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...

Three Year Old Train Birthday Cake

And because my hubby did such a good job with this cake, it is getting it's own post.

We vacillated between a rocket cake and a train cake for a while, but as Elijah was turning increasingly back to trains we decided that would be the birthday cake idea for the year.  And, it was a rough one.  But, eventually my husband turned out this awesome (and tasty) train cake for our three-year-old.

He was pretty excited, and didn't even critique it for missing some features of an engine!!

We planned to go on a train ride for Eli's birthday at a local park again, but had no luck.  It rained on his birthday, and the train broke down right after we got to the park when we tried the following day.  He actually didn't cry over this, but he did cry on his birthday when he had to leave the model train exhibit that was we found set up in the local library as a back-up activity due to the rain.  Granted, he were pretty tired, but it's amazing how much he loves trains.
 

Summer/Before Baby Bucket List Update: Burke Lake Park

I'm feeling a bit of mommy guilt lately.  I had big plans for this summer.  Big.  But, I have really been falling off for the last few weeks and didn't end up getting a lot done.  With this being Theodore's last summer before he starts school full-time (why can't kindergarten be half-day like it used to!) and the possibility of this being our last summer in the DC area since Brian is only on a three year contract, it makes me feel even worse we didn't get to explore more.  But I know I shouldn't feel that badly since my boys really don't expect that much out of summer.  The sandbox, sprinkler, and tiny pool are enough for them at this age.  And throw in the cardboard rocket ship and castle that daddy made to play inside when it's too hot or rainy out and they are all set.  But I still like to get us out and about and make memories with them that extend past our house.  When I wrote a bucket list at the beginning of the summer their requests were as follows:

Elijah:

"Stay at playground all day."
And when pressed for more ideas, "Go to another playground."

He is awfully easy to please.  Luckily we had a bunch of play dates with MOPS and our outdoor art playgroup.  And as long as I had some shade or we went early enough, I was able to handle the heat and we got in a lot of playground time.

Theo:

"Ride the subway into DC and go to the plane and rocket museum.

Look for rocks to add to my rock collection.

Visit Indiana."

Not sure we rode the subway recently, but otherwise I did get his requests accomplished as well.  He also amassed a large stick collection.

My list was a little longer, with new museums and beaches and library programs and picking fresh fruit and splash parks and zoo visits... and in the end we did get a little bit done off my list (especially eating lots of corn-on-the-cob and strawberry shortcake), but not nearly as much as I would have liked.  One thing we did accomplish yesterday, while celebrating Elijah's-last-week-as-the-youngest was a visit to Burke Lake Park in Fairfax County.

I can't believe it has taken us this long to visit Burke Lake Park.  This county park is located fairly close to us and packed with activities, from mini-golf to riding a miniature train.  And as much as my boys have been obsessed with trains (side note-you can get the Caldecott award winning book "Locomotive" on DVD once you are over reading the very long story nightly), I can't believe we haven't been here before!  And I've got a feeling we're going to end up here again on Elijah's birthday in just a few weeks.

Details:
Admission:  $10 per car for out-of-county on summer weekends, free on weekdays
Train ride:  $2.75 each for anyone 2 and over.  The ride lasted a good 10 minutes and was worth it.

 They stayed around and asked the conductor all sorts of questions afterwards.  The engine was aptly named the same as my home county, the Huntington.

Carousel:  $2.00 each for anyone 2 and over.

 

*I could have saved $2 and let them ride the carousel by themselves.  Elijah chose one of the stationary tiny horses and did not need my help staying on.  And Theodore climbed up his horse all on his own.  First carousel they haven't needed help on.

Ice Cream Parlor:  check website for hours, about $3 for a large one-scoop cone of Hershey ice cream (I could have just grabbed another cone from home and had the boys share, it was a lot of ice cream!)

Other activities:  disk golf, trail walking, miniature golf, camping, playgrounds, boat rentals, fishing orienteering, and a 4.7 mile fitness course (my goal is to be able to run it in a few months)

And, of course we played on one of the three playgrounds as well.  A pretty perfect morning for my two little guys.  I wished they would stay this easy to please forever!

