Train Birthday: Burke Lake Park

We don't always have big birthday parties for the boys, but we have tended to go all out for one pre-school birthday party.  For Elijah, that meant this year when he turned 4 (since he'll turn 5 two weeks into kindergarten).

As evidenced by his Halloween costume last year, the fact that one of his first words was "caboose" and his constant requests over the summer to visit the train station, my four year old is and has always been a complete train fanatic.  With that in mind, I planned a sweet little party for him at one of the nice regional parks in our area, a county over in Fairfax.  Burke Lake Park (click here for more info) is famous in my circles around here for the great running/fitness trail that circles the lake, and the fact that it has a miniature train.  One very similar to the one at the Fort Wayne Zoo where I grew up.  It only runs during the week through the summer, so we planned an early party before school started and while the train was still running.

I basically rounded up every train item in our house, and we headed to the park.  Elijah handed each guest a train engineer hat to wear when they arrived.  I basically set up several stations, in case the main attraction-our huge set of engines and wooden tracks-got busy.  I had a whole table full of train books, a train tattoo station, and do-a-dots art station. But the kids all played beautiful with the tracks for the longest time. 

Eli's old costume made for a fun photo op:

Next up, the main event was the train ride itself.  As one of the last days in the season, it was pretty busy and we ended up having to wait in line for a while, but the kids had fun on the playground while I held our spot.

Luckily, the wait made us right in the front of the line and Elijah was able to pick the very front seat for his ride.

 After the ride, we finally ate some snacks and enjoyed cupcakes.  Train cupcakes of course.

 I love Eli's face in this picture.  He was almost a little bashful as his friends were singing to him.  It was absolutely adorable.

We ended the party with a carousel ride.  Elijah and Zack picked the stationary seats on the ride... they may have regretted it half way through.

We sent the hopefully tired out guests home with train whistles of their very own, and of course, as Elijah is made of sugar, some hugs.

It was seriously the sweetest party ever, and I was glad to bless Eli with this.  I just wish I'd taken more photos!  Oh, which reminds me that we also had a photo display.  The little boys enjoyed looking at all the trains Eli has visited over the years.  So many trains...

Theo at Six: And a Cheetah Party

To usher in being six years old, Theodore decided to wake up at 5:00 with me and is currently working on his 249 piece Lego set he received yesterday for his birthday.  Neither of us could get back to sleep, so we may as well get some work done.  Being an early riser is a trait Theo and I share.  We have a lot of weekend mornings together while Eli and daddy sleep in.  Unfortunately, Theo also seems to be taking after me in the temper department (without the redhead excuse), in his running abilities (or lack of), and in his dedication to his "shows".  But, at least he's also taking after me in his quick math abilities, which should be helpful since he still professes the want to be a builder when he grows up (hence the two hundred and forty nine piece Lego set he needs almost no assistance with).  It made my heart sing a little when he got his first report card and his highest "grade" is in mathematics.

 And here are some fun numbers while we're talking math.  Theodore is twice as old as Eli, and twelve times as old as Thomas.  He is 1/3 of the way to college (!!).  He's now been with me more than 1/5 of my life.  Since he is in a mixed age class of 5 to 7 year olds, he isn't the largest always but is a sturdy 48 inches and 60+lbs.  He is still in size 1 shoes, so at least his feet took a break from growing.  He isn't the most athletic kid (like his parents), so he dreams of having the speed of a cheetah, (65 mph).

Theo is officially a big boy now.  All the softness to his chubby baby face is gone, as is the softness to his personality. I can describe it best by saying he has sharp edges now.  It's not so much that he is headstrong as much as it is that he is always in his own little world. And being told to alter his world (turn off a favorite show, asked to slow down, and being told he can't do things) causes immediate little fits of anger.  And add a little brother who has his own ideas and contributions while they are playing and there is a lot of bickering between the the two.  I say that it is easier to have the 6 month old and 3 year old both, than to have Theodore.  It's like the temperature of the house raises several degrees every time when he comes home from school and my blood pressure increases.  He is just a bit of a fireball to have around.

