Jasper’s Third Birthday: A Train Extravaganza

I was raised by an exceptional woman.  My mother was the daughter of Norwegian immigrants. She didn’t grow up poor, but they certainly did not have large amounts of money.  They were a family of hard workers who loved their traditions and heritage.  She would tell me stories of Christmas Eves as a child where her mother would prepare feasts of roast pork, lutefisk, boiled potatoes and red cabbage, pickled, and garnished with carraway.  She was expected to contribute to every holiday, from the chopping of the onions, to the shining of silver, to the pickling of fish and even sitting through hours long meals at three, and four years old.  As my mother transitioned to teenage hood, my grandmother began a catering business and everything she had been trained to do became, as expected by her own mother, her first profession.

Everything my mom knew, which was so, so much, she taught me.  As her own mother had before her, she expected me to be her assistant in each moment of her preparations and I fulfilled that promise.  I watched her create the most beautiful events and bring such joy with her to each person in attendance.  And soon doing that very same thing for those around me would become equally as important to me.  With her death, it fell on me to make the beautiful, exciting, perfect events and I embraced that role with relish.  So, now, as I plan the details of a baby shower or a Christmas dinner or, a party for one of my sweet children, I know that she is there with me, guiding my hands and loving every moment I create.

This is all to say, my baby boy, my Jasper turned three last Friday, February 11th and for said birthday he requested a “choo-choo” birthday party.  The black pit that has been the pandemic for these past two year has swallowed any and all possibility for celebrations of any kind.  So, when my little nugget requested a party, I had no choice but to oblige.  I jumped in with both feet, creating and planning, just so excited to be able to put my skills to work.

The day after Jasper turned three, the train party was scheduled to take place.  I sent out the invitations that he picked, a good month before hand and gathered the wonderful group of people who would join us to celebrate.  We had Gamma and Auntie and so many dear friends.  And of course, big brother and little sisters and Daddy.  There was ne’er a happier Jasper to be seen.

Our guests were greeted at the door and welcomed to “Platform Three” at “Buck Station”.  When Jasper chose the invitation for the party, the little train cars were not the typical blue and red that everyone seems to expect for a train themed event but instead, blue, yellow, and green.  I loved that this color scheme could create a different look for our party than all the others I had seen.  When I created all the signage for the party, I kept in mind those colors and painted Jasper’s special train in yellow and blue.  Additionally, I needed a really good “old-timey” font for all of the text involved in the party.  I love the website “dafont.com” for all of my font needs and with a little searching around, I found “Henry Rodeo Circus”.  It sounds a bit off but really ended up being the perfect one.  Honestly, I debated making stencils and painting all the lettering but decided that the different textures of the painted trains and the vinyl words would make them more interesting.  So, out came the Cricut and then came the letters.

As everyone walked in, passing by directional signs conveying the mileage to “Disneyland” and “Gamma’s House”, they stepped onto our personal train tracks that Daddy had painstakingly created throughout the house.  The Twins are eight months old and, while not being the most difficulty babies ever, they still need to have pretty consistent attention paid to them to keep them occupied and happy.  Most weekends for Daddy are filled with cuddling his girls and this Saturday was not very different but as soon as they were down for their first nap, he got to work with the nine rolls of electrical tape portioned out for this very purpose.  (We are almost a week post party at this point and I just pulled them all up, I really found them so fun.)  He filled the halls with them, even passing under my “brick arch” all the way to big brother’s room on the other side of the house.  The brick, by the way, was a roll of removable wallpaper that I found to create the tunnel arch for my little train to pass through.  Bonus, I have enough left over to “build” the wall into Diagon Alley when we throw our inevitable Harry Potter party sometime down the line.

Banners and train confetti (which I also made with my fantastic Cricut) lined the walls and peppered the surfaces with pops of color.  Our dear friends loaned us their wooden train track set with all the engines and cars.  I even filled the decorative bathtub (that’s a story for another time) with a tiny trainscape.  Perched on our fireplace at the “Baggage Station” was the red steamer trunk that usually lives in our playroom, and I filled it with the favors for all our little guests; conductor hats, bright red bandanas, and favor bags filled with train shaped crayons and train themed stamps. And just in case any of our loved ones forgot, a big ole three for the reminder. 

The kiddos tore around the house, clad in striped hats and neckerchiefs, tooting down the tracks in their personalized train cars. I collected moving boxes for weeks before the party, then the night before, at 3:00 am (yikes) wrapped them all in brown craft paper and cut holes in the top so the kiddos could step into them.  Then, spray painted my collection of empty formula cans, stolen from the twins, black and topped them with stuffing for smoke and they became the smokestacks.  The trains were finished off with, also spray painted (I do love me a good can of spray paint), cardboard cow catchers and plates to make the circular fronts.  I must admit, they were a bit of a mess but the kiddos kind of loved decorating them. And that mess was nothing compared the pinata…it was supposed to break with pulling strings but, nothing works the way it should, and we ended up making big brother Atty’s dreams come true and he literally got to stab it with his wooden sword to break it.  To be fair, his penchant for destruction was always “Plan B” for the railroad crossing sign pinata.

After the pinata was thoroughly destroyed by Atty’s expertise in breaking stuff, the much more successful cake was introduced to the kiddos.  When planning this party, the first thing I quested for was the perfect cake.  There were cakes with trains on them, there were cakes shaped like Thomas the train and everything in between but, none of them were really what I was looking for.  Then I had an inspired moment and decided that cupcakes were the way to go.  But not circular cupcakes…I bought a mini loaf cake pan and the train car cupcakes were born.  Mini rectangular cakes weren’t enough though, so I created wrappers and dotted them with little black wheels.  They were placed on more wooden tracks in the middle of the “Fueling Station” behind a little black engine and topped with more candles that his three years warranted and fronted by a three shaped sparkler, I bought on impulse at Target.  Jasper squealed in delight, and even stopped singing himself “Happy Birthday”, when that three began to spit and burn in the prettiest of numbers.

Surrounding the train cupcakes was the rest of the very train focused food.  Now, remember, I have a penchant to go further that anyone really should with a theme, but I do love it so.  And that, and the fact that my kid had a blast with it all, is all that matters.  We had “Steam Puffs”, which was popcorn with homemade popcorn seasonings, “Stoplights”, brownies with the corresponding colors of m&m’s, mini English Muffin pizzas with olives made in the pattern of the railroad crossing sign that had been on our thoroughly destroyed pinata, and coal which was Rice Krispie trats made with coca krispies.  Oh, and some cut carrot and celery as railroad ties for a little break from all the sugar. Also, the kiddos were given “Choo-Choo Juice” and the adults “Diesel Fuel”.  I found the adorable milk bottles on Amazon and make the labels of my own design matching the rest of the party.

To be honest, I’m not sure our Japper (That is what he used to say his name was before he was as eloquent as he is today and it’s kind of stuck.) really understood how much insanity he was privy to in his mom’s party planning, but he ended the day playing with the cornucopia of trains, tracks, and other assorted vehicles he had been bestowed.  The house was full of torn craft paper, pinata remnants, crumbs, and, if I’m honest, a large amount of unidentified detritus and it took me at least three days to fully clean it.  He was exhausted but over the moon to have been with his friends, causing chaos and running amok while overloaded with sugar and flat out joy.  There is nothing I could have wanted more than this outcome.  My little heart, in his element absolutely loving life.  I can’t wait for the next one!