Jeshua's Train Birthday Party

For Jeshua's 4th Birthday party, he wanted to have lots and lots of friends over to play trains!  We invited all his friends and their families, set up his wooden train set in the living room floor, and he loved every minute -- he didn't want the party to end (:

While he loves Thomas, I didn't want to have a Thomas party, so we went for a more vintage look. Jeshua's favorite color is yellow so everything had as much yellow as possible!

I printed pictures of train tracks, a closeup of a train car wheel and a railroad crossing sign at Staples (I ordered a draft print -- much cheaper!) and put them in frames my awesome hubby made from some scrap wood we had lying around.  I made the happy birthday banner with my Cricut.

Jeshua loves cheeseburgers so we had a slider bar.  We served burgers on potato buns with a choice of cheese, bacon and toppings.  We had veggies, fruit, and french fries for sides.

The cake was an adventure...my amazing mom made Jeshua a "sprinkle" cake and we were going to decorate the top with an image of a train engine using this transfer technique.  As you can see by the lack of train engine, it didn't work (:  It still looked and tasted wonderful!  Jeshua also requested we serve blue kool-aid.  The kids drank theirs from take and toss cups with straws so we could also use them for the cookie (Oreo) milkshakes we served with the cake -- another request from the birthday boy.

Decorating the table were three apothecary jars filled with yellow, blue and turquoise balls, one of Jeshua's invitations my talented sister designed (I printed them on brown paper from Hobby Lobby so they looked older), and a 1950's dictionary page with an engine printed on it.  The paper garland in the windows blocked out our backyard but still let light in.

Besides playing trains, we had a sugar cookie bar with different colors of frosting and lots of Jeshua's favorite sprinkles!  I made homemade colored sugar sprinkles in yellow, blue and turquoise.  The cookies were cut out in the shape of train engines.

For party favors each child took home a box with two Thomas trains, a Thomas whistle, Thomas fruit snacks, bubbles and stickers.  The boxes are from Oriental Trading company and the design on the side was made with my Cricut.

Greeting our guests as they arrived was this hand-painted Railroad Crossing sign and balloons.  Our sidewalk was going to have black duct tape railroad tracks, but since it was January in Alabama, it rained for the previous three days and the tape wouldn't stick (:  On the door was another hand-painted sign pointing "To the Trains."

The whole afternoon was very relaxed -- kids ate, decorated cookies and played trains.  Our house was crowded with friends celebrating Jeshua's day!

Did I mention this was 11 days after his little brother was born?  (:  I couldn't have pulled this off without my mom, sister, hubby and a couple sweet friends' help!  Thank you!