Thomas the Train Birthday Party - Chugga Chugga TWO TWO!

My son recently celebrated his second Birthday and for his Birthday we decided to have a Thomas the Train theme, Chugga Chugga TWO TWO!!!!

Originally it was just going to be a train theme but we had several Thomas train toys so just decided to make it a Thomas the Train theme and use the toy trains as decoration. When I throw a themed party I like to make as much of the decorations as possible to save on money and I  try to do my best to make everything match the theme. Here is what I ended up doing for my son's second Birthday.

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Food Table

I tired to make the food table look like a train on train tracks and filled aluminum trays with different snack foods and dips to represent what train cars carry. I designed labels, printed them off and taped them to cocktail stirs so they would stick out above the food. There were eight different aluminum trays that made up two trains.

The train car labels I used:

• The Gondola Car - Pizza Dip
• The Cattle Car - Buffalo Chicken Dip
• The Hopper Car - Taco Dip
• The Grain Car - Tostito Chips
• Th Coal Car - Oreos
• The Animal Car - Animal Crackers
• The Gravel Car - Puppy Chow
• The Lumber Car - Pretzel Sticks

Some other train car or food label possibilities are:

• The Passenger Car - Teddy Grahams, Sour Patch Kids
• The Produce Car - Vegetables
• The Dairy Car - Cheese
• The Aquarium Car - Gold Fish, Swedish Fish
• The Corn Car - Popcorn, Popcorn Mix
• The Organic Car - Fruit
• The Candy Caboose
• The Cookie Caboose
• Train Wheels - Cookies, Pinwheel Appetizers
• Train Tracks - Chocolate Wafer Cookies, Twix, Black Liquorice
• Train Smoke - Mini Marshmallows, White Chocolate Candies, Popcorn

You can pretty much label your food cars any way you want and can swap out the food items for different items to better suit your party. We decided we wanted to have a variety of chips and dips for our party so this is what we came up with to fit what we wanted. You can see more pictures of the food table below!

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Beverages

• Sweet Tea labeled "Diesel Fuel"
• Blue Hawaiian Punch labeled "Thomas Punch"
• A few 2Liters
• Water
• Juice Boxes for the kids

There was a sign above the beverages that read "Fueling Station".

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Cake

Once again I decided to make the Birthday cake and I think it turned out pretty cute. I let my son pick the cake flavor and he picked out chocolate cake. I decorated the cake with blue vanilla frosting. I then used black and red frosting to draw the train tracks around the cake and personalize the cake. I added a small Thomas the Train toy we had and a candle to represent the second "two" in the theme's saying, "Chugga Chugga TWO TWO!!!"

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Decorations

I made a couple different decorations for my sons party to save on money and they turned out pretty cute. There are tons of ways you can decorate for your party so decorate with what you like the best. You can buy Thomas the Train or regular train themed decorations or make your own like I did, whatever is easier!

Signs & Labels: 
I created train tracks in Illustrator on my computer, searched for a free Thomas the Train image and created the party invites, signs and labels to match. I then printed off  the signs and food labels and taped them up. I had a sign above the beverages the read "Fueling Station" and a sign above the gift table that read "Luggage Drop Off - Logan will be happy to take it off your hands".

      * We did not have goodie bags since a lot of people couldn't make it but if you do, you can have a sign that reads "Baggage Claim".

Table Decorations:
I bought a red table cloth, some blue and red streamers, plates and napkins - the basics. I cut black paper into several pieces and glued it together to make it look like train tracks. I found some free train clipart, printed it out and set it on the table in the middle of the tracks. I set the aluminum food trays out to look like a train and put a toy train in the front. I cut out black circles and taped them to the aluminum food trays to resemble train wheels.

Glass Door:
One of our doors has a glass window on it so I wrote on the glass, "Chugga Chugga TWO TWO!!!" with dry erase markers. You can use dry erase markers to write on windows or mirrors in your home for an added decoration and it wipes off super easy.

Entrance:The morning of the party I went outside and decorated our entrance way with chalk. I drew a Thomas the Train and railroad tracks leading up to our front door. I also wrote "All Aboard" by the entrance and "The Logan Express".

Picture Train Timeline: I used the same free Thomas image that is on the invites and labels and printed it off. I then found ten pictures I liked of my son from the last two years and laid them out in order behind the Thomas print out.

I cut one long black strip of paper and twenty blue wheels. I glued the wheels to the black strip of paper spaced accordingly due to the direction and spacing of the pictures. I used a marker to make the wheels look more like wheels. My husband and I taped everything to the wall to make it look like a train.

My son's second Birthday party was a success and I think everything turned out super cute! This was the first time we ran out of cake so it's safe to say it was a hit. My son was blessed with several toys, clothes and bathing suits this year. There are tons of different ways and ideas out there to decorate for a train party, but these are just a few I did. I was planning on making some trains out of diaper boxes and paper for the kids to play with but I was short on time so unfortunately didn't get around to it.

I hope you enjoyed my son's Thomas the Train Birthday Party - Chugga Chugga TWO TWO!!! pictures and that they help inspire you when planning your child's Train Party!