day out with thomas

we had an extra special day today!  daddy took the day off from work and took us to "day out with thomas".  matt and i talked about going to "day out with thomas" last weekend because we thought the kids might like it and we had heard really great things.  we ultimately decided that it was too much money ($18/person).  then i got an email from matt on monday saying that he got free tickets from work!  we decided not to tell the kids anything about it until we got there.

i have been gearing them up all week by playing their thomas movie as a popcorn afternoon party on wednesday and put mason in his thomas jammies on thursday night.  madelyn declared, "i love thomas!" when she saw mason's jammies.

we had to get up and get going because you are asked to be there an hour before your ticket time (9:30am) and it was almost 30 minutes from the apartment.  oddly enough everyone cooperated and never asked where we were going.  it was nice but very out of character.  when we drove up to the train station/park, madelyn saw thomas right away and was pretty excited - "is this where we are going?!"

it was a pretty neat event.  each kid (even maddux) got a 'passport' that they needed to collect 4 stamps on to get a 'prize bag' on our way out.  we weren't able to get a (free) family picture in front of thomas, but at least we didn't have to wait in a long line.

there were several tents set up on the grounds.  one - imagination station - had several train tables and coloring table set up.

since we were in the first train ride group of the day, the crowd was pretty small.  we got all four stamps before getting on the train so that we wouldn't have to wait in lines - turned out to be a really great plan.  the boarding was in pre-assigned groups and we were in the very last car of the train (pulled by a real thomas steam engine).  the train just goes up and back on the same track.  we were able to see several deer on our ride through the woods which was neat.  most of the time we just tickled and enjoyed each other while posing for pictures.

i had read that they would 'punch' our tickets, but we were never even asked if we had tickets!  we could have done the whole thing for free (i mean, without tickets) which was interesting considering how expensive the tickets were.  anyway, they didn't punch tickets, but they did come give each kid a certificate for becoming a "jr. engineer".  mason turned his around for me to take a picture.

after the train ride we went back through all the tents for a little while.  first we hit up the coloring tables.  mason coloring carefully and madelyn seeing how fast she can scribble in the whole page.

next stop was the tattoo tent.  madelyn was happy to get "rosie" and mason picked out "thomas".

in the same tent as the tattoo tables was a 'stage' area.  a magic show was starting as soon as we found a seat and enjoyed some laughs.  madelyn was really into it and enjoyed herself immensely!  i have to admit, he was pretty funny.

on our way out the kids got to sit in some rental truck equipment that was provided by a company sponsoring the event.

mason couldn't stop smiling, wouldn't look up for a picture, and just knew what to do.

the kids all got bags with a mega blocks sample pack, a wheel of thomas trains and their names, and several coupons.  they were both delighted to check it out when we got home.

we took one last picture of thomas as we crossed over the railroad tracks with the van.  love.