Nathan's birthday party was on Saturday and I have to confess that I became 'That Mom' this year. I'll elaborate. We had a train themed party because Nathan loves trains. What qualified me as becoming 'That Mom' was everything I prepared and planned in order for the kids to have fun.
I designed a 'Boarding Pass' with train themed 'Stations' listed for each child to visit. After they visited each station, they collected a sticker on their boarding pass. Once they collected all the stations stickers, their prize was getting their 'Conductor Hat'.
I started the party by explaining the boarding pass to them and writing their name inside each one. Then they ran off to collect their stickers.
Here are kids at Station 10 - Stamp a Train. Each kid got to use train stamps and colorful ink pads to make their own train picture.
At Station 20 the kids were able to decorate their own train shaped cookie with frosting, sprinkles and colored sugar.
At Station 30, we had trained themed books like Choo Choo Clickety Clack and Chugga Chugga Choo Choo for story time.
Station 40 was your typical pin the tail game, except in this case it was Number the Train. I instructed the kids to keep their eyes closed because I was afraid if I blindfolded them, they would get scared.
And the last station was the big finale. A ride on train with it's own little track. I found this on Craigs List a few weeks earlier and had it in the house right under Nathan's nose but he never knew it and saw it for the first time in these pictures. Once he saw it, he knew exactly what it was for, to ride!
Other children were waiting their turn, so they could collect their sticker and Nathan was such a good sport letting others ride the train. He happily shared, never fussing once but he did stay close by just to observe!
All the kids filled their boarding passes and collected their Conductor Hats.
Then it was cake time. I made the cake again this year. It took about 3 hours to make and again, I have new found respect for the creative hand cake decorating requires - it's not easy!
Once Nathan blew out the candles, I wanted to get a group picture of all the kids and this is the point where I think I went to far as 'That Mom.' I gave all the kids silly nose glasses - to much?
When it was time to open presents, I asked each person to personally give their gift to Nathan so he could tell them Thank You and give them a hug at that moment before he opened the present. I was complimented by another mom for handling it this way, which made me feel good. :o)
That was Nathan's big birthday bash. As the kids were leaving, I asked if they had a good time and each one said yes, so I think it was a success!