A birthday trip to the North Pole

Ray says I go overboard doing Sawyer's birthday parties. And I totally do. I try to keep it in check but I get so many fun ideas that I have a hard time reining myself in. Pinterest doesn't help; I found a dozen cute things there that I wanted to make for Christmas.

All Sawyer wanted was another train cake, so I decided to smash up trains and Christmas and host a Train ride to the North Pole party. Several grown-up friends were coming and a few kids Sawyer's age. I spent a good week working on stuff for the party, and while it can be exhausting, I really like doing it all. I like making things and decorating. The cleaning, I could live without though.

And this year, I had a very heavy heart as I baked Sawyer's train cake on his actually birthday, the night before the party, after the horrific school shooting that killed 26 people in Connecticut. It was hard to be in a party mood after the news of that, especially thinking about all the adorable boys and girls who'd never get another birthday.

But we soldiered on and got the house and food ready for guests. It ended up being a smaller crowd that we'd planned for, as both of Sawyer's buddies from school had to cancel. But we still had fun.


My North Pole "red carpet"


The North Pole sign that required TWO trips to the Dollar Store to finish (long story)


The reindeer food bar (stolen from a blog I read)






The bar had bread crumbs (Gluten free for Comet), oats (a staple of reindeer diets), raisins (Not too many. Prancer doesn't like them), cocoa (Blitzen's favorite), red glitter (to attract the reindeer from the sky), and magic flying powder. You sprinkle it on your lawn on Christmas Eve to give the reindeer a snack.


There was a gingerbread cookie decorating station.


Jars of "snow" with candles


There were also snowflakes hanging everywhere, and my collection of stuffed snowmen out in the dining room. (I wanted to make it look as Christmasy/wintry as possible.)


We even had snow-chilled milk. Love these straws!


Sawyer greeted his guests with hugs (and occasionally kisses).




They spent most of the party playing with his new trains. They didn't care much about all the activities I'd planned.  


I forced encouraged them to make reindeer food.


Which was going pretty well ...


Until Sawyer decided to help himself to the cocoa powder. Apparently, it's not only Blitzen's favorite.

 




I convinced my niece Peyton to help me decorate a cookie. 


The adults ended up liking the cookies more than the kids.



The kids watched a special video message to Sawyer from Santa Claus and got to look around the North Pole. (Thanks, Portable North Pole)


Then we had train cake and sang "Happy Birthday!" I will never forget the look on Sawyer's face when everyone started singing. It was sheer joy of "Wow, they're all singing to ME." Then it became this face of "Can't y'all hurry up?" So sad the first face wasn't caught on camera.


He blew out the candles.


And we chopped the train up! All Sawyer cared about was the "fruit" ... the Runts candy in the back car. He barely ate any cake. (We caught him in the kitchen several times before we did the cake, trying to sneak candy off the train.)


Everyone enjoyed the cake, especially the candy parts. The engine was chocolate cake, and the cars were yellow cake dyed red and blue.


Peyton gave Sawyer the special birthday present she picked out ... a Thomas pillow. I think he loves it.  

Unfortunately, we had to rush everyone out the door because we had a train to catch ... Part 2 of Sawyer's special birthday celebration.