My son's second birthday party is April 4th. We are going with The Little Engine That Could, because he LOVES trains, but I am not a fan of Thomas. I need a couple of fun food ideas. I have red bandanas that I am attaching to sticks for the party favor "bags," which will be filled with candy, train whistle, etc.
I would have or make a cake that likes look a train. You can probably found a recipe for one by going to the library.I would have pigs in a blanket,trail mix maybe miss the peanuts. I would make a punch calling it hobo juice. Place pictures of trains around the party room. I hope this helps some.
A fruit train could be a fun and healthy treat as well as centerpiece. you can use sliced pineapple for the main part of the engine, grapes for the wheels, etc. and attach everything with skewers. You can even lay down licorice "tracks" from one end of the table to the other....
Try Googling: oreo cake recipe
Here is just one of the results.
www.parenting.com/recipes-article/Recipes/Celebrations/Ho... -cake
i made a really cool train cake for my son's 2nd bday. you can go to familyfun.com then click on cakes and cupcakes, then birthday cakes. they have all kinds of ideas and i believe the train cake was under "transportation". it wasn't hard at all and you can use pretzel sticks, marshmallows, m&ms, etc. for the cargo. depending on how many people you'll have, you can make more cakes and make it longer. good luck!
Here are some links to train cake pans, the one at Williams Sonoma is no longer available but the decorations on the cake in the picture are so adorable that I put in the link. I get inspired by seeing pictures like this when I am trying to get creative.... Anyway, the pan is available on Ebay or other sites. The Wilton cake pan is also very cute and you can find it on Ebay or the Wilton website.
You could use different flavors/colors of cake in each compartment of the little trains for more variety. If many are coming the party you might want to make more cars, each person may get 1 car, I am not sure of their exact size.
It sounds like a very fun party!!!!!! Let us know what you decide, my J loves trains too and this is a good idea.
Good luck!
http://www.trainparty.com/traincakepans.html
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=ush_mailm&ei=UTF-8&...
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku8239147/index....
http://shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_nkwZcakeQ20pansQ20trainQ...
We just had a Thomas bithday in Dec. He turned two. I made giant train sugar cookies and decorated them with royal icing... not too hard. Then we made extra cookies for the kids to decorate at the party and I got ice cream cups at Braum's along with KoolAid drink pouches both for easy clean up and no extra dishes or cups. With the cookies we could just use napkins. and I put their cookies they decorated on a big plate. www.birthdayexpress.com has great party stuff. I got train boxes for favors... not all their stuff is Thomas, actually most of it wasn't. I got a train banner personalized with his name and Happy Birthday... yes I plan on reuseing it! Good luck!!
I don't know how much time, $ and energy you are wanting to spend or if you have decided on a cake, but I have seen cake pans shaped as train cars where each car is a separate mini-cake (Bed Bath and Beyond) they are a bit pricey and in my limited experience making my girls cakes it is time consuming so it just depends on what you want to spend your time on. Your idea for the goodie bags is awesome! I think you can also find animal crakers that come in small packages that look like a train car. Have Fun and enjoy it!
There is a website called www.amazingmoms.com that has loads of ideas on hosting a train themed party from types of decorations to games the children can play. I have also seen plates, cups, etc with the Little Engine That Could theme on some of the partyware websites.
Have a great party.
