The "Plan B" Birthday Party

A few months ago when talking to Tate about a 3^rd birthday party, he seemed to be excited about the idea of a train party. We booked a great inside location (you never know Texas weather in December) for 15 kiddos and were looking forward to one of those parties where you just show up and let the kids have fun.

So it was a little disconcerting when my friend called me a week before to ask why she couldn’t find that train place in the mall. Low and behold, it had closed down. Somehow, I never got a call from them to cancel the birthday party. Frustration. So I had to get creative and plan a “Plan B” birthday party within a few days.

All in all, it worked out great. It wasn’t necessarily the lowest stress of options and we had to do a little more than just show up, but it was still a fun train party for Tate and all of his friends.

We decided to ride the “big, strong train” (as Tate called it) into downtown Fort Worth and back. When everyone got on the train, they received their party favors…engineer hats and train whistles. I apologized countless times to the real passengers in the same train car as us.

I wasn’t quite sure how a 1-hour train ride would go over for all of the kids, but they did so great and seemed to have a fun time.

The tight timetable of the train schedule made us lose a few along the way (I felt SO bad about that!), but thankfully they were able to meet us at the pizza place later on for dinner and cake. And Tate was pretty excited that Uncle Brad made it as well.

When I would ask Tate about a cake, his request was always for brown cupcakes. In fact, brown seems to be his favorite color. I’m thinking for chocolate?

His friends sure seem to know him well. Lightening McQueen, car tracks, trains, Little Einstein’s…what more could he ask for?

Even with the chaos of a last minute change of plans, I’d say the party was a success. And I’d also say this is one blessed, happy little 3-year-old boy with some pretty great friends and family!

Next post: Tate ~ 3.0