Ian's 3rd Birthday

Three days before Ian's third birthday, I was still deciding if I would even do a party for him. Before I knew we were moving, I had planned an elaborate train-themed party in my mind that would include a visit to the Molalla Train Park as well as individualized boxed lunches, and all together too many friends. I was so busy focusing on what we now couldn't do and who we couldn't do it with, that I just couldn't get myself excited about putting anything together.

Well, with only three days to spare I decided to stop moping and just make something happen!

So, I got Orion to help me pick out some of our best moving boxes, and we started building a cardboard train.

A visit to the dollar store yielded some cute felt trains (used to make the birthday banner) and some wooden train cutouts that the kids painted during the party for an activity and party favor all in one.

To complete our train themed bash, we made a three dimensional train cake. Ian was pretty excited about that!

We invited the one family we've met here and they came! We also invited a few strangers from church and they didn't come. It was just fine though because we had a great time hanging out with our new friends and their cute kids.



Truman just chilled in the grass the whole time and had a blast.



Finally, it was time for presents. Paige and Orion had picked out a special Thomas the Train engine to go along with Ian's new wooden track, and they were so excited to give it to him.



Overall, it turned out to be a lovely evening, and worth all the time put into it. It was cute and fun and even relaxing, and my past experiences with party planning have taught me that when you get all three outcomes, you're very lucky!