Chugga Chugga Two Two

I’m baaaack!
So, H turned two, I’ve been really involved in our local Moms Demand Action group, and life has been crazy… but now I’m returning to the blogging world (and have lots to share with you)!  And as I know there’s really no need to explain myself, here is a party recap to start it off! 🥳

---

Invites

Last year we invited the entire extended family to H’s first birthday, but this year, he’s got his own little friend group, so we chose to invite people he plays with often. After lots of searching for the perfect one, I got this precious invite off of Zazzle. 🚂 I’ve never used them before, but it was super easy to create, edit, and send to all of H’s little friends.
​
Pinterest was the biggest inspiration for this party (including this handy party planning checklist), but I do love to put an extremely coordinated teacher spin on things. I used the Zazzle invite to create labels for each section of the party:

---

​Graffiti Station

After ordering from a completely fake website (and thankfully getting my money back… many thanks to PayPal!) I finally found this fantastic cardboard coloring train online from a place in England. Crayons (only the best kind) colored on it super well and all the kiddos loved crawling in and out of it. And we might have gotten more use post-party out of this train than we did at the actual party. (It’s more fun when it’s in a dangerous location) 🙃

---

​Engineer Designing

“Paint a Train” was probably more enjoyable for the older kids who came, but some of the little kiddos loved painting too. I really wanted these trains from Oriental Trading but as they were out of stock for the past year (of course not anymore), I ended up buying all of the wooden trains that Hobby Lobby had. I had disposable bibs to protect clothes and as far as I know, miraculously, no one’s clothes got ruined. H loves the train I set aside for him to paint, but of course he was too busy at the party.. maybe I’ll pull it back out soon. Ha

---

​Blow Some Steam

This was the biggest hit for the little kids. I mean, what child does not like bubbles?? (Or adult, for that matter!) I would not recommend that bubble machine or the bubble solution, but I will note that we also brought H’s plastic slide from home and that + bubbles was perfection. 😂

---

​Fueling Station 

Food is always my favorite part of a party — and apparently it’s H’s favorite too. 😂 I used bread tins to create train cars, taped on “wheels,” and lined them up behind H’s toy train on a train track table runner. Yes, I saw this idea on Pinterest and yes, I am so proud of how it turned out!! I also came across cute ideas of themed food (“Chew Chew”) for the cars like pretzels as “lumber”, chocolate as “coal,” animal crackers as “livestock,” but in the end, we just went with H and my top snack (dairy-free, of course!) choices, and of course cookies for dessert. For “wet your whistle” we had cokes and capri suns (because you’re bound to leave something at home… water was this event’s choice to be forgotten). I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to pull H away from the snacks, UNTIL…

---

​TRAIN RIDES

To top it all off, we hired a “trackless train” to drive everyone around. When the train drove around the corner, dinging the bell, all the kids FROZE. It was the best moment of the whole day. 😂 H’s face says it all. We held the party at one of H’s favorite locations (and actually behind where we got married!) with lots of old trains parked and available to explore — a perfect spot to ride around.

It was H’s favorite day ever, I think. At least until he had to take a nap instead of play with his new toys. 🤪 Oh toddlerhood. I can’t believe my baby is TWO!