Thomas the Train StoryHour

When my boss Lisa made the program schedule for Summer Reading, I jumped at the chance to do the Thomas program.  This was right up my alley.  I'm pretty sure I still know most of the train names.

 Pinterest gave me lots of decorating ideas.

 I had the tables set up in different colors and then the kids told me all the trains that were red, blue, yellow and green.

 All the kids went home with their very own train whistles.  I know the parents just loved me that day.  I wonder how many train whistles were "lost".

 After a story or two I was showing the kids the cool finger puppets we would be making.

 After cutting out about a million pieces of felt, I thought it might be best to put the faces together for them since the parts were so small.  But the kids glued the heads on the train body and the bumpers.  Each child went home with 3 train puppets, Sir Topham Hat and a conductor.  I wasn't kidding about cutting out about a million pieces of felt.

 The next craft was making a train out of lots of sweet, messy, sugary things.

The kids enjoyed the stories, crafts, songs and food.  Some of the parents are even still talking to me after I sent their kids home with train whistles and hyped up on sugar!

A Train and Its Makers

For Christmas, my Aunt Diane gave John a kit to make his own train.  He was very excited but mean old mom had to contain the excitement and keep him from opening the kit on Christmas day while the house was filled with 3 million other toys.  On top of the fridge was were it sat for about a month.  Then Diane called me to say they wanted to visit and the first thing John thought of was waiting until Jimmy, his "train cousin", could help him.  John actually waited for 3 more months until they came during spring break.

 We had to tell John to stop talking because it was taking him a million years to screw in one screw.  Jimmy was feeling like it was going to take all day.

 All done with the building process.  John just loves his train.

He was excited that he could do anything he wanted with his train.  After much contemplation he decided to color it rather than painting it.  He is so proud of what he made.

A Fun Filled Week

My cousins, Jimmy and Ericka, wanted to spend their spring break at our house.  They came to visit last year and decided it was worth another trip.  I have to say that I am completely honored that my teenage cousins want to spend time with me and my family.  For almost a week our house with filled with family and lots and lots of fun.

Aunt Diane brought stuff for an Easter Egg Hunt again.  The boys are always game for an egg hunt.

 Gus is a bit of a diva and felt he needed a coat before he could focus his attention on finding his eggs.

Anders had a lot of help.

 The boys had a great time entertaining their great grandparents.

 And, they are always trying to sucker people into playing games with them.

 John had his first soccer practice while they were here.  John remembers going to Jimmy's soccer game a summer or two ago and was excited that Jimmy and Ericka would be there to see him practice.  Aunt Diane found these cool soccer suckers to celebrate the occasion.

Anders managed to make a huge mess with his sucker.

Yet again I find myself severely lacking in pictures.  But, we all had a wonderful time and look forward to seeing them all again.

Another Train Buddy

When my family came to visit, John was able to coax Jimmy into making a track.  Jimmy used to be a big train guy.  John doesn't understand why he doesn't still play with them.  We asked John what he would do on a date and he said, "Take her to watch a Thomas movie, of course."  I've got that on tape.  I'll show that to his first girlfriend.  My son will then hate me for about a week.  It will be worth it.

Jimmy may not admit this, but I think he had fun.  John sure had a good time.

A Day out with Thomas...Again

We are still a Thomas family.  Gus has fallen in line and I find Anders chewing on Thomas every now and then.  We had already been to "A Day out with Thomas" in Colorado, but decided to visit the one in Texas too.  I'm so glad we did.  Each train station sets up the event a little different and the one in Grapevine was actually better.  The boys were so excited when we got there.  It was like we had never been before.  The only reference to the first time we went was when John was telling all of the volunteers that this was Anders' first time riding Thomas on the outside (of my belly).

To get into the event you had to walk right by Thomas.

 All Aboard!!

On a side note- Gus is actually holding up a ticket...he is so white you can't tell!!! I'm also not sure what John was doing in this picture.

 

Riding the train!

After we finished our train ride it was time to check out all of the other stuff.  John found his old train friend, Eli.

 They could have stayed right here.  All. Day.

 Seriously.

I love that this is how Gus chooses to close the door.  We might need to work with him on this...he ended up getting his fingers caught and started screaming.  Funny how that didn't deter him from trying it again.

After we peeled they boys away from the train tables we stood in line to see Sir Topham hat.

 Sir Topham hat arrived and the kids were so excited...all the kids, not just my own.
I should have mentioned earlier that is was 85 degrees out that day.  I was not prepared for that as you can see John is wearing a long sleeved shirt and they both have on jeans.  The boys were fine, but I'm sure Sir Topham Hat hated the hot weather.

Waiting as patiently as they can.

John is just in awe.  I love how he is holding Sir Topham Hat's hand.

After Sir Topham Hat, the boys got some tattoos.  As I write this you can still see remnants of their tattoos, 2 weeks later, because they won't let me wash their arms.

 Yep, they are still there.

It was a great day all around.  Hot, but good.  I'm told that Thomas comes to the Chicago area in August...we may just have to check that out.

Choo Choo Johnny's

After a great morning at the Children's museum we decided to check out a restaurant I was told about called Choo Choo Johnny's.  The website makes the place sound like the train lover's dream.  We all couldn't wait to take the boys and see the look on their faces.  I'm not sure that I have ever given anything a bad review on my blog, but I can't help but do so now.  The boys had a good time and that is all that matters, but it was pretty lame.  It is a franchise so it is quite possible that another place does it better, but this will be one I never visit again.  It is a great idea and with a little more effort could have been a fabulous place frequented by numerous families.  But as I said, the boys had fun so I guess was worth the $50 plus we spent on food that we couldn't eat.

 Here comes the train delivering our food.

What would a train restaurant be without a train ride?

I would love to know if anyone has visited another Choo Choo Johnny's and had a great time.

Train Exhibit

We can't be in the vicinity of a train exhibit and not actually go to the train exhibit.  Anders' godmother Kathy told me about the exhibit benefiting the Ronald McDonald house at the Northpark Mall so we all took a trip to Dallas to see what it was all about.  While we were walking through the mall trying to find the trains we saw some school choirs and bands performing various Christmas carols.  The boys had a great time walking through the mall and of course looking at trains.

 This is how we go places these days.

 They actually had some Thomas trains in the exhibit so John was very excited.

 Kathy gave John a lift to see the carnival trains.

 The exhibit was full of miniature replications of various places in the U.S.

 After the trains we had ice cream.  We thought if we gave Gus a cool little spoon he wouldn't eat the bottom of the cone first.

We had John all hyped up to see Santa and then we found out that this particular Santa had a 6 hour waiting list.  Hans felt pretty bad so we decided to buy the boys their favorite Disney characters...Donald and Mickey.  Now Gus does not leave the house without Mickey.