Catching Up, At Last!

I have not forgotten you, my lovelies!  I've just been struggling with how to balance all this work stuff with the rest of my life:  CAM at school, family, unpacking still, and errands and meetings and all the rest of running a household (granted, with Mick, but still coordinating it all), and my precious sleep.  I think this bug is still playing a role, too -- the other day, I went to bed at 8:00!!

Anyway -- pictures of our weekend adventure in Boothbay last weekend are finally here.

For the record, Boothbay is about an hour away, but the roads to get there are typically only one lane in each direction and they wind through a very scenic, very touristy, route.  So we were anticipating a long ride, and because it was "Kids' Day" at the Railway Village, we wanted to be there early and ahead of any crowds.  (Kids' Day = free admission for kids, and we all know the masses tend to come out for free stuff.)

Last summer, we arranged our trip North especially to be able to see "the big Thomas" at the Boothbay Railway Village.  This year we were in Maine for Thomas' visit, but we'd already seen him in Chattanooga barely two months earlier, and we'd only just gotten to Maine when Thomas was here.  Those two factors together meant we had to pass.  Fast-forward a month, and I happened to see a commercial for the "kids' day" at the railway village -- kids' day as in, kids are free!

We woke up super early on Saturday anticipating traffic to get there (it opened at 9:30).  We didn't tell the kids where we were going, other than "a meeting far away." They woke up, got dressed, and were so sweet all morning.  Such troopers on their sleep-in day!  On our way we made two time-consuming stops: one for a quick breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts, and one at Target because we needed Pull-Ups and wipes. 

Despite those stops, we managed to get to Bootbay in just about an hour!  There was no traffic at all -- perhaps because it was so early (we were on the road by 8), or because it was overcast and dreary, but either way, we got to the Railway Village right around 9:40. 

While we were there, we rode the first train of the day ...

 went through a covered bridge that the kids called a "time tunnel" ...

waved to the conductor when we got off at our stop ...

... rode on a 1938 firetruck (in the rain; no pictures, sorry)

... toured the historic village

This is an old filling station from the 1920s, if I remember correctly.  It was moved to its current location in 1970.

... drove a few trains of our own ...

Love that runny nose.  Sorry, folks, I don't (yet) own Photoshop to spare you this view!

 ... and rode in a 1914 Model-T!  It's 98 years old!  That was super cool.

It rained on and off the entire time we were there, but we still managed to do everything the village had to offer, going in and out of all the buildings, watching an old internal combustion engine fire up, looking at the miniature model railway -- the whole shebang.  The kids loved it.

We loved it.

When we were done, I wanted to duck into the gift shop.  WHM, of course, was immediately sucked by the gravity of Thomas over to the Thomas the Tank Engine play table.  He had no desire to leave.  Finally, I said to him, "There is nothing on that table that is not also at our house.  It is time to go."  And the volunteer who was working in the shop said to me, "You have no idea how many times I hear that exact statement.  I have lost count!"

That made me smile.

WHM and Mommy matched on Saturday.  It was fun.  We might be in Maine, but it's still 'Bama game day!

 We had a great time, and the kids are already asking to go back. Best of all, because Thomas was NOT there, we were able to do so much more of the actual village part, and that was pretty darn cool.

Grandpa, are you reading this?  You need to come with us next time!

--Jen

Learner's Permit?

From last week:

WHM and Gram were just talking about the "Big Thomas," whom we saw for the first time last August while we were in Maine.  (That we were in Maine when we saw him has led WHM to a theory that anytime we are in Maine, the Big Thomas must also be here.  Learning that this is not the case has been a struggle for him.)

Conversation:

Gram, reaching down and hugging WHM: Do you think you can take Gram to see the Big Thomas?

WHM, as surly as can be: I....can't.... drive!!!

--Jen

Train Races and Goodie Bags

The other day I mentioned that I was disappointed about the goodie bags I had planned, and because I waited too long (not really, but apparently) to order what I wanted, the items I'd planned on were unavailable.  Well, I wanted to give each kid an engineer's cap and a red bandana, but the caps were unavailable unless I wanted to pay close to $5 per cap, plus overnight shipping.  (Um, no thank you.)  So, naturally, I freaked until I could think of of a Plan B that would make me happy.

