The Belated Train Party Post
/Today I am FINALLY going to post about Emerson's birthday party. I tried to write about it a few weeks ago, but we all saw what happened then.
But today, I will stay on track... or should I say train track? :)
Trice and I got back from our 6 year anniversary trip THE NIGHT BEFORE Emerson's party. That's right. THE NIGHT BEFORE. We couldn't have pulled it off without Team Awesome: GrandMere, Aunt Lacy and Aunt Money. Thank you all SO MUCH for your help and creativity with Emerson's party! We got to throw his party at our house this year, so my little mommy heart was so excited! Here is what we did:
DECOR:
For the entrance to the party, my crafty hubby and mother-in-law threw together these awesome train signs for us. We put one in the yard, and then ordered some Black Masking Tape to make choo-choo tracks up to the front door. Our big yellow sign on the front door was an image I scored off of Google and had blown up at Office Depot. Emerson wore a conductor hat and bandana that we already had, and some suspenders and iron-on patch that I got at Hobby Lobby for super cheap. Doesn't he look handsome?!
For the entry table, I mod-podged a big wooden "E" with transportation paper and hung it on our wooden board. Then I got lots of pictures of Emerson playing with trains over the years and hung them with mini-clothespins on our wooden frame. We had a sign that said "Drop Luggage Below" for the gifts, and then we had a little place where people could write Emerson a note for his birthday. I'm obviously a huge sucker for handwritten notes, so I like to do this for each of my kids at their birthdays! We also had Emerson's real Conductor Light and Railroad Tie on the table. Emerson's PeePaw has a buddy that works with Union Pacific, so let's just say we get all sorts of train goodies from him :)
The rest of the decorations included a big train poster that we scored at Hobby Lobby for $15! This went on the mantle along with a picture banner with even more train pictures of Emerson throughout the years. We had his 1, 2 and 3 year old birthday pancake pictures on display along with some other fun train things from his room! My hubby had the brilliant idea of adding little Union Pacific logos to all the signs, and I think it came out really cute! Also, those blue and white and red frames that you see in the pictures were a steal of a deal from IKEA. They were 99 cents a piece! Aren't they cute?
FAVORS:
Because Emerson's PeePaw has a friend in Union Pacific, he has collected over 50 train hats for Emerson. We decided it would be fun for each of Emerson's buddies to get to take home an authentic Union Pacific train hat. We also ended up ordering some smaller Train Whistles off of Amazon. It was so cute to see everyone wearing their hats while they played!
FOOD:
For the food, everything just kind of happened. If you have thrown any parties with us around here, you know that that's how things usually go! We put another RR Crossing sign behind the table and made another picture banner for the table. We put a sign that said "Chugga Chugga" by the drinks and a sign that said "Chew Chew" by the food. Here's what we labeled our food:
- "Haystacks" - Hashbrown Casserole cut into squares
- "Train Wheels" - Donuts
- "Boulders" - Donut Holes
- "Railroad Ties" - Brownies cut into strips (with chocolate gravel on the plate)
- "Diesel Fuel" - Apple Juice
- "Water Tower" - Water
We also had chocolate milk for a drink option. Instead of doing a cake, Emerson requested blue cupcakes from his Aunt Lacy. We tried to talk him into a cake, but he refused. So I just made some cute RR Crossing cupcake toppers for them!
THE TRAIN YARD:
Because our house is a little snug for 20 kids plus parents, we always have to move the party to the backyard. And thank the Lord, the weather was PERFECT! We set up all of Emerson's train tracks on the back porch for the kids to build trains. And we got a bounce house... There's a guy in our neighborhood who gives us a steal of a deal and we get to keep it for a few days, so it's kind of a no-brainer! The kids had a blast wearing their hats, building their trains and jumping in the bounce house.
And that's a wrap folks! I hope you enjoyed looking at pictures from Emerson's special day. And perhaps you got some ideas for a train party in your future :) We had such a blast, and we didn't spend a fortune throwing this party. And the best thing of all is that Emerson smiled the ENTIRE day!! If you have any questions about anything you see in the pictures, feel free to post a comment or send a message!