"All Aboard!" A train Birthday Party

Anyone who knows Cole knows he's completely and totally obsessed with trains. It's really the only thing he talks about. He can tell you all the parts and different kinds of trains, what they carry, and how they vary from each other. Much of his day is spent creating elaborate tracks with his train sets and playing through different scenarios, often involving Legos, stuffed animals, and other figurines.

So, of course he wanted a "train" Birthday party, so in February 20th we threw him one.

Jude and Lance helping put together some "train signal" kabobs. 

His cake. We looked through several pages of different train cakes and he liked this one best. Thank goodness for Pinterest!

The day of the party, we all went to the church building to set up. I had been there until the wee hours of the morning putting down a train track made of tape. You wouldn't think it would take a long time to make a track around a gym, but about 5 hours later, I realized I had greatly underestimated the time and effort it was. Good thing it was cute.


Cole with his piñata:

Birthday boy!

He was really excited and liked all the decorations.

The hats and bandanas were favors for the kids to wear when they got there.

Grand Central Station

We had several "Stations" set up with activities at each one. Since this was a Birthday party for 4-year-olds, it wasn't very structured, but mostly a bunch of fun things for kids to do while they were there.

Station 2 was a cookie decorating station:

Station 3: The Steamworks. We had paint and little canvases for the kids to paint, along with train stencils.

Station 4: Tender Toss. We never really got around to playing this game, but it's kind of like corn hole. Basically, you're supposed to get as much "coal" into the tender as possible by tossing it into the holes on the top. The coal was little black bean bags I sewed. (You can see some of the train track I put down.)

Station 5 was a bounce house we actually bought, knowing we would use for years to come. I didn't take any good pictures of it, but you can see it in other pictures.

Station 6: The Rail Yard
This was a relay game that ended up being really fun!

Station 7: it was supposed to be "dangerous tracks". I had little scooter boards the kids could scoot around on on the "track" and we had a bubble machine to put out some fun things to roll through.

The bubbles were a hit, although it made a HUGE, slippery mess. Oops. Probably would have been better on the carpet.

Cole decorating his engine in his favorite color: blue.

Lily thought the bubbles were fantastic!

Thank goodness for Aunt Jen! The Scholz, Calderwoods, and Glasses all came down to celebrate. We love having family so close!

Kids in their conductor outfits:

I tried to have themed snacks, too.

Most of the kids! We had a decent turn out of about 14 kids!

Relay race! The kids had to work together to see which team could load their boxcar the fastest. I used birdseed and measuring cups. The kids had to take a cup of birdseed and run with it all the way to their boxcar, dump it in and run back for the next person to repeat.

Although it made a huge mess, the kids all had a great time playing this game!

Birthday boy!

George and Eric thought the Tender Toss game was pretty good.

Thank goodness for big brothers! This little girl is lucky she has three!

Piñata time!

Grant

Mason

Jude

Bryce

Lance

Callie

Cole

Even Lily got in on the action!

Jude again.

We finally had to call in the cavalry and have Allen bust it open.

Cake time!

There's that bounce house!

Seriously, this party was fun. The kids all ran around going from station to station having a blast. There was something for everyone and the fact that it wasn't super structured was nice for me. We got to sit back and let the kids play. It was perfect.

Grandmom is the best.

Lily liked the coloring station.


Family!

Thank goodness for helpers! After the party, everyone helped pull up the little track. It took about 20 minutes with about 10 people helping!

Almost done!

Thanks, guys!

After the party, we took the family out to Bonefish for dinner before they had to drive home again.

Cole got a special dessert that he shared with everyone.

And of course once we got home, Cole got to open his gifts!

Happy Birthday, Cole! We love having you in our family! I love your bright smile and your sweet voice. I love that you like to snuggle and read stories. Your quiet personality is a joy. We love you so much! Thank you for being ours!

Happy 4th Birthday, Cole!

On February 8th, Cole turned 4! I still can't believe he's so big.

For his special dinner, he wanted macaroni and cheese, so we ran over to Panera Bread. Luckily they have a 5 Guys right next door, so everyone was happy!

On a separate note, Lance is coming along really well in piano. One day his buddy Abel came over and they had a mini jam session on the piano. It was cute. :)


Here are a few Cole updates:

Cole continues to be obsessed with trains. Any train, any color (although blue is his favorite), and any type. Doesn't matter. If it's a train, he loves it.

Cole is our artist. He and Lily enjoy sitting at the kitchen table with paper and crayons or markers and drawing. He also really likes to play with playdoh.

He would rather play with his train set than watch TV. In fact, he'll often disappear upstairs in his room for hours at a time, making elaborate tracks and building different kinds of trains. He's been getting very creative lately and will use Legos and other figurines in his play.

