I warn you, you might experience choo choo overload, here. Or, just a whole lot of Little Man cuteness. Cal’s 2nd birthday was such a success, and seeing him enjoy every bit of it was just so special. Being the second born, he tends to take backseat to his sister’s activities, so having a day […]
Got plans to throw a Thomas the Train birthday bash? Our how-to party guide will keep you on the right track.
This Thomas the Train birthday party for L was probably one of my favorites. This post has been on my to do list for way to long now, I’m excited to share the details of the party. Hopefully if you’re...Read More
Being a mother would you like to teach your child about trains in the most fun way possible? Then, definitely try these free printable train coloring pages.
Free printable, train car patterns, clipart, stencils, and templates. Patterns include: train and railroad patterns, caboose, locomotive, box car, flat
This free train craft for kids is the perfect activity to let your students get creative. Whether it's part of a Christmas train.. or a zoo train.. Or any theme that your students can dream up.. This activity is a great addition to your craft activities. What You Need Paper Printer Scissors Glue Free Craft
These journeys are some of the most scenic in the world...
I know its been years (so sad) since I last wrote in my blog but I decided that this would be the year I stick to it. (We'll see how long it lasts, lol). I couldn't decide where to start. Four years is a long time to catch up on. What should I post first. After many a thought I came to the conclusion I should start with parties. Everyone loves a party. I've had 4 years of birthday parties to talk about. I've grown to love the stress and creativeness of planning a party on a shoe string budget. Don't get me wrong I'd love to spend the money my imagination would prefer, but lets face it we just can't. I mean I think anyone can have a beautiful party with a limitless budget. But its the real challenge of having a memorable blast on next to nothing... So my quest begins The Goob's first birthday party was your normal minimal decorated backyard party with piñata. We had just moved back to NY from NC a few weeks prior. Steve almost out of the Marines. We were living at my in-laws. So it was difficult to pull anything together. His second birthday was better. It was my first real children's party to plan. I had just taken wilton course 1 in cake decorating. And Goobie loved trains. I had my theme. I remind you this was before I found my beloved pinterest. So I had no help. I made train ticket invitations on publisher. I printed them out on a heavy cardstock. Next came the crazy idea, cardboard train. My husband looked at me like I had lost my mind. But I convinced him of the sheer awesomeness of it. I dove for 2 weeks straight in the cardboard dumpster behind the local appliance store to find the right size boxes. Then I proceeded to cut, tape, and glue myself a train. Looking back I wish I had painted it instead of using just electrical tape. I did make it so the kids could crawl right threw the front of the train. The smoke was just some white party balloons. I set up a few tables in the backyard under a tent. I had streamers and balloons. I did red table cloths and put blue painters tape tracks down the middle of the table. I had bandanas and red and blue lanterns for my centerpieces. I made the confetti with a hole punch. I bought bandanas and train hats for all the kids. As for the cake... it was my first attempt at any cake besides a 13x9 never leave pan cake really. I wanted a mountain with a train. So I made a mountain with a tunnel with a wooden Thomas coming threw. I made a few paper trees for the top. It seems kind of simple now but it amazed me at the time. I did the whole thing in buttercream (I had yet to venture into the world of fondant). I also made cupcakes. I use the same train from the invitations and a few different punches to make the cupcake toppers. All and all everyone had a good time, especially the kids. Plus it started my love of all things party :)
Want to make a cardboard train for your kids or school? This has photos and step by step instructions so you can be successful.
Free printable, train car patterns, clipart, stencils, and templates. Patterns include: train and railroad patterns, caboose, locomotive, box car, flat
Throw the best train birthday party ever for your child! Find decorations, play activities, a cardboard train, favours and more!
Have a little one that loves trains? I do too! Today I'm sharing my son's second birthday party- it's a modern black and white train themed birthday party. I LOVE how the decor turned out and he loved all the trains. The black and white makes the train theme totally classy and modern, complete with wooden train tracks, train whistles and more.
Want to make a cardboard train for your kids or school? This has photos and step by step instructions so you can be successful.
Thomas the Train Coloring Pages can help children grow their love for trains and all of the places in the world. As Thomas travels, watch him see new places and meet new people. Did you know that Thomas has roots that go back all the...