I went to Hobby Lobby the other day and although I wasn't looking for them at all, I happened upon bandanas for a price I thought was reasonable.  I already had the bubbles for the goodie bags.  I bought some Thomas stickers and used the "ticket" stickers I bought ages ago, and decided to make hobo packs as goodie bags.  I had a big old canister of craft dowels in the basement, and it worked out perfectly.  

Of course, I also had Thomas fruit snacks that I forgot to put in the packs (what's a hobo pack without a snack?!) but that was fine.

One of the worst photos ever, I know.  This was a morning one, when I was feeling so crummy. Anyway, the individual hobo packs were pretty cute and it was obvious what they were.  Phew.

I also had to make trains for our races.  I mean, what can you do with a bunch of three-year-olds at a birthday party?  We needed to have activities!

I went to Home Depot and bought three of their small moving boxes. I think they were 70 cents each, or something like that. 

The bigger boxes are two that I bought to test for our move.  They had nothing to do with the party.

 I stood them each up, unfolded, on a tarp, and painted them...

Note:  I really should have primed the red box first.  The blue covered super well, the green pretty well, but the red?  Not so much.  Took an entire can of paint, almost. 

I found a printable Thomas face online and figured I could get away with using Thomas on all three trains.  I hand-lettered the numbers on yellow card stock and edged them with a thick red (or in James' case, blue) marker.  Let me know if you want the link to the printable face.

I cut the wheels with my Cricut and glued them, the numbers, and the faces with sprayable glue.  And I cut the funnels with a box cutter and then carefully painted just the funnels.  I also cut strips along the sides so the boxes weren't quite so tall on the sides and the kids could have a place to hold on.

To do the details for Thomas, I loosely put long strips of thin masking tape on the tarp, actually tacking it down in only one or two places, and painted the tape red.  Then I cut strips down to size and did the details by eye.  For the semi circle, I basically pleated the tape to get the curve.  For reference about the spray paint, this last step emptied my red paint.  Definitely prime if you do this!

And then this ...

... turned into this!

--Jen

And, We're back!

It officially took 24 hours for WHM to ask:

Mommy?  Some day we go see the big Thomas again?  Some day?

I love how much he loves Thomas.  It makes my heart smile. 

--Jen

Mommy? Someday we go see the Big Thomas, Someday?

Wow!  I put out a request on my personal Facebook page asking for people to like the blog's Facebook page, and I went from 3, to 8, and now over 30 followers!  I feel like I should honor that by having my first post back from our busy weekend be something hilarious and sarcastic and brilliant and witty.  First of all, a huge thank you to all my new readers, I am so humbled that you cared to check out this blog!  I really mean that.  I had to step back and pause when I realized I asked, and I received, and people actually took the time to come check out this blog.  Cheesy, but true.

But, all that mush aside, (and to insert some parallel structure here) SECOND OF ALL, I have to put all the warm fuzzies away for a moment and just say sorry, folks.  No brilliant post to start your week -- you'll have to settle for vacation photos. I've got so much to post about that my head is spinning and I thought I'd start with something fun (if not quite fun-ny).

Last year, as you all know, WHM became a Thomas the Tank Engine fan.  Yes, I take the blame and responsibility.

At some point last year we learned about the Day Out with Thomas, where you can ride on a real train that's all dressed up to look like Thomas. Or really, Thomas pulls some coaches and you ride on the coaches.  We just missed the event in Chattanooga, but we were heading to NH and Maine for a late-July wedding, and Thomas was coming to Maine the first weekend in August.  So, instead of going north mid-July and ending our trip with the wedding, we went north for the wedding and ended the trip with Thomas.

That was ... let's see ... August 5, 2011, when we rode "the big Thomas."

