Shern's 5yo Train Themed Birthday Party: Part 1 - Decorations

I just got back from my trip to Europe, thus the longest ever pause in blogging.

Anyway, we celebrated Shern's 5th birthday early last month just 3 days before I flew. So I hadn't time to post the photos 'til now.

Now that we moved into a bigger house, we had a birthday party in our house. And as usual, I engaged Josie, my buddy from Favor-It-Shop to help me out with the deco.
  
Shern loves trains since dunno-when. And seriously, although I am bored with trains, I still went along with the theme, because Shern being happy on his big day is what matters most.

So after brainstorming with Josie, we decided on a 'Vintage Train Black and Gold theme' as to make the whole thing more sophisticated and less kiddy.

Most of the deco ideas I got from my Pinterest board. My addiction to Pinterest paid off because I got so much inspirations and ideas from there.

This was the digital invitation done by Josie. 
Love the invitation which was designed to look like a train ticket. 

And this is how the whole desert table looks like.
Love you loads, Josie.

We decided on putting Shern's name on the banner, instead of the usual Happy Birthday as the banner with the wheels can be recycled and hang in Shern's bedroom!
The banner was in black and white against my almost-gold curtain, which was just right as the theme colour.

And I also super love this genius idea from Josie -to put the a railway track on the desert table. 

So I borrowed a train track from Josie's son (thank you Lucas!), and got Josie to buy me a train from Daiso, which doubled up as a birthday present to Shern as well.

And so we got a running train track on the desert table during the whole party. 

How cool is that, huh?

 

 

And that was not all, we even had a train station made from cardboard with a big S on top.

 

 

And this was Shern's One-of-a-kind Train 5th Birthday Cake for Shern that I decorated. Read all about it here.

Ok, now let's get to the food part.

There was also four tenders with wheels which we modified using plain 'ol cake tins. :)
And on top we piled on food - curry puffs, egg rolls, and marshmallows from Huey&Wah. 

 

The fruit tarts and sandwiches

  

Koonyaku jellies and Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting by Oritta Cakehouse.

 

Some Coke in Mason jars and striped straws tied with gold ribbons, to match the theme colours.

 

And the compulsary red eggs. 

There were other food as well on the bar counter. 

The roti jala with curry chicken, a tray of fried rice for the kids, and some chai kuihs, which was such a hit!

And as usual, I ordered way too much. We were all stuffed to the max with all the food. I hope everyone went home with a full stomach and satisfied. 

And what's a train party without a train, right?

And so I got Josie to make trains out of card boxes. I've got loads of those since we just moved not long ago. And so Josie took some home and sprayed painted it with some deco. 

Well, from feedback, it looks easy to make, but it was really time consuming. But I'm so glad it came out really nice. Super duper thanks Josie.

 

 

And to stick that Birthday Crossing, we took off the standing lamp, and used the stick as the base. 

And Shern got to be a conduction - full blown conductor with a train, a conductor hat.

And he even got to distribute tickets for the kids, for a train pass to ride the train. :)

And there were also several other touches in the house - the 'Welcome Aboard Shern Express' and 'All Aboard' sign that greeted guests as they entered the house.

And also the train arrival/departure board. 

And also not forgetting the mini train tracks on the gate of the main door. 

 

 

 

Besides boarding the train boxes, the other activity we had for the kids is the 'Build Your Own Train' corner.

Josie prepared this and she cut colour papers into shapes and let the kids do some glue-ing to build their own trains. 

This was a hit among the bigger kids!!!! 

 

And I decided not to give our party packs to the kids (because I had no time to think of what to put inside them!).

As both Shern and I are Kit Kat lovers, I asked Josie to turn a 4-finger Kit Kat into a train. She printed the train design (full with nutritional facts even!) and cut out some wheels to stick to them. Simple and nice.

And so that was the 'Baggage Claim' station for the kids, which doubled up as a Thank You gift!

 

 

And we converted the downstairs room into a train area (we took out all the train sets in our house_ for the younger kids to have some fun, together with our bean bags.

 

And look at the mess of the play corner? I think the kids had fun!

And let's end this post with a photo of the birthday boy, all suit up in his conductor hat and in his favourite train!

All in all, it was an awesome birthday party decorations, all thanks to Josie!. 

I will talk more on the birthday party itself, full of pictures of people in the next post Part 2: The Party! Stay tuned....

Photo Credits - Pixous Photography

(Almost) Everything Else! - Favor-It-Shop