Dinosaur Train Party

This year was Mason's first official friend birthday party, and it's no surprise he wanted it to be a Dinosaur Train party. Mason has been counting down the days until his party for weeks. We made invitations that were tickets for the Dinosaur Train and delivered them to a few of his friends. Mason was very excited about having a train cake and I think it was better than he imagined. As I was getting the party started I found Mason acting out his own episode of Dinosaur Train with the cake. It was too cute to even make me care the frosting looked completely mangled by the time the guests arrived. .I made these cardboard box trains for each of the kids to decorate with dinosaur stickers and markers to make their own dinosaur train.

It was a hit. Halle (6) and Cannon (5) got much more into the decorating while Jackson (3), Mason (3), and Kennedy (2) did minimal decorating and spent more time playing in their trains and in the castle. We kept it really unstructured and it was great because everyone was doing what was fun for them. The kids loved chugging around and blowing their train whistles while hunting for hidden dinosaurs around the yard.Mason was so distracted by all the presents waiting to be opened that he was not having fun participating in the party, so we stopped the party, opened presents, ate cake, and then played some more games in our trains. It worked out great. Mason's cousin, Kennedy, loves Toy Story and has introduced Mason to it. He loves playing with her Buzz and Woody toys and asked for his own Buzz and Woody for his birthday. So we gave him Toy Story toys along with Toy Story 2, which he's never seen. He carries Buzz, Woody, Bullseye, and Rex everywhere with him. Surprisingly, he has actually been excited to share them with his friends. He is finally getting old enough that he likes playing with other kids and so each person can be a character. He begged for Cannon and Kennedy to stay after the party so they could play Toy Story with him. Mason was genuinely so grateful for his birthday party and all of his presents. He sill keeps coming up to me and saying, "Mom, I wuved my birthday party. Thank you for my presents." He is such a sweet 3-year-old boy and I am glad he had a special day.