Every day since, and usually multiple times per day (and I promise you that I am neither exaggerating nor being sarcastic), WHM has asked, "Mommy?  Someday we go on the big Thomas, some day?"  And after he asks me, he asks Mick.  "Daddy?  We go on the big Thomas again, some day?" By my calculations, that's 275 days of asking about Thomas, times twice a day -- which is a LOW estimate if there ever was one -- so WHM's asked to see the Big Thomas at least 550 times. 

Well, my friends, "some day" finally came.  (Yes, I know the space doesn't belong in "someday," but I'm putting it there to try to mimic how WHM actually says it.)  After a crazy month and not being sure we were even going to get there, and then WHM being sick last weekend when we thought we'd go, we finally were able to commit to a weekend.  We bought the tickets and took WHM and CAM to "the big Thomas" at the Tennessee Valley Railway in Chattanooga.  (We'd been there last summer and really enjoyed it, but as I said, we were not there when Thomas was there.)

Pro tip:  Get the earliest train you can get.  We had tickets for the 9:00 train on a Sunday morning.  We got movie-star parking, everyone was still in great spirits, the kids were wide awake, and we beat both the crowds and the heat.  It was a stroke of dumb luck combined with brilliance.  I'll let you decide whether Mick's contribution or mine was the brilliance.

We also, as you probably know, had a weekend filled with a gazillion other things ... ballet recitals, childrens' museums (two of them!), the Tennessee Aquarium ... and I'll post more about those (well, the ones I didn't already post about) soon.  I'm dedicating today to "getting stuff done," including laundry.  Remember the pile I showed you a few months ago?  Triple it.  I need to fold some laundry, big time. But today, as then, I'm taking myself to lunch with a friend.  So there, laundry, so there!

Okay.  Here are some photos.  More posts to come ...

-Jen

Snuggling on the coach before we started moving.

Checking out the people still boarding.  We were in the first car on the 9am train.

One of the conductors waving as we started chuffing away.

So, the Day Out with Thomas has a whole bunch of activities for the kids, one of which was this jumpy house.  They did a great job, allowing only 5 or 6 kids at a time, and timing it.  SOOoo much nicer than the usual jumphouse-roughouses-of-death that you usually find.

Yes, there's an entire tent of Thomas trains to play with.  Here, WHM is playing with the Trackmaster version.

CAM and our conductor, Mr. Harvey.  He drove down from northern Kentucky for Thomas event last weekend and this, and worked in the shop all week, helping to restore engines and coaches!

Upstairs in the depot they had storytelling and Thomas videos.  And air conditioning.  It was the favorite stop for many parents.  Here, CAM and WHM are taking an ice cream sandwich break.

Island of Sodor

Last Christmas (2010), one of my sisters gave WHM a wooden Melissa and Doug train set.  He was still too young for it at the time, but by March we opened it up and he loved it.  Couldn't get enough.  To the point where for his birthday last year, I wanted to get him a train cake.

WHM had a mild understanding of who Thomas the Tank Engine was, but wasn't really into it.  It airs here on our local PBS at too-early-for-Sunday morning, but every once in a while we'd catch it, so he knew who Thomas was but didn't really ask for Thomas.  Of course, if you buy your birthday cakes at the grocery store and you want a train cake, you get Thomas the Tank Engine, even if your kid isn't necessarily super into Thomas the Tank Engine. 

But when you get a Thomas the Tank Engine birthday cake, be prepared.  Because your little boy will get hooked, and you will end up with a living room that looks like this:

Don't judge me for my nasty carpet!  Someone else's problem in a few months, anyway.

If you're wondering, this took me about 2 hours, with "help" from the little people.  We didn't use all of our track, but we ran out of ways to make the rest fit without re-doing entire sections, so we called it a day.

--Jen

p.s.  Many thanks go to my in-laws for buying Tidmouth Sheds, Toby's Windmill, and Knapford Station this past Christmas.  WHM's collection went from mostly generic scenery with Thomas trains, to mostly Thomas scenery, with Thomas trains, and he's beyond thrilled!

p.p.s. WHM has a train table in his room, but this is way more fun, don't you agree?