More birthday Fun!

I know, I know- it's kind of ridiculous that I'm still writing about Beckett's birthday (it's been a while), but we got to enjoy one more fun activity before we called it a wrap on Beckett's 2nd birthday.

On his actual birthday we did what Beckett loves best- ate "Happy Cake"!  Our friends came over after school and we all enjoyed some presents and some Thomas Happy Cake- it was so fun and he loved hearing them sing the birthday song to him.

This one is his first picture of the day.  He woke up to a Thomas wonderland in our house and, of course, a special birthday chair!

Ok- so here's where we eat happy cake.  Willie the Whale came home from school with Emery, so he got to enjoy all our birthday festivities too!

When Matt came home from work we opened the rest of our family presents and made some quesa-deeellas (another Beckett favorite)!

The next day Beckett, Emery, Gigi and I loaded up and headed to the Rosenburg Railroad Museum!  We've never been before and I hoped it would be something that Beckett would like (trains= another Beckett passion), so it kind of felt like a gamble as we drove the 30 minutes it took to get there.

The first thing we did was watch a movie about trains (or so the tour guide said).  It ended up being pretty dark and about train safety.  Great.  Things are not looking up for this excursion!

The museum is built right by a working railroad in Rosenburg and it's a busy one- a train came by at least every 10 minutes while we were there. They also have 3 different outside exhibits to see, which is where we headed next.

Our first stop was the caboose.  I had no idea the conductor sits in the caboose and the engineer sits in the engine car (see, it's starting to get fun and educational!).  We learned alot about the caboose and played climb up and down the ladder.

Then we moved on to the tower.  This building used to be a working control tower, but (obviously) it no longer is.  They have former control panels and switches in there (it was huge and amazing!), a typewriter, phone, and communication system the trains used to run on.  It was really incredible to watch how all the parts work together to make the train run!

See how high up and close to the trains we were?

We moved on to a passenger car, and then the model train room!  Apparently one man worked on this model train for 25 years and it showed!  It was a huge room surrounded by several working model trains complete with intricate details of villages.  It was hard to get a good picture of the all the details that went into this train.  They have a platform in the middle of the room for the kids to stand and look out from.

I could have watched it all day, but my children were kind of over it.  So, what did we do?  Went to play with the toys.They also have 2 rooms of toys for the kids to have birthday parties in.  They have pretty much every toy train you can imagine (surprising, right?), and a kitchen area with tables.

We stayed in here and had to play trains (because we NEVER play trains at home!) and the kids had the best time!  It ended up being a really, really fun trip for us and I highly recommend it for anyone who loves trains (big and small!).

THOMAS!!!

 Hold on to your seats people.  The big day is here- it's our turn to go see Thomas the Train!

I am a really good planner, so I booked our tickets for 8:30 on Saturday morning in a city that was an hour away from our hotel.

Go ahead.

Do the math.

Then lets all ask together- "What was I thinking?"

I know, I know.  We woke everyone up at 6:20, dressed them, shuttled them off to breakfast, and got in the car to drive to Burnet by 7:30.  Your welcome, children of mine, for the fun family memories starting bright and early in the morning.  Thankfully, everyone actually went to sleep around 9 and slept all night.  It was surreal- I knew we were in for a long night of no sleep, but they were sleeping superstars!

Anyway, once we got to Burnet we got to see the big man himself. 

 We casually walked bolted for the line to ride the train and made ourselves at home- in the very last car.  Which ended up being awesome because our 4 seats faced each other and the kids could walk around a little more (since we are such awesome sitters and all!).  The conductor came by and punched our tickets and then we were off!  The kids were SO excited and it was a lot of fun.  Burnet The Island of Sodor is a really pretty town, and we all enjoyed looking at the scenery and actually riding on a train- not something you do every day.

 

 After our ride was over we waited in line to have our picture taken with the Blue Guy himself.   I didn't realize he would actually move, but he did!  That may have been the highlight for Beckett- watching Thomas go out and come into "Maron Station". :)

We shopped for something special for the Birthday Boy (who wanted it all) and for the Birthday Sister who wanted what Birthday Boy left behind.  We ended up with t-shirts, trains, and more trains!

 We stopped and had a snack (Matt's face pretty much sums up how we are all starting to feel).  Emery HAD to have that balloon and, naturally, it popped.  And then it was the worst day EVER! 

Until we found the tattoos (which she later said was her favorite part of the whole event).  Tattoos make everything better. 

And we decided to call it a day around 11:30.  And this is the face Mama gets for waking up a sleeping 4 year old at 6 in the morning.  Your welcome, Emery and the rest of Burnet.  You. Are. Welcome.

Everyone rested on the drive back to the hotel- well not Matt, he drove- and we stopped at Subway where my children decided they needed to eat at their own table.  It wasn't crowded so we let them go for it.

When we got back to the hotel Beckett still needed a little more rest, so Emery watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (thank you hotel with no Nick Jr or super kid friendly kid shows) and then I spent an hour with her exploring the hotel and acting as her personal paparazzi.

After everyone was done napping and tearing up our hotel room it was time to head to dinner!  We made plans to meet some friends from back home who were also coming to see Thomas, and we had an absolute blast!  We went to The Oasis and these Houston folks were so happy to see all the hills!  The scenery all weekend was amazing and made driving around so much fun.

And again- I am Emery's personal photographer.  The first one is in the courtyard of The Oasis and the second is from our table.  See the views?  Amazing!  This restaurant is known for having the best sunset views in Austin, and even though it was cloudy, the views did not disappoint.  

 We ate, we laughed, we wrangled, we had a great time!

We stayed for over 2 hours and decided that The Oasis had probably had enough of the 9 of us.  The courtyard outside the restaurant is so adorable and had several benches and rocks and statues that are kid magnets!  We decided to let them take some pictures outside and this is what I got...

Awesome.

After a long (but fun!) day it was time to go back to the hotel and get some rest.  We headed home the following morning and we were all sad to see our fun weekend come to a close.  

When we got home we got Beckett's new trains out and played with those the rest of the afternoon.  His enthusiasm for Thomas has been brought to a whole new level.  When Matt showed him the new trains he threw his arms in the air and said "THOMAS!!!!", and that made it all worth it.

Happy Birthday Weekend Big Guy!