Thomas the Train Party

Good Monday morning!

My Showcase Pic is a picture of Austin and my nephew, Bradley, Christmas morning. I remember when they really looked like that when they opened their gifts (and they weren't faking)!

I've added Christmas pictures to the Gallery over the weekend, and I'll be adding tea pictures, etc. the rest of the week.

Christmas Card Count - Hasn't changed... yet.

Readership Count - 118... A little low, but I'm thinking the holidays played a big part.

Things I highly recommend - Apples to Apples - A great game for the family; Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler - A great movie for the family (I never thought I'd be recommending an Adam Sandler movie for the kids); and Digital Picture Frames - So much fun!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. It's amazing to me the preparation time that goes into making a wonderful Christmas for your family, and within seconds (it seems) it's over for another year. It is truly an amazing season though. My only New Year's Resolution for 2009 will be to remain aware of the needs of others, and focus the time and effort I spend on Christmas for my family all year long... not just a 25-day period once a year. Just think if we put the energy, effort, love, time and commitment into making many, many days in 2009 as special and memorable as we try to make Christmas Day. We couldn't do it every day... we'd kill ourselves! But maybe we could get rid of some things that are cluttering up our lives to make more time for the really important people... our families. Maybe we could take the time to "be still" and listen and know God more in 2009. As always, easier said than done, but I like this resolution better than the "weight" thing or the "money" thing or the "laundry" thing or the "stop smoking cigars" thing (I'm kidding, I'm kidding!).

Our Day After Christmas Movie (Bedtime Stories) was a lot of fun. It was a little young for Austin and Joshua, but I've found that continually giving them two pound tubs of buttered popcorn pretty much makes any movie good. They were good sports, and they said it was a pretty good movie. Roxie loved it, so I would definitely recommend it for the 12 and under crowd.

The Pita Stop, our Lebanese restaurant pick for the night, got four out of five Faulkner stars. Josh declared it tasteless... everything from the beef kabob to the humus. Everyone tried baklava and liked it, and even though he ate a bite of the baklava, Josh ordered the plain cheesecake and declared it delicious. (Thank goodness!)

Saturday morning was a treat for me. I met old friends at Klingler's Bakery in Vestavia. Alesia lives out of state, and even though Celeste and I live only 30 or 40 minutes apart, we see each other once a year at Christmas. We stayed and talked as hard as we could for three hours about everything, and I brought an album of old pictures from 1988 to 1992. Boy, did we look good! Kids really take it out of you, don't they?

Roxie and I then went shopping for bargains, and Mikie and the boys spent the afternoon in the woods hunting. Roxie and I had better luck than they did. We found a few bargains... they came home without venison.

That pretty much covers our Christmas weekend. I have nine rolls of film and 352 pictures being processed off the digital camera. I've done worse, but I've done better, too!

I forgot to mention I would be going out of town later on today. This is our tenth Christmas Tea and we're celebrating in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Seven of us will spend the night in a beautiful (I hope) bed and breakfast tonight, and tomorrow we'll go to the English Rose Tea Room. (I know this is a good tea room because we ate there at a Church Conference many, many years ago.) So, I said all that to say I will NOT post Tuesday, December 30, but I'll be back on Wednesday, December 31. I will have a Recipe AND a Seasonal Tradition Wednesday... so we don't get behind.

Now, for our party of the week.

Thomas The Train Party (3 to 5 Year-Old Boys)

When dealing with train-loving toddlers and preschoolers, less is more. Instead of having a two hour party, 90 minutes will do. The perfect number for this party is five or six, but if you've got everything ready and you're very organized, you can add one or two. You will need to keep things on schedule and moving. You do not want a lapse of time between activities or you will lose control. Once you lose control with this age group, it is very hard to get it back! You will also want three "mom" helpers for this party. (One to help with games; one to help with crowd control; and one to be taking pictures/video.)

Schedule:

12:50 - 1:05
Thomas the Train color sheet and/or Thomas the Train train set

1:05 - 1:20
Thomas the Train Rides

1:20 - 1:35
Thomas the Train Smoke Toss

1:35 - 1:50
Thomas the Train Guess What's Missing Game

1:50 - 2:00
Cake Time

2:00 - 2:15
Gift Time

If you have a Thomas the Train train set, have it ready for the boys to play with as they arrive. If not, have Thomas the Train color sheets and crayons ready to go. The boys should color and/or play with the train set until everyone arrives.

(NOTE: Never wait over five minutes for latecomers before you start the party. If the party starts at 1:00, the activities need to start by 1:05. Latecomers can join in when they arrive.)

