A Mommy Story

I’ll admit I was a little lazy this year and didn’t throw a big birthday party for Mira. However, I’m not totally to blame – I had the option of throwing her a party, or instead taking her for an amazing day out with her favorite TV celebrity, Thomas the Tank Engine.

Sure, Mira likes cake and ice cream, but the opportunity to ride in a train car pulled by Thomas? What can top that?

Mira may be a girly-girl who loves pink and dresses, but she’s also a Thomas fanatic. Her blankets are Thomas. Her pajamas are Thomas. Her entire room is decorated in Thomas and the other engines. I read her a Thomas book every night at bedtime. If this kid could write, she’d probably be sending creepy stalker love letters to Thomas.

Our day started out bright and early with a long drive towards the Cleveland area. The Day Out With Thomas event travels all across the country to different scenic railways – it’s a great way to connect train-obsessed children with the local railway resources in their areas. Our stop was at the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway, which had been taken over with everything Thomas for that weekend.

Aside from the train ride itself, there were lots of activities at the event. They had bounce houses and an activity tent filled with Thomas train sets to play with and activity sheets to color. The story time tent featured live readings of Thomas stories and occasional videos as well. You could also meet Sir Topham Hatt and get your photo taken with him. They had live music and a magician, a spot for kids to get free temporary tattoos, and of course a huge gift shop.

Thomas was the main attraction, however, and Mira was asking where he was from the moment she stepped out of the car. We weren’t there long before our boarding group was instructed to come to the station to line up. And then, from around the bend, we saw him chugging along on the tracks:

I thought Mira might faint from excitement at that moment. Even as an adult, I have to admit it was pretty cool. The engine looked just like the toy models on TV, complete with moving eyes and puffing steam. We waited for the previous passengers to unload, then found our assigned car and climbed on board. Two little girls could not be happier.

The train ride lasted about 20 minutes and took us through some beautiful woods and fields. During that time Thomas music played from the speakers (very quietly) and a short Thomas story was told. A costumed conductor came through the car and punched our tickets, chatted with the kids, and near the end presented each child with their own Jr. Engineer certificate.

When the ride was over, the girls asked for a quick photo by Thomas and then they played in the activity tent for bit.

We played for a short while longer, then took a peek through the gift shop and let Cordy and Mira each pick out one souvenir before heading for home.

Did Mira have a good birthday? Well, this was her 5 minutes after leaving the Day Out With Thomas:

She later declared it was the best birthday ever. Considering all of the birthday parties she’s attended in the past month for her classmates, I felt pretty good that we came through with something that didn’t involve spending a lot of money to rent out a party facility. Parties with friends can come later – for a four year old who likes trains, I think this was a pretty awesome birthday.

Full disclosure: I did receive complimentary tickets for the Day Out With Thomas event in exchange for sharing my honest opinions of it. It was a fun family outing, and I can already tell you we’re planning to purchase tickets for when Thomas travels to southern Ohio in the fall.