A Day with Thomas the Train, a 13 year old, and a 2 year old ready for his nap…

Thomas the Train made of Mega Blocks

Yesterday my family and I had the wonderful idea of taking my nephew to see Thomas the Train, live and in person. The Oklahoma Railway Museum was hosting a special event where kids can meet the life-size blue train.

On a side note, my nephew loves watching Thomas on TV. Before he could even speak, he would make the ‘choo-choo’ sound when the show started. Now that he can speak, he yells out “Thomas”, or the equivalent to it.

In theory taking him to see Thomas was going to be great. And even though he wouldn’t remember it, it was something that we would enjoy as a family.

So, we get to the Oklahoma Railway Museum and have to park in a muddy field. That’s okay. We were lucky and got a spot near the road, so we didn’t have to drive through too much mud.

Grandpa carried him through the gates and right away we saw Thomas the train. My nephew was VERY excited and began making his ‘choo-choo’ sound, which got some chuckles from everyone.

We bought our tickets, which included a twenty-five minute on Thomas (technically it was on one of the passenger carts, which were old school). The train ride was fun, but those old carts were rickety, rocking back and forth.

After the train ride was over, we went through the museum and it’s themed events. As each event passed, my nephew began to get more and more cranky… until we reached the point that we were THAT family -  you know… the one with the screaming kid that you stare at, but try not to get caught staring at.

Oh, and I forgot to add one little detail here. My niece was also there (of course). You all remember my niece, who comes up with the off-the-wall stories? Anyway, yesterday was her birthday. Now, she is a great kid. But spending her 13th birthday with Thomas the Train didn’t go over too well, even though we have a ‘real’ party scheduled for later in the week.

So, by the end of the day this is what we had:
1) A Cranky 2 year old boy who needed a nap
2) A Cranky 13 year old girl who wanted to leave
3) Two Grandparents who wanted to leave
4) One Mom who was trying to keep it all together
5) And one Aunt, who was just laughing (that’s me, by the way)

I can say that we all survived our day out with Thomas the Train, though. And it definitely made memories.

Happy Valentine’s Day… also known as the Eve of My Birthday

Yes, dear readers, as the title suggests my birthday is tomorrow. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I LOVE my birthday. I start counting down months before. I get excited. I hypothetically wore a tiara one time… Hehe, I digress.

The one gripe I have with my birthday is that it is the day after Valentine’s Day. As a child, I would always get left over Valentine’s items as ‘birthday gifts’. People forgetting… even though I remind them (Haha). Not being able to have a party outside because it's cold. That sort of thing.

It’s not always bad, though. My family always made sure that I was able to have a great birthday party, which often ended up being at Celebration Station or Chuck-E Cheese. I also had a ton of wonderful parties at home. And to this day, we still do something as a family even if its just going out to eat.

I would say that my all-time favorite birthday memory would be when I turned six. My Dad woke me up early, like around 5am. He was a truck driver and would often be go before I even got up. I walked into the living room with blurry eyes.

Sitting on the side table was a bouquet of 6 pink roses. I was thrilled. I had always wanted to get flowers for my birthday. This was mostly because my older sister always got them for hers. Her birthday is in June and her middle name is Rose - so Roses for her birthday was an obvious choice. Anyway, I was so happy that I finally got roses for my birthday!

As the years went on, I realized just how special those roses were. When I was six, I didn’t understand that roses are in high demand around my birthday. I didn’t understand that the prices sky rocket this time of year, either.

When I look back on my birthdays, they are filled with so many good memories. But the roses definitely stand out.