Some Serious Preparation.....

 The good thing about having birthday parties at our house is it always forces us to do a good annual clean up of the outside of our house!

 

Countdown has begun to the big day!!

 

Three weeks out we hired a man to come put down pine straw, trim the shrubs, and weed the garden. Both Josh and I were working long hours around that time and it had to be done, so we have a little man that we hire out for VERY cheap to come and do this for us. I say it is well worth the cost!!

 

Two weeks out Josh rented a pressure washer to spray off the house, the kids and I went to Home Depot to get flowers to plant by the doors, and Josh and I tag teamed on re-painting the shutters.

 

Before....

 

After....

I know it is hard to see but it is a drastic improvement from the chipping paint!!

 

And then of course it was party planning time!!

 

Birthday parties are not what they were when I was growing up! Now the two questions I get asked when talking with people about throwing the kids a party is What is the theme? and What are the colors? So about a month out, it was time to get busy planning!!

 

Party Theme: Trains

Colors: Red and Blue

 

It all centered around these precious little invitations I found courtesy of Dimple Prints.

 

 

For $10 she created these invitations for me and then for $20 I purchased a 200 page document of matching signs and decorations that are more of a do-it-yourself package where you print up what you want to use and cut up, construct and use as you please!!

 

So now that I had my inspiration, let the party planning begin!!!!

 

I saw a great idea on a website to rent a train to come to your birthday party, but after researching the idea, it turned out to be super expensive.

 

So, I found this awesome idea to make a "train" out of cardboard boxes.

 

 

 

 However, finding boxes big enough for 3 years olds was a lot tougher than I imagined. After calling a lot of different places, I finally found them at a furniture store and they gave them to me for FREE!

 

 

 

The boys had so much fun playing in them!!

However, after I explained my idea to the boss, AKA Daddy, he wasn't too thrilled about his task of making the boxes sturdy enough to endure 2 & 3 year olds. So being the engineer that he is, he constructed a much more elaborate train!!!

 

He decided that it would be way more awesome to attach the train to the 4 wheeler, hook up the trailer, and have a train ride for the kids. I loved his idea, although I was hesitant about the work it would take because we were a week out and I still had a lot to do!! But it was actually genius because it combined my two great ideas for the party!

 

So we went for it! He drew up the train on his work software, printed out a large template from his office, then cut out the train template out of plywood. Dani and I constructed some sides for the trailer to make it look more like a train and painted them red.

 

Daddy attached the train to the 4 wheeler, which the boys think is AWESOME!

 

Then it was my turn to paint the details on...

 

 

And here is the finished product! I LOVE it and I think it is going to be hit on the big day!

 

 

On top of this crazy little project, we have been making cupcake toppers, birthday signs, wrapping silverware, yard signs, party favor bags, contructing the food list, planning out the party agenda &  decorations, getting together our coordinating outfits for the party, grocery shopping, making food labels, getting tables and chairs, making the railroad track on the driveway, putting together train tables and tracks and cleaning up the inside/outside of the house. Luckily, I have had some great helpers with Daddy and Dani!! We still have a lot to do but luckily we have reinforcements coming to help out!

 

 

Dani and her friend Victoria did a GREAT job making the railroad track down the driveway!

 

 

 

 

Whew, it is a lot of work to pull of the perfect birthday party!! I realize I create a lot of this work for myself, but I LOVE doing things like this and usually get carried away with the details!! I wouldn't have it any other way though!! Let's hope all of our hard work pays off for the big day! Chance of rain is 30% but we are going with as they say in Tiger Stadium, "Chance of rain...NEVER"....and praying really hard!!!

 

These two little guys are so ready for their party and all of the family coming in town!! Cade asks me every day if it is his birthday yet......we are so excited for the BIG DAY!!!!!  

 

Stay tuned!!!