All aboard the Dinosaur Train!

Even though Lydia's birthday isn't until Tuesday (Aug. 6) we have been in full party mode all weekend.

It started with a fabulous birthday party, courtesy of Derek and me. That's right -- we'll take the parents of the year trophy right over here, thank you very much.

For those of you not living in a world steeped in PBS Kids shows, you might be unfamiliar with "Dinosaur Train." Feel free to acquaint yourself here.

To be honest, I'm not that familiar either. Lydia has seen the show mainly at her Grandma Larson's house, and on the iPad here at home. But when we started thinking about what kind of theme party to do, it all came together flawlessly. Well, not flawlessly, but they're 4-year-olds, so they couldn't tell :)

We played ring around the rosies, London Bridge, hot lava rock (hot potato), find Buddy in the egg (Buddy is a dinosaur train character) and a memory party game while we waited for everyone to arrive. Then, our train conductor (Derek) punched each child's ticket and we climbed on board the Dinosaur Train assembled in our hallway.

The train's first stop was at the pin the head on the dinosaur game. Then, we took the train into the great outdoors to dig for dinosaurs in the dirt. The kids loved it, even though it was insanely hot.

Future paleontologists

Back inside for presents and cake and ice cream. Then, thanks to a bit of a timing situation caused by me telling the parents to come back after 90 minutes instead of 60-75 (see, the party wasn't totally perfect like I keep pretending it was) we watched an episode of Dinosaur Train and blew bubbles outside. Overall, however, for our first "friend party" it was a raging success :) 

Lydia loved the train cake with dinosaurs all over it.

Happy Birthday sweetie!

Derek and his "co-conductor" Connor.