Ace and Ben's Birthday Express

We celebrated the buddies' third birthday today by inviting our favorite little friends to a train party. Although today was unseasonably cold and windy and rainy, 30 of our little friends showed up, ready to have a good time.


We had a few fun stations set up for the kids. Everyone decorated their very own rice krispie treat train with icing and sprinkles. Ben traveled the tables, looking for left-behind treats, and helped himself when he found one. Ace just liked decorating his. Another fun station was a train bean bag toss. The kids could play as much as they wanted and decorated themselves with their train sticker prizes when they won.


Midway through the party, "Sophie", a 16 inch gauge 1/4 scale miniature train chugged along on the tracks next to our pavilion and picked us up for our special Birthday Party Express. It was amazing to see the joy on all 30 little faces as Sophie rolled to a stop just for us. We piled on and filled her to well over capacity and then enjoyed the scenic 1.3 mile ride. Ben and Ace "choo- choo'ed" and "whoo- whoo'ed" the whole way.

When we arrived back at the party (with the buddies yelling, "Hey, there's our party!"), the very nice conductor let all the kids take turns posing for pictures in the driver's seat.


After that, it was time to sing happy birthday (twice) and cut the cakes. Ace and Ben loved their train cakes that I made for them. The wind kept us from lighting the candles, so we'll have to do a repeat tomorrow. I'm sure the buddies won't mind a bit.


During our drive home, they chattered to each other about birthdays and trains. I asked them if they had fun at their party and Ben said, "Yes! I liked riding the train! It came right to our party!"

Check out all the pictures here.