Now it is time for the Thomas the Train Ride. You may not believe it, but this is the hit of the party. Put blankets in a wheelbarrow. Use one of your Thomas the Train paper plates and tape it to the front of the wheelbarrow. Put two or three of the boys in the wheelbarrow and ride them around the yard, up and down the driveway and/or street. (When I helped a friend with this party, she had a wooden train whistle she had bought at Cracker Barrel, and I ran behind the wheelbarrow blowing the train whistle. The kids loved it... and it made for some hilarious video footage later on!) After everyone has had a ride, move on to the Thomas the Train Smoke Toss.

Have a double sheet and lightweight pillows in white pillow cases. The goal is to throw the pillows in the middle of the sheet and have the kids pop the sheet and bounce the pillows into three laundry baskets nearby. (Again, tape a Thomas the Train paper plate to the front of each of the baskets.) Make one laundry basket close by and easy. Put the second one a little further away, and the third even further away. You are trying to get at least one puff of smoke (a/k/a pillow) into each of the three baskets. There is no win or lose. If you have four or five pillows, it will take about 15 minutes to try to get them all in the laundry baskets. (This also wears them out!) Now, on to the Thomas the Train Guess What's Missing Game.

Have eight to ten Thomas the Train pieces. If you don't have that many pieces, you can use tools an engineer would use to work on a train (hammer, screwdriver, wrench, etc.). Put all the pieces on a towel spread out on the floor in front of you. Have all the kids sit across from you and let them look at (but not touch) the items. Cover the items with a second towel. Reach your hand under the towel, and remove one item... just slide it under your leg. Remove the cover towel and see which child notices which item is missing first. Repeat the game for 10 to 15 minutes.

Now it is time for cake. The cake can be bought at a local Wal-Mart, or you can make your own using clean Thomas the Train pieces (these can be washed and given to the birthday boy after the party) on a sheet cake with white icing. Again, with this age group, using pre-made ice cream cups and chilled juice boxes is the way to go. Fast set up and easy clean up.

For gift opening, you will want to have a place where you have taped Thomas the Train plates onto the floor in a large semi-circle with each child's name written on it. The child sits on his plate. The birthday child should be sitting in a folding chair and not on the floor. Tell each child that you will call on the quietest one to bring the gift they brought up to the birthday child. Also, remind the children if they sit on their plate while the gifts are being open, they will get a surprise to put in their goodie bag (a piece of candy is fine). They then need to sit down on their plate before the birthday child opens the gift. With the kids sitting this way, it enables you to get clear pictures of the birthday boy opening his presents. When a gift is opened, have a helper mom put the gift in a large bag. When all the gifts are open, have the helper mom quickly take the gifts to your bedroom and close the door. This will prevent the gifts from being broken, pieces lost, etc., etc.

(NOTE: YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE BIRTHDAY CHILD FOR THIS. YOU HAVE TO LET HIM KNOW WHY THE PRESENTS ARE BEING TAKEN OUT OF THE ROOM, AND WHERE THEY ARE GOING TO BE. IF HE ISN'T PREPARED, BEWARE! THERE WILL BE A MAJOR MELTDOWN!)

There will probably be 10 to 15 minutes left after you open gifts. To distract the kids from the gifts being taken into another room, ask them if they want another Thomas the Train Ride, or if they would like to play the Thomas the Train Smoke Toss game again. (They will probably all want to ride.)

As the moms pick them up, give them their goodie bags and take a picture of them beside the birthday boy.

The following are items you can put into the goodie bag:

1. Any Thomas the Train party favors from Wal-Mart or your local party store

2. Pack of sugarless gum (Tell the moms gum is in the bag.)

3. Wooden train whistles (This depends on price and availability.)

4. A Thomas the Train napkin for the mom to pack in the child's lunchbox the next day (write the party verse, Proverbs 22:6, on each napkin)

5. Your child's favorite candy (Tell the other children this is your child's favorite candy and every time they eat this candy, please remember your child and the fun time they spent together.)

Instead of a devotion during this party, when you say the blessing at Cake Time, read the verse Proverbs 22:6, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." The children will not totally understand the verse, but ask God's blessing on each child by name, and pray that he will never turn from God. Thank God for that child's friendship and a specific personality trait (ability to share, big smile, etc.) before ending with "Amen."

This is a fun party for little guys. It goes by very quickly, and you'll be surprised how much you can do in 90 minutes as opposed to the normal two hour party.

Have a great Monday. I'll be back on Wednesday, so I'll talk to you then!