All Aboard the Birthday Express

Our little train lover just turned three, so we had no doubt about what the birthday party theme should be. Although Daniel really does love Thomas the Train, we felt like it would be a little too much, and with his (current) favorite color in mind, we created a great celebration! Daniel was thrilled, and it made us very happy, too.

Décor and Signage

For the colors – we used yellow, grey and dark grey. Once figuring out how to use the tables, I created the signage and most decorations with my Cricut Explore Air. I choose an engine silhouette I liked and used it for most decorations, including the birthday boy’s shirt.

The yellow banners are from target and Amazon, and I used black vinyl cut outs for the letters.

We used table number holders for the signs, and on every table we had Track Crossing sign with flashing lights and sounds - my son's favorite!!

The Birthday Boy shirt was made with Iron On material.

Kids Activities – Engineer’s Workshop and more

Since Daniel love crafts, I knew we’ll have at least two different craft projects for the kids. Each kid got a Melissa and Doug woodentrain decoration kit and a small train bank to paint (got it from the dollar store, sorry - no link). We also had lots of coloring pages, stamps, stickers and crayons.

On another station we had homemade cookie decoration. Using too much sprinkles and icing, the kids decorate really cute cookies! Check out this adorable cookie cutter.

We also had tattoos and a big train bounce house, which the kids likes.

Favors – Baggage Claim

I ordered these paper bags and decorated with vinyl cutouts. Each gift bag included engineer’s hat, bandana and whistle. Daniel helped with the favor bags, and when we talked about how we will give it to his friends, he asked that we’ll make one to our friends’ dog, Lana, so we went to Petco and he choose a few doggy treats. He was so happy about it. I can’t believe how amazing he is.

Food and Drinks – Dining Car and Coffee Station

Since we held the party at 10:30am, I knew we should include something nice for the parents to nosh while the kids are playing. We got Starbucks coffee, hot tea and hot chocolate with mini marshmallows, I baked Turkish delight cookies and chocolate snowball cookies and all adults were very happy.

Lunch was no brainer. I would never order pizzas, so I ordered from our favorite BBQ. We had mini sliders with chicken, turkey and beef brisket, fixings (lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions and green onions), potato salad, coleslaw and chips.

Plates and napkins – all matching the yellow and grey, with chevron and polka dot pattern.

Desserts and Sweets

Cake – I really wanted to make it myself, but since we had only 5 days from the moment we decided to celebrate, and a lot to do, we ended up ordering a cake from my friend. It was AMAZING! The look on Daniel’s face was worth it!