All aboard for a birthday party

Felt and fabric Happy Birthday banner I made

Most people who know me would say that I can go overboard with some things, once I get ideas in my head. I will admit that I probably went a little off the rails for Sawyer's 2nd birthday party and that he probably won't remember it. But it was fun for me to choose the theme and run with it and even more fun to see Sawyer's excitement over the party decor.

Over the summer, I had been thinking I might do Elmo for the party, even though I hate Elmo. Sawyer loves him, so I was going to do what parents have to do all the time ... accept the things their child loves. But this fall, out of nowhere, he got hooked on choo-choo trains. So I quickly decided that would be a better birthday party theme than that annoying red guy.

I scoured the Internet for train ideas and came up with a few of my own.

I made a train (with Engine No. 2, of course) to "carry" pictures of Sawyer from the past year.



I fashioned a few train crossing signs with foam board, markers and a little electrical tape for the sidewalk.



I lucked out to find a train calendar at the dollar store. I pulled out the pictures to use on the food table.



I found cute painted wooden train ornaments, so I cut out pictures of the other kids and glued them in the window to go on the goodie bags. I added some fun crayons, suckers, train stickers and mini-wooden train whistles (found by Grandmother!).





We decided to have the party at my parents' house so several friends there could come. In all, we had four 2-year-olds, and that was the perfect amount. There was a bit of initial shyness, but they warmed up and all got along well. We had a few minor squabbles over toys, but there were no meltdowns,  though it was about naptime for most of them.

The party itself was pretty low-key. We ate food: sausage balls, spinach dip, fruit and pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate and covered in sprinkles (or sparkles, as my niece called them).

Then Sawyer opened presents. Well, he opened maybe two. I opened the rest and tried to get him to show some interest in anything but the toy trains he got. He got some adorable stuff, all revolving around his loves right now: trains, cars, books and snowmen, including two musical Foffy Momans!








All the kids liked the cool workbench from Grandmother and Pops.

Finally, we did the cake. The cakes are like my personal challenge. Last year, I wanted to do something cool and different so I made a giant number 1 cake with Sawyer's name on it. It was rainbow colors inside.

This year, I had to try making a train. I'm not the Cake Boss, so it wasn't perfect. But it was cute, and that's what matters. I frosted it in different colors and added a smokestack filled with "smoke" (mini marshmallows). The cars were hauling bright candy. Sawyer liked it, even though he was too busy playing with his new toys to eat much of it.





The day was a huge success. It always makes me happy to be around so many people who love Sawyer. He has a great "village" to grow up in.