Our day out with Thomas

As promised.. Here is the post for A day out with Thomas 2012. If you have little ones boys and girls alike this is a really fun event!! This year it is visiting 45 cities!! The one near us was at the Illinois Railway Museum. There was a lot of Thomas related tents. A story telling/movie watching tent, A tent where you could get Thomas and Friends temporary tattoos if you wish, a place to meet and get a picture with Sir Topham Hat, and a tent with magic and puppet shows. They also had a gift store tent where you could purchase Thomas and Friends merchandise (of course :))

We arrived about 45 minutes before our scheduled ride on Thomas, so when we got there we went straight to the boarding line. It seemed like a short wait because there was so much going on, it was quite entertaining. Then we got to board the train. Our little guy was so excited to ride Thomas!!

Thomas the Train

B riding Thomas :)

Snuggling up with daddy on the way back

 

It was about a 20 minute total ride. Ten minutes forward, then the train stopped. A nice lady came through the cars and gave all the kids their Jr. Engineer certificates! B loved this he wouldn't let it go. Then the train started to go backwards the way we came. All the kids thought it was pretty cool Thomas could go backwards too! Then when we got off the train and I sent daddy to go pick up the stroller from stroller parking and B and I ran to get in line to get our picture taken with Thomas. Daddy met us there and we got an awesome memory!

 

 

After our scheduled ride we walked around the museum for a while to see all of the trains. B loved seeing how big they were up close. We ate some lunch and then we went to the different tents and let him play and take part in the Thomas activities. The Illinois Railway Museum also let you ride any running trains and trolleys that day for no extra charge. I don't know if all of the railways do this or not but it was fun. B loved the Thomas ride so we took him on a trolley and two other train rides as well.. We wanted to kill some time because it ended up raining the majority of the day on us.. These events are rain or shine so bring an umbrella :)

 

At the end of the day we went through the gift shop and let B pick out a couple new trains to add to his collection and a 6 in 1 Thomas and Friends book. B loves to read so having a Thomas book was just a bonus. Then we got some ice cream and called it a day!

 

 

All in all it was a really fun experience. I would definitely consider taking him again next year, he loved it!! It was a great family day.

 

 

The tracks before Thomas and Friends Day out with Thomas 2012

Well we are preparing to take B to the Illinois Railway Museum this Sunday for Thomas and Friends Day out with Thomas Mystery of the Rails tour 2012. I don't like to be to over the top, but I think its things like this that your children will remember and cherish so you want to make it fun.. Right? Right!! So in preparing we got him some small (inexpensive) things to get him pumped up about this event. Not that he really needed pumping its trains of course!! So a conductors hat will do along with a new Thomas shirt to wear the day of the event and some small trains. Now of course this post isn't about that. This post is about safety! Now none of us like to ever think that something terrible would happen to our children... But I'm not naive enough to think that it couldn't happen to me. So I had a pit pass template left over from B's two year old Cars birthday party. I decided that I would tweak it a bit and make it perfect for this event. Its an added bonus for him because he thinks things like this are awesome!! I got a Thomas the Train lanyard from Party City for .99 and made the pass below to be Thomas related. Now this just isn't something fun for B, this is a safety precaution. I urge you parents when you are going to places like this with tons of kids to take precautionary measures in case  your child were to get separated from you! On the back of this little beauty We have a message

If lost please call
Mommy (my first name) 000-111-2222
Daddy (his first name) 000-111-3333
Thank you!

Of course none of us ever want to think of something like this... But it happens! I got inspired while on Pintrest I saw temporary tattoos that were made for a families trip to Disney and I thought it was an awesome idea. Case in point don't ever think this will never happen to me! Of course enough of the morbid boring lecture!! We plan to have a TON of fun on Sunday and there will be a full update and pictures to fallow!

P.s Sorry for the sideways picture... Cant figure out how to turn it... Hope it gets the point  across anyways!

Welcome

I guess this post is welcome for all of us.. I have never blogged before, so I'm sure I have a lot to learn. I hope that you can find Ideas here, comfort, and maybe a laugh or two. I will be taking you through the life of our family and how we celebrate awesomeness, spend quality time together, sometimes our favorite recipes, and fun things to do. I hope you enjoy! Please feel free to leave comments!