Sunday, August 23, 2009

reader question of the week #1

reader question of the week #1:

"I am planning a third birthday for my son in October. I am looking for gorgeous ideas for invites, favors and decor...everything seems to be Thomas the Tank engine themed and I desperately want some 'generic' train-themed ideas...Help! Thanks! -Jane"

9 comments:

breanna said...

Favors: conductors hat and wooden train whistles. I have seen both items at the dollar tree and the dollar spot at target on several occasions.

Cake: Williams & Sanoma sells an adorable train cake pan with their holiday collection. Each child would recieve his own train car! My kids LOVE to make and eat the train cake!

Activity: michael's/hobby lobby usually carries a lot of unfinished wood projects. Each child could paint and decorate his own train car.

Erin {pughs' news} said...

I taped train tracks down the middle of a bright blue vinyl tablecloth. I put the snacks (veggies, fruit, cheese, pickles, goldfish, etc) in rectangular containers and lined them up along the tracks. There was an engine at one end of the table and a caboose at the other. Simple, but very cute.

Also drew a large engine and the kids played "pin the conductor on the train". They thought it was hilarious!

The Blogmistress said...

Crazy! I was checking here last week to see if you had any ideas for a "classy" train party....

Missy said...

i had a train party for my son's 1st birthday. i also had the same problem - how to avoid thomas.


i did the wooden train whistles from trainparty.com wrapped in a red bandana and tied with twine for favors (i love me some jute twine!)


sandwiches cut in half as train cars with ritz bitz wheels around a train track drawn on table cover (brown mailing paper), broccoli and cauliflower bushes, celery and carrot log piles (and spinach dip for dipping them in)


the hubby was in charge of train tracks made out of electrical tape that went across the dining room floor


guests wore red bandanas and jeans and plaid!


i'll have to do a post on my blog with some pictures of the food landscape and train cake..

Missy said...

put up a post with details from my son's train party:
http://fakecrab.blogspot.com/2009/08/train-party.html
this was a party on a tight budget!

Rooftop PTA said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rooftop PTA said...

I just threw my son's 2nd birthday a few weeks ago with a train theme.

You can see some photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=130929&id=787887784&l=3518bbc93d

For favors we gave conductor hats, red scarves, a wooden whistle, a train lollypop and some temporary tattoos wich I bought from Oriental Trading Company. I put in all in a customzied tote bag with each kid's inital

Belly Feathers said...

You have to see this DIY train centerpiece! It think it or something similar would be perfect for your party. http://albums.phanfare.com/5611560/2520124#imageID=41554732

Nina Moon said...

I threw a train party for my 4yo last month and was inspired by some of the ideas here. The train cake pan was WONDERFUL. I also made train shaped sugar cookies as favors and bought cardboard train cases to put them in, along with a train whistle, some stickers and a wooden train from the $1 bin at Target. Here are the results:

http://www.sweetdisarray.com/blog/2009/12/15/train-party.html
http://www.sweetdisarray.com/blog/2009/12/21/train-party-the-food.html