But when it's just him (and electronics aren't around), he's still a pretty great kid.  He seems to be navigating school well, and doesn't consider himself one of the "bad kids".  Most days he says are "pretty good".  Packing or buying lunch is a pretty important part of his day.  He gets very excited to pick out new library books, and likes art as well.  He would rather learn science and nature info all day, rather than learning to read and write (though he is excited for first grade, when they only have to use one finger space when writing instead of two), so most of his favorite shows and Kindle apps help with this.  He was recently assigned to study an animal and make a diorama for school, so he's been researching the cheetah.  We ended up designing his birthday party around cheetahs, giving him a cheetah cake and visiting the zoo for the day with both his grandmas, Aunt Nae Nae and grandpa.  Luckily, they were out, and he even got to watch a cheetah gnaw on a carcass as the zoo has began feeding the lions and cheetahs carcasses.  Watching the lionesses really go after theirs was pretty neat.  And Theodore was kind not to mention that that napkins and plates I found were actually leopard spots, and not cheetah.  The things I've had to learn since having all boys...

*Sorry so late... took a while to get the photos on here.*

Teeth Update:  2 gone (Feb. 17)

Minions Know How to Party!

My son has been into minions for quite a while now (I think he saw part of the movie at a friends house, and then started asking to rent it from Redbox) so after being given several options for a do-able birthday party in snowy February, he decided on having a movie party featuring Despicable Me.  Which was kind of great because that movie has been around for a while that there are a ton of ideas out there already and it was fairly easy to put together.  Frankly, themed birthday parties are one of those things I never wanted to do as a parent, but I had to admit it turned out really cute.  And sometimes those things I vowed against five years ago just end up happening.

Theo doesn't really have a lot of favorite friends at school, but will pretty much play with everyone so we went ahead and invited the whole class and were glad for the ones who could come.  He kept saying he wanted to take cupcakes to anyone who couldn't make it, but I convinced him that we would send rice krispie treats to school instead (since the cupcakes had a tiny piece of peanut butter for the iris).  We even got to invite a few last minute church friends when they ended up calling a too-cold-to-go-to-school day, which meant the kids in our town went to school for one day the entire week.  And it was a two-hour delay.  Don't get me started on that though.

Decorations:
My husband used some table cloths, construction paper, and foil to make a door minion.  Cutest thing ever, and I can't get myself to take it down.

Balloons, crate paper, and this simple minion centerpiece rounded out the decorations.

Games:
After watching the movie, and again after eating lunch, we played a few games.

I used a few pieces of felt to sew together Gru's scarf so we could play "Gru Says" (like Simon Says).  We told the rest of the kids to act like Minions, and whoever was wearing the scarf got to be Gru.  In my experience, kids at this age can't get enough of this game.

 The most popular game though was set up like a carnival game in the movie.  We placed a print-off of a spaceship (from here) that we put a stiff backing and a toilet paper roll weighted with quarters to hold it upright on top of a stack of cups.  The kids had three chances to knock over the space ship with a birdie.

I didn't get a full size minion put together, but impromptly had Brian draw a large minion on our chalkboard and used it to play pin the goggles on the Minion.  Always a fun game with little ones.

Photo Op:  The kids enjoyed posing in the "box of shame".

Food:  I kept it simple here, and just did pizza, carrots, and strawberries.  And juice boxes.  But there are some really great minion themed food out there.  We did make these bags to serve popcorn out of during the movie.

 Favor Bags:  I had a little too much fun putting these together, but I have always had a giving love language.  We paired a minion bracelet bead kit, some runts (minions love bananas, if you didn't know), a glow stick, Despicable Me fruit snacks, and slinky in a cute bag.  I used this site to print off the eyes and g's that I used in most of the crafts.

Cake:  I looked at so many designs on pinterest, but thought this one was the most do-able for us.  I made them all on my own, and thought they turned out pretty good (though half the kids just ate the frosting and marshmallows off the top).

For his full-size birthday cake, to have on his actual birthday, Brian didn't need any of my pinterest finds, as he made this on his own.  It was too precious, and Theo was very excited for his minion cake.

 And, there you have it.  Our simple version of a minion party, that was just what my five year old wanted (or so he stated, several times).

Other helpful links:
Invitations
Popcorn Boxes
Thank You Cards

Or check-out my pinterest board