All Aboard!!!

We celebrated Chase's brithday on Saturday afternoon with all of his close friends and of course his awesome grandparents that traveled from TX and NE. When Chase was about nine months old I saw a train cake on a parenting website and from that day forward I planned a train themed party. After about a month of planning and a week of pure chaos the party was a hit! The train theme was carried out in the invitations, decorations, cake, party favors and even Chase's conductor ensemble.This is the invitation I made which set the image for the whole party. As you will see the Chase Express and engine of the cake all match this invite.

This is a group shot of everyone that came to his party. The top picture is minus my dad and the bottom one is minus Jonathan's dad.

Chase did an ok job of opening the presents but still needed some help. He was quite the gracious gift recipient. He loved every toy and wanted to play with it right away. He would cry everytime I took one away, that is until he opened the next one!

This is one of my favorites pictures from the day. Chase really did enjoy being dressed up as a conductor and even shared his hat with all of his friends so they could get a picture inside the Chase Express!

Here is a picture of the train and cart I made and attached to his walker wagons. The kids enjoyed playing in them and getting their pictures taken.

Talk about a cake. This thing took three people (me, Grandma Ree, and Nana) several hours to decorate. I can say that while it was fun seeing the final product I will probably never do this again! I feel sorry for his next birthday and even more sorry for any future children we may have because I can guarantee that no other party will have as much time and dedication for hands on projects dedicated to them.

I guess all of my hard work paid off though. Here is the evidence that Chase loved his birthday cake! He was such a good boy. We stripped him down, put a bib on him and sat him and his cake on a trash bag. He dug in immediately and just sat there and continued to eat. Once he started moving around (after about 5 mins) we picked him up and cleaned him off in the sink. It was fun to watch and a suprisingly easy mess to clean up.

I forgot to get a picture of the party favors but they were really cute. I bought some snacks, suckers, a wooden engine train whistle, bubbles, and glow stick bracelets and tied them all up inside a bandana with ribbon and attached a balloon. They were our table decorations and when the children left they got to take one with them. I am extremely proud of my big boy and the first year we have had with him. I was thankful that so many people came to help us celebrate his big day!