All Aboard

I've been meaning to post this one for about a month now, but I got behind on posts and then misfiled half of the pictures and yada yada yada and so here we are.

One of Tim's fellow atty's has two little boys, one of whom was turning 3, and - you'll never believe this - he wanted to have a train party! A 3 year old boy obsessed with trains. Have you ever heard of such a thing??!! Anyway, Alex was invited, and though the party was smack in the middle of his naptime, he was more than happy to trade a little rest for train-related festivities. He was downright giddy about the Thomas decorations and the big train track laid out on the living room floor, but he about peed himself when he saw the birthday boy's big surprise waiting outside on the street.

I mean, seriously, do three year old birthday parties get any cooler than this? This dude had painted old oil cans, attached wheels, and rigged them up to his four wheeler to make a working "train" that people can rent by the hour for birthdays parties, corporate events, bachelor parties - whatever. I was a little anxious about the whole safety issue, but quickly got over it because the whole set up seemed pretty legit, and the "conductor" seemed to know exactly what he was doing. A claimed his car and the conductor passed out official train whistles.

Then they were off!!

They rode up and down the street and then ventured out into the neighborhood. The kids' favorite part was when the conductor would get to the cul-de-sac and would drive in a tight circle, pretending that the "engine" was trying to catch up with the "caboose". We could hear the kids screaming with glee all the way down the block.

It didn't take long for the neighborhood kids to notice a train driving up and down their streets. Pretty soon, our train had a bunch more passengers, so A's car became double-occupancy. Luckily, he didn't mind having a riding buddy.

A and his classic request for "one more" train ride.

I didn't think it was fair for the kids to have all the fun and leave us grown ups standing on the sidelines. So yeah, I totally rode the train and managed not to upchuck when we spun around in circles. Go me. Got a couple "rider's eye view" pics, too.

It was a super fun party, and needless to say, A had a blast. Aside from riding on a real train, this one will be hard to top!