Christmas Trains in the City (DC)

My little one is now almost as obsessed with his older brother when it comes to "choo choos".  One of his first words was caboose, he'll always remind you that a tender is hot, and he'll notice every Thomas object that passes him by (backpacks, items on shelves, shoes, etc).  He's demanding choo choo books at night despite our Christmas book theme, and often falls asleep with a train book open on his lap.

So Elijah's especially excited that trains are so entangled with the Christmas holiday.  I wonder how these two things got so mixed up to begin with, but we don't question it around here we just try to enjoy it.  We decided to wait until Brian was off work to head into D.C. to see several train exhibits last Saturday.  Our itenerary:

We took advantage of the free parking metro stations always offer on the weekends, and decide to park and ride the train into the city.  Elijah was pretty excited the whole way:

We needed to get lunch pretty soon, so we started off by checking out Union Station's display.  As far as I've ever found, they only have one set up, but it's a nice one.  And there are plenty of places to eat or even shop nearby if you've still got some gifts to buy.

Next up, we jumped back onto the subway and took it a few stops to the Metro Center station and walked on to the area between the White House and the Washington Monument, known as the Ellipse.  Here you can view the White House's outside holiday decorations, the National Christmas Tree, and lots and lots of trains.  This is probably the most trains I have ever found in one location.  There are also the 50+ trees for each state and territory, adorned with specially made ornaments reflecting each of the states.  Elijah, unbelievably, chose this time to take a nap that he would not be woken up from.  He missed lots of trains, but the rest of us got to enjoy the scene.

We then headed indoors to get some ice cream (my family never passes up ice cream, even in 40 degree weather) and then to warm up in the trains exhibit of the National American history museum.  I've wrote about that exhibit before, here.

Finally, we walked on across the National Mall to the other end to find the U.S. Botanical Gardens.  There was actually a pretty substantial line to get in the train exhibit, but it moved pretty quickly.  The exhibit this year featured different lighthouses all made of plant materials, as well as other landmark buildings.  The exhibit was lit with colorful lighting, and was very magical and enjoyable for kids as well as adults.  We made it through just as the museum was closing.

We then hopped back on the metro at Le'Enfant Station, and headed out.  It was a great day with the boys, and now we are all anxious to head out for Christmas!

Theodore's Reading List: Age 4, Train Edition

Theo recently picked the book, "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go" by Richard Scarry to take to show-and-tell as his favorite book.  Since I'm almost due for his annual book list, I decided I would limit it to just his favorite train books for this one.  It's harder to tell his favorites because he likes a variety of books now.  Eli however just started into the phase where he wants every book repeated over and over again,  so he has filled that vacancy.

Some of our favorite train books include:

Thomas the Tank Engine Story Collection, by the Rev. W. Awdry.   Though Theo has several Thomas books (some more interactive than others) this is the mother of all Thomas books.  This collection contains over 500 pages of the originals stories.  It has been read nightly for months at a time, and has been well loved.  We're going to need to find a way to rebind it soon.

The Turkey Train, by Steve Metzger.  We bought this one last fall, and have been enjoying it ever since.  It's a great little rhyming story about turkeys on a trip to Maine.  I was surprised to read that their starting destination was Ft. Wayne, the "big city" near my hometown, so I liked the book even more.  

Locomotive, by Brian Floca.  I picked up this one to add to my Caldecott collection.  It is quite wordy for a four year old, but Theo has never been bothered by a long story.  He said his favorite part of this one is all the sounds the train makes as it crosses the country.  It's got quite a bit of information about how the locomotive helped the country grow.

Freight Train, by Donald Crews.  Another Caldecott that falls in the train genre, this is a beautiful book.  The simple story about a train going across tracks, with all the cars identified by color and type.

How to Train a Train, by James Carter Eaton.  Theo gets a kick out of this story, that is a handbook for how to get a train to be your pet.

I Love Trains, by Philemon Sturges.  I picked this one up at the museum last weekend.  It's a pretty simple story about a boy waiting for his father to come home on a caboose.  My favorite part though, were the additional illustrations in the book covers that label the different kinds of cars and tells you what each is used for.

