14826

Thomas Tank Engine -2yr- Right On Track

January 2007

Samira in Richmond, TX, USA

Runner Up

For our son's second birthday we decided to make Trains the theme of the party as he is crazy about trains.

Invitations: I printed the invitations on the computer with Thomas the tank engine on one side steam coming out of it in the words Two Two and on the other side the wording All Aboard To Celebrate Hani's Second Birthday . Train Depot located at:  Our address. Date & Time: Seat Confirmation Call: our phone number. These were printed on yellow card paper and mounted on a slightly bigger red card paper. I made return labels on the computer with Thomas on one side and our address on the other.

Decoration: I bought multi colored garlands. Happy Birthday to you flag streamers, some bags of solid blue, yellow, Red and orange balloons and two bags of Thomas balloons and two Thomas Mylar balloons. The streamers, garlands and the solid colored balloons were placed around rooms where the people were to be seated and the activities were to take place and the main room where the cake was cut. Behind the table where Hani was to stand and cut the cake we decorated the wall with the Thomas Happy Birthday Banner and the poster from one of the games I planned stick #1 on Thomas it has a big Thomas the tank on it and it looked good in the pictures.

For plates and cutlery I bought the Thomas themed plates, cups, napkins table cloths and clear cutlery. For the centerpiece I made a train out of different size boxes with cotton balls for the steam and printed Happy Birthday Hani on the computer and glued it on both sides of the steam, it had 2 compartments cut from the top middle so I can use it as a spoons and forks holder and had a rail road underneath made of Styrofoam and black wrapping paper. Everyone said it was the most creative thing! Even the people to whom I sent the pictures of the party asked did I make the train myself it looked cute. 

Next to the 'Cutlery' Train was a sign that read 'Express Café'. Thomas Mylar balloons and the printed Thomas balloons were divided in two bunches and tied outside on each side of the entrance door. We blew some solid colored balloons and left them on the floor for kids to play with. I also put a table near the entrance door with a sign saying Birthday Express Check In Counter on the desk was a book shaped as a Train and in the window of the train I put a picture of my son and on the steam it said My 2nd Birthday Express with yellow, blue, red pages and each page's heading said Guest Check In and underneath it  was written Passengers Phone#  Address and Comments and there were baskets with bandannas, whistles and store bought Thomas party Caps.

Each Parent filled the book as they came in and each kid got a whistle and a bandanna a blue and white striped one for boys and pink and white striped ones for girls.  And as the left they filled out the last comments section of their page. That way I don't need to call around for the addresses to send out the thank you cards and it is great memory holder for my son to look at as I printed out pictures of each kid with my son on the computer and placed it at the end of the page where his or her parents have signed.

Goody Bags: I bought brown colored gift bags from Hobby Lobby and stamped them with train shaped stamp yellow and blue for boys and pink and purple for girls. Then printed a name tag for each kid with a toot train on one side and the name of each kid on the other and tied it to the bags. I set these empty on a table with the gifts for the games as I planned to give each kid a gift for all the games I didn't buy any separate goodies for the goody bags. I didn't buy a lot of Thomas favors, as there were boy and girls both so I bought coloring books Cars ones for boys and princess ones for girls with crayons.

Then bought paint your own cup and disposed of the original coloring pages and printed my own boys characters and girls characters. These were all wrapped in orange papers for girls and yellow papers for boys. Then I had some pencils, erasers, stencil rulers, and sticker sheets, I bought some foam door hangers and foam alphabets and train shapes and made door hangers (______ Room and the train at the bottom) for each kid the wrapping had each kids name the corner. I also bought balloon printed favor bags and filled them with candy for each kid.

ACTIVITIES: As there were 9 kids with 5 girls and 4 boys ages ranging from 5 to 2 I thought of some very simple games first as the people were still coming I laid some Thomas coloring and activity pages which I made on the computer on the table for the kids to color and draw while waiting for all the kids to arrive. Once all the kids gathered we started with passing the Thomas train each kid who was left holding the train got a gift mentioned in the goody section above Then we had the baggage claim race I got some brown lunch bags and printed Baggage Claim on each and filled each with a pencil, eraser, stencil ruler and a sticker sheet and some shredded papers all the kids were lined on one side of the room and the bags were lined on the other side of the room in front of the kids and they had to run to the bags and fish things out of them and then run back to where their mom were waiting with their goody bags to put thing in.

I also had a pin the #1 on Thomas , which is just like pin the tail on the donkey I put names on each #! Sticker so to remember who put where, we did it without blind fold as we had some younger kids then too kids had fun just competing who can put it right on spot the gift for this game was paint your own cups. Then we asked the kids to sit in the circle and picked up a wrapped door hanger and called out the name then asked the child to recite ABC or which animal make this sound and stuff like that. After each game the children were asked to put their gifts in their goody bags which were lined in two lines on the table for the younger kids their moms helped them.  That calmed the kids a little before the cake cutting and snacks.

FOOD: I got the Thomas cake made from store with only the icing and wordings half white and half chocolate and decorated it with my sons new circle train track which went around the wording and but new birthday Thomas and his three friends around the track each pulling a paint tank or gifts behind it. And at the end of the wordings I put the decorated pick candles I found at party city three long picks have candle star on each and the middle star was little bigger and had the letter 2 on it. I made pasta, mini pizzas, store bought chicken and beef samosas (Asian snack), cookies, train shaped brownies, vegetable rolls, French fries, soft drinks and tea. After the cake and snacks it was time for Thomas the Train pull sting piñata which I made myself and filled it with the candy filled favor bags I mentioned above it kept the place clean and there was no fighting over the candy my son pulled the string I made one bag extra for him too so he won’t feel left out. 

Once the piñata was opened the guests started to leave.  As they left I gave each kid their goody bag according to the name on the tag. The parents were really taken back with the effort on the goody bags. As each family left I took their kids picture with my son standing in front of the Thomas banner (from the stick #1 on Thomas.) for the thank you cards as my son’s birthday is on the 6th of January I planned on fridge calendars as a thank you I downloaded the pictures on the computer and scanned a small calendar then with the help of a software made them as one picture with the kids picture on top, the calendar at the bottom and a train track border with a speech bubble next to my son saying Thank you for coming to my birthday your gift was right on track!. 

The party was a huge success.  Everyone loved it. The thing is to start the preparations way ahead of time especially with younger kids.

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