He likes to build with Legos. I think we have an engineer on our hands. He's very good at putting things together and figuring out how things work.

He knows all his letters and the numbers up through 10. We're working on sounds now.

He is still very quiet most of the time, although if he gets upset he can get very LOUD. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, watch out!

Cole is talking a lot more! It's still mostly about trains, but he's been making more effort to join in conversations and will tell you about his day or things that he's noticed. I love hearing him talk and getting a glimpse into his mind.

He has a very good memory. He'll randomly start talking about things that happened years ago in detail. With his quiet personality and his conservative talking, I feel like this kid has a wealth of ideas and thoughts that are untapped. I'm excited to see how he develops and grows.

He is finally starting to play with other kids. He's been playing with Jude and Lily, but he's branching out and actually cooperative playing with friends at the gym and at the bus stop. Yay! I'll be honest--my mom heart has been aching a bit with all the solitary play he does, so watching him come out of his shell socially has been amazing.

Cole loves Lily. A lot. They spend a lot of their day doing the same things--coloring together, playing in Lily's room, watching TV. It's cute to see their relationship grow.

Cole is a tender soul. He loves to pretend to cook in our little kitchen we have for the kids, he loves dolls, he loves stuffed animals, and loves to be cuddled. He also has a very hard time if we ever get onto him for an infraction or if he has to sit in time out. It seems to hit him harder than the other kids and he gets very upset and sad. (Actually reminds me of me when I was little.)

We love, love, love our Cole. He makes us laugh with the silly things he does and melts our hearts with his big eyes. He is sweet and stubborn, funny and obsessive, tender and loving yet can hold his own. We can't imagine our family with him!

Happy (Chinese) New Year!

February 6th we celebrated one of Lance's favorite Glass holidays: Chinese New Year!

We drove up to Northern Virginia and were able to meet most of the extended family at one of our favorite Chinese buffets.

Love it when these cousins get together!

We're always here for at least two hours, eating and talking. It really is a great holiday.

So full!

Jude was able to read his entire fortune, minus one word. He's making some great progress.

Cousins!

Well, we tried.

And it wouldn't be New Years without some homemade rice cakes. Lily thought the pink cakes were great.

While we were up there, we stopped by Grandma's house. She was out of town for Jude and Cole's Birthdays, so the boys were excited to blow out some candles and open a gift. 

A Lily in shining armor.

Happy New Year!!

February: It's a GIRL!

February 2nd we found out we are having another GIRL! We are so excited Lily will have a sister and can't wait to welcome this little peanut into our family!


Now all we need is a name!


Speaking of peanuts, this little one never stops moving.

She is constantly climbing, jumping, running, and laughing. I get tired just watching her. Don't let her tiny size fool you! She is capable of big things and can keep up with her brothers no problem.

Lance is plugging away at Scouts. He and his dad attend each week and work on merit badges at home. It's neat that Scott gets to serve in the Scouts with Lance.

Jude is really into video games, his favorite being "horror maps" in Minecraft, or "scary" games like Five Nights at Freddy (nothing too intense, but there are some good jump scares throughout). No, he doesn't actually play them, he likes to watch videos of other people playing through the levels. He claims he's not scared, but more often then not I'll wake up in the middle of the night to this little visitor:

Bender doesn't seem to mind the company, even though Jude takes over his bed.

Jude got to experience his first Valentine's Day at school this year! (Lance happened to be in San Diego with his Dad and Abbey and missed his class handing out cards.)

This is the first year we've had to put together a box. Jude said he wanted a Minecraft box, so we put together some perler bead characters and I printed out a .tif of a dirt block that I glued to the outside of the box to make it look more true to the game.

I love the creeper poking out of the hole. That was all Jude's idea.

Excited boy!

I love moments like this.

It gives me hope that through all the bickering and tears, they are actually friends and do indeed love each other.

Costco and Sam's Club are some of our favorite places to go to run errands, usually for lunch after the gym. This is a classic Cole outfit: his blue Santa hat that is never out of season, rocking the orange sunglasses. 

Love this kid!


February is Cole's Birthday, so much of my free time during the month was spent putting together his Train Birthday party.

Thank goodness for little helpers!

The kids all wanted a chance to help paint the train piñata. (What else would you have at a train birthday party?)

And  you can't forget the train cookies! We ended up taking these to the party and had the kids decorate them there.

The highlight of our afternoons is getting Lance and Jude off the bus. Cole and Lily especially like to wait in this tree that's right at the stop. Lily has become an expert climber of this tree and if I turn around for even 10 seconds, she's shimmied up a good 5 feet off the ground. This girl is crazy!