Choo Choo, by Virginia Lee Burton.  This is the story of a little engine who ran away, written by one of our favorite "vintage" authors.  The book was written in 1937 but is still relevant today.  Though black and white, the illustrations still capture the boys attentions.

Trains, by Byron Barton.  This simple book was pulled out by the librarian when Theo asked for help finding the train books.  Though he is fine talking to strangers on the street, he always becomes shy when talking to librarians.  But, he loved going around with her and pulling out all the train books she could find.  This one would be best as a little beginner board book.

And this concludes my train posts, see our trip to B&O Museum for Thomas's Day Out and our recommendation for a train heavy exhibit at the American History Museum if you missed the other two posts in this series.  

Thomas's Day Out: B&O Museum

2nd Birthday, getting Charlie

When I started writing this post, I decided to research exactly when it was that my child became obsessed with Thomas.  I have to blame it on myself a little, because it was for his second birthday that I randomly decided to throw a Charlie engine into his gift bag.  I think I couldn't find a basic non-brand train, so I picked up Charlie, not wanting to get Thomas since I considered it so commercialized. Haha.

When he became a big brother six months later, we got him his first set of train tracks from Ikea, and since then he has stockpiled a couple more sets, trestle additions, and many more engines.  I think he has a couple Thomases, Percy, Gordon, Toby, Emily, Ferdinand, Dash/Bash, Rocky, Charlie and Spencer.  He also has a turntable, a Cranky Crane, a steamworks, and a spiral run.

3rd Birthday

I thought his Thomas obsessions had peaked around his third birthday, but we're now two months past his fourth birthday and he is still trying to put new engines on my grocery list every time I ask him if he needs anything and he is even starting to use gift money to pick out his own trains.
He creates elaborate tracks and sets in motion epic "stories" using specific engines (but not the Chuggington engines, they aren't allowed to be played with at the same time) and has all sorts of rules for how to play with the trains.  I think it blew his mind the first time he saw there was actually a Thomas show on PBS, because he had been introduced to the books first.  He got to see several of the movies when I was busy taking care of newborn Eli and recovering from my c-section, and was so excited when we moved here and he found out it is on the local PBS station every weekday (luckily during school hours though, so he only gets to see it two days a week).  He saw his triplet cousins be Thomas, Percy, and James for Halloween back when they were almost four, and he was so excited about it.  However, it's not quite a costume I could make from scratch, so I've got six months to hope he forgets that's what he wants to be this Halloween.

4th Birthday

Due to his continual nightly reading of the original Thomas series for the last year, I don't think there is a kid out there that knows more about the original storyline as my son.  So, we decided we would make the trek up to Baltimore and share our son's excitement for his favorite train by buying tickets to the B&O Museum's Day Out With Thomas. 

Though we didn't get to spend as long as we would have liked there because of his late soccer game, it was definitely a great trip to take him on. The museum itself is housed in a huge roundhouse that is gorgeous. I was surprised by just how many trains they had, some inside and some out.  Several of the inside ones you could climb aboard.  Theo of course loved playing at all the different train tables with some of the trains he doesn't have. But he would not say hi to Sir Topham Hat.  

When we finally headed outside we were surprised by just how much more there was outside. Though there were mazes, tattoo stations, and rides, Theo pretty  much just wanted to watch the miniature trains go around their tracks.

 Theo knew we were going to take a train ride when I showed him the tickets and told him we had to get to the platform,  but he had no idea that a real Thomas engine would be pulling us.  He was definitely surprised when Thomas pulled up. When we asked what he thought of Thomas later he said,  "He thought we were on the Island of Sodor."  

The ride itself was a pretty typical train ride. The only downside was that it was in inner city Baltimore which is not exactly picturesque. But the kids are not bothered by that. Theo was excited when the conductor yelled all aboard and later came by to punch our tickets.  

All in all it was a great day. Both boys enjoyed themselves. I was surprised that it actually did not feel very crowded.  We did have one of the last train rides so that may have helped.  And the museum itself would definitely be worth the trip even without Thomas there.