No longer my baby boy

Planning for Greyson's 2nd birthday party wasn't too tough - the boy is OBSESSED with trains, so having a trains as a theme was a no brainer. As usual, I had a lot of fun preparing for the party & although it may seem I went overboard...I enjoyed every moment of the party planning process and Greyson loved it in the end...making it all worth while. 

 Kennedy and Daddy's awesome sidewalk chalk designs....leading our guests down the track and to their destination! 

 We ended up having to replace our patio table over the summer and thus had some big pieces of cardboard which came in handy when it came time to design our RR crossing signs. 

 I made this little mantle train out of keurig k cup boxes and an empty aluminum can. So fun! 

 Tim had found some old rr ties on one of his work sites and they live on our porch for months before I finally incorporated them into the party decor. See them in the mason jars? A nice little touch for the train party! 

 Some friends of ours in our small group had this choo choo train mold cake pan that they let us use and I was so excited to try it. It looks like this: 

My goal was to dye the cake batter and have each train car be a different color - red, green and blue. I don't know if it's because of the non-stick spray I used or what happened to the batter as it baked, but they call came out looking super dark and not at all like the bright primary colors I had hoped for. So...I had to improvise with my cake design in the end and use piped icing to kind of decorate each train car. 

 We had a lot of fun in the grocery store trying to decide what would work well for the track and wheels and all of that good stuff. The track shaped into the number two and the smoke coming out of the train were ideas thanks to Pinterest. Tim decided to create the little trees to add in and our finished product was one our boy loved which was the #1 goal. PSA - should you ever need rock candy in a particular color, there's no need to seek out a specialty candy store because as it turns out the party store has it in any color you want. Sadly I only learned that after I sent my sister out on a last minute errand to the fancy candy store near her house. Thanks Aunt Melissa! 

 I thought it would be fun to have stations for all of our food items, but I really wasn't sure if I would have time or energy to do it. In the end, I had both and I'm glad because they turned out really cute and were a nice touch to our train theme. 

Choo Choo PB&J's 

 One of Grey's favorite snacks is popcorn so I wanted to be sure we offered that at his party. 

 The boy's #1 LOVE - SMOOTHIES or "smoody's" as he calls them. 

 A friend of mine made these little train cookies to go with our sweet's station. 

 Every time I have a birthday party for my kids, I plan to take pictures of all of their guests and in the end I forget or run out of time or whatever. Honey and Big Jim were the only guests that I got pictures of  & although it's a cute picture I wished I'd gotten pictures of everyone else that was there too. 

 The Birthday Boy

 Anxiously awaiting the arrival of the guests - can you see Pawpaw on the outside of the window?

 One of our greatest gift requests was for "dress up" items of a more masculine nature. Greyson loves to dress up but at this point it's mostly in heels, tutu's and jewelry (compliments of watching his two big sisters). He ended up getting several boy dress up things. 

 Another thing compliments of his big sisters - a princess smoothie cup! Daddy and I gave him a cars smoothie cup for his birthday so now he's more manly when he drinks his smoothies. ;)

 Cake time!

 

Yum!

The party was a success and so much fun. It's hard to believe our "baby" is 2...just in time to welcome in another baby a few months later.