Thomas The Train Birthday Party

My wonderful son is turning 3!!!  

Because of his love for trains and Thomas, we selected to do a birthday theme all around Thomas the Train.  It's going to be a Train Party!!!

We have invited family and friends to come over to celebrate and play trains.

I've made lots of fun decorations (Choo Choo Snack Train, Thomas themed cupcake tower, banners, and more!)  To keep the kiddos entertained, we decided to let them play trains on the living room floor.....because that's what you do at train parties, right?

The past few years, I've always ordered a cake for the adults paired with a few cupcakes for the little ones.  So no cake this year, it was all cupcakes :)  Saved me a lot of money, too! 

We ordered half vanilla and chocolate.  White frosting with red and blue ribbons on top.  In the box, the cupcakes looked patriotic but once they were laid out on the table with the other stuff, they fit right in! Cupcakes were a great choice.  No one had to cut and serve the cake.  So much easier.

With cupcakes, comes a cupcake tower.  I found so many ideas online to add the cupcakes to your table with a Train party theme.  One idea I first considered was to lay out the train tracks on the table, then add the cupcakes as "cars" behind the engine.  But I found another website I came across, this mom made her own tower out of Styrofoam and other materials.  Loved the idea and went to my local hobby store to pick up the materials to make one myself!

For each base, I bought 3 circles, each one slightly smaller than the other. I covered the top with a patterned scrapbooking paper, cut to size.  I found some ribbon to cover the rim for all three circles. 

For the base, the top was an empty soup can , the middle was a another empty tin can that was slightly larger than the top, and then the 3 legs for the base was a white tube you would use to ship something like a blueprint, cut 8" inches tall.   The height gave me just enough room under the cupcake stand to place a Thomas the train on top of a bridge.    Then more cupcakes within the circle of train tracks that were laid out on the table.












On top of the cupcake stand, I added a card my Dad sent, another Thomas the Train, and a cupcake for the Birthday Boy with 3 blue candles.  Super cute!

The fun continued with the party favors.  Each kid received their treats that included a ready-to-paint wooden train engine found at my local hobby store, with other sweet treats such as chocolate foil wrapped gold coins (train fare). 

     












My local hobby store had more fun things to pick up.  I was on cloud 9 when I  discovered these small little buckets that where red on the out side and trimmed with blue on the handle and rim and blue on the inside!  A perfect match to the theme.  For "Train Smoke" I added mini marshmallows in one.  And the other, Twizzler candy as the "Train Tracks".     The labels were made using publisher.  Same style and font for the banners.  They were printed on white card stock at the local office printing store.  (you can even bring in your own cardstock to save a little, too).                                                         

\We cleared out the toys and set out all of our fun Thomas toys and puzzles that we've collected thus far.


                                                                                         




                                                                       

For the older kiddos, I set out some paint markers and let the kids design "paint" their own train engine.  The wooden train engine was part of the party favors.

Water Tower!













The snack train!  For the Coal Car - Oreos; Produce Car - Veggies; Animal Car - Animal Crackers; Log Car - Pretzel Rods.