We celebrated Arden’s birthday on Sunday. She absolutely loves trains right now, so naturally we did a trained-themed party for her. Luckily there’s a miniature train at a park close by, so that made things a little easier. It was also WAY more laid-back than her 1st birthday, which was admittedly, a little over-the-top 😉 Luckily it […]
As silly as it may sound, I LOVE working with cardboard. After moving fairly frequently in early childhood, I have definite fond memories of creating forts and other objects out of our used moving boxes, and I love watching kids' imaginations run free, both with the space of boxes themselves and also with what they can color/create themselves on the cardboard. With that in mind, for the past few years, I have tried to create a large-ish scale cardboard object for my kids' birthday parties. Thanks to my kids' varying interests, I usually have a unique theme or narrative to work with, and thanks to amazing neighbors and some dumb luck, I have been able to find ample large boxes to play with myself! For my son's second birthday party, I wanted to create a large scale train that would fit multiple children easily at one time but would be small enough to potentially bring inside after the party (we were imminently expecting a new baby, and I thought it would be good to give my older children a new play zone during the upheaval of the last couple of weeks of pregnancy and first few weeks of a new family member). Unfortunately, due to the nature of boxes, it's difficult to give an exact tutorial on how to build your own (it's rather unlikely that you find EXACTLY the same boxes that I did). That being said, here are my tips! What I used: 4 large-ish boxes (2 furniture boxes, wine cooler box, water heater box) 2 smaller boxes for the smoke stack (one narrower and long and the other more square-ish) Ram board tape OPTIONAL Fasteners Poster board Plastic caps (1) Decide how you would like your train to appear. A good rule of thumb for the engine is to have a square-ish box for the cab and a long, shorter box for the boiler. As for the other train cars, take a peak at some pictures of real trains and see what you can do with what you have (windows, doors, openings, etc). (2) When you've decided how you'd like to construct your train, I'd recommend dismantling your boxes and flipping them inside out (so that any markings appear on the inside. This will make your train appear more aesthetically pleasing on the outside. (3) When combining boxes, cut your openings slightly larger than necessary so that you can slide one box inside of another. Cut the edges of the inserted box and fold them into the outer box, taping them into place. (4) While not necessary, I decided to round the top of my engine piece. To do so, I used 2 pieces of poster board and covered them in ram board tape. I them arced them over my boiler box and taped them into place, stuffing old tape, newspaper, etc between the poster board and box to keep my desired shape. I then covered the front gap with an extra piece of cardboard and sealed it with ram board tape. (5) The smoke stack was something else that took a bit of time. I opened my smaller square-ish box, and cut down the edges of the flaps on one side to create a half-pyramid shape. I then taped this shape on top of my smaller narrow box and secured it to a hole I cut in the poster board boiler arc. (6) Originally, I had planned on merely taping/gluing the wheels to the engine, but then the first thing my son did when encountering the train was to try and work the wheels. Of course, they fell off, my son got upset, and I worked out a great solution: fasteners! I punched the fasteners through the wheels and secured them with ram board tape on the inside of the train. (7) The rest is adding windows and access points. A lot of that work can be done ahead of time, but remember that you may need to add more doors/windows/supports depending on how your kids interact with the train (and how sturdy you want it to be). For instance, I had intended on closing off the boiler section of the train, thinking that it would be dark enough that no one would want to explore inside. Boy was I wrong! The kids loved racing through the train as if it were one big tunnel. I also had to reinforce various aspects of my windows with more tape/cardboard. In my desire to make it look pretty, I compromised the integrity of one of the boxes under the wear and tear of even 2 kids under 5 (and we were anticipating almost a dozen children for the party), so I quickly reinforced some areas that were less sturdy. (8) Finally, after the dust settled from the party, and my kids had a chance to color the train extensively, I went ahead and added some buttons and knobs to the engine cab (and throughout) to add another layer of play to the train. To do this, I kept the circles and squares I punched from the boiler and center car as well as some old plastic caps. We decorated the cardboard pieces and, using the fasteners, installed our buttons and knobs. Save Save Save Save Save Save Save
This DIY Easy Barrel Train will delight young and old alike! It is sturdy, easy to make and fun to ride in. The kids love it!
Coloring page Thomas the Train Thomas the Train. On Kids-n-Fun you always find the newest and best coloring pages first!
If you were with us on Monday, I started sharing about my son’s 5th birthday party. If you missed the first part, be sure to stop here. Today, we are talking about the awesome obstacle course (yes, I’m biased). A child’s imagination is a wonderful thing and often under-used for a kids’ party. […]
Da Boyz interest jumps so fast it’s crazy. At the beginning of August, everything was TMNT – that’s all they could talk about and my wife and I started prepping for a TMNT party.…
Want to make a cardboard train for your kids or school? This has photos and step by step instructions so you can be successful.
