddos to get their imaginations going! I found a file download for custom invites on Etsy--awesome!
We wanted the train excitement to start before the kids even got to the door. I found this cute RR xing signal sign on ebay. Someone who lives locally was selling it so I got free local pickup--but even better, she delivered it to us! One of my fave decorations was Nick's duct tape train tracks.
He also made the sign for the door.
The kids brought their ticket invites and were met by the party conductor at the door to get their ticket punched to start the party.
Next they were outfitted in their engineer hats and bandanas.
We had 5 train stations for the little engineers to complete and they had their ticket punched at each station.
The train puzzle station:
Decorate a train cookie station:
Train coloring station:
Cargo transport station: For this station we combined geotrax sets of ours and our friends and ended up with a HUGE train set. This station was one of the favorites for sure!
And the last station was coal shoveling. Nick is hands down the master at taking my ideas and bringing them to life above and beyond what I had envisioned. I asked him to make some sort of cardboard train cutout so the kids could shovel coal into the train. The train was custom perfection! There's not a good pic of the backside but there was even a little compartment with LED candles lit up behind a silhouette of flames so it really looked like a coal compartment! This was another favorite of the kids, and mine too!
After everyone played at the stations we had snacks, cupcakes, and opened gifts.
The party was fun, colorful, and energetic. But, what really mattered and made Ethan's day special was being surrounded by all of the family and friends who love him so much. I'm so thankful for everyone who came and celebrated with hugs, smiles, and gifts and for all the helping hands that came early, set up, made signs and cookies, took pictures and video, and ran stations! Happy 4th birthday to our awesome Ethan!
E's party was so great and he's so lucky to have such amazing parents! :) I know all the kiddos had an awesome time too!! Another great job by N & H Betner :)
Posted by: heatherabetner@yahoo.com | 01/24/2011 at 03:54 PM
Such an awesome party! I love how you made the tracks in the front to those great signs you made at all of the stations to the invite to the coal and that awesome train... oh, I just loved EVERYTHING!
Can you tell me what you used for the "coal"?
Posted by: Dina | 11/08/2011 at 03:04 PM
Dina, thank you!! Sorry for the delay in responding...I've been moving this blog to a new site and hadn't checked in for a few weeks. :) The coal was some cut-up black foam that we had in the garage (convenient!). I'm not sure where you could find it...maybe Home Depot/Lowe's? Thank you for such a nice comment...the party was so fun!
Posted by: Heidi | 11/14/2011 at 02:32 PM
Hi there,
Love your train party!!! My son will be turning 4 and is obsessed with trains. Where did you find your invitation and what are your cupcake toppers? Love.
thanks
Melissa
Posted by: melissa maxwell | 01/08/2012 at 02:48 PM
Hi Melissa, thank you for your kind compliments!
I found the invitation on Etsy, here is a link:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/62685288
and I made the cupcake toppers (both the yellow/black discs and the white RR crossing sign) using fondant and food marker. I don't have a tutorial on them but here's a link to one of my posts showing a better picture if it helps with ideas.
http://lifeinspired.typepad.com/life-inspired/2011/01/birthday-cupcakes.html
Have fun with your party planning!
Posted by: Heidi | 01/10/2012 at 07:10 PM