peep! peep!

that is what our friend
thomas the train says when he is happy
i'm sure it's supposed to sound like a train whistle
but whenever i come across it in a book
it sounds like
a bunch of little chicks
got caught in thomas' smoke stack

on that lovely note...
seeing thomas was just wonderful
the event was in hood river
(an absolutely adorable town that we even ventured around with
get this
no stroller or even a bjorn
we just got out of the car
& walked around a bit
hello?
where is my gold medal?)

officially it's called
a day out with thomas
but like to call it
holy crap look at all of this free stuff for kids to do


the actual train ride on thomas did cost money
which we did pay
but only for the boys to ride
miss m & i hung back
& did girl things
like shop for a thomas t shirt for Q
& paint our nails with thomas blue paint

the cool thing was that
you didn't have ride thomas to get to do all of the stuff
& if we lived in hood river
we would have been there every stinking day

-coloring activities
-a bunch of train tables set up
-a bouncy castle
-play structures
-a petting zoo
-hula hoop & giant ball area
-plus free thomas tatoos
hello 2 year old heaven

-gift shop filled with thomas stuff
-a tent just for changing babies & nursing mothers
(in reality a 6 foot long table & plastic chair in a tent
but better than the
'sitting on a bench in the middle of a crowd
casually covering yourself with a blanket
while trying to get your baby to latch on' senerio
plus they had a container of wet ones)
-corn dogs & elephant ears
hello 31 year old mommy heaven
(actually my idea of heaven
has a lot less
high on cotton candy kids in it
& a lot more
me being fanned with palm leaves
while being shown the secret new season of the office
but you can't discount elepahant ears...)

brian made an observation that it looked like
someone said
'hey where is the biggest gravel area we can find?
yes!
let's set it up here
if it's hot the combination of
cranky kids & insane parents
will be just right...
& hey do you know anyone with a
plastic play structure in their back yard?
oh, does joe have one?
great!
tell him to drag it over
we'll put it on top of a big piece of carpet
those crazy parents will never know...'
(did i mention my husband totally cracks me up?)
yes that is exactly what it looked like
but we are not complaining AT ALL
Q had a blast
we were there for like 2 hours
it wasn't hot
so we were H-A-P-P-Y
:)

also you parked a little ways away
(hey that sounds like i'm from the country!)
& rode a school bus to the site
so when it was time to go
we just said
'hey want to ride the school bus next?'
pure genius

there was also a singing trio
i know
this sounds like a recipe for disaster
hot cranky kids
parents insane from a train ride with hot cranky kids
add a bunch of chipper people singing
'she'll be coming round the mountain'
& you might as well just call the police on arrival
because some one is going to get hurt
but this trio was good
(& wouldn't it have been nice if i had noted their name?)
they had just the right combo of
kids & adult songs
'froggy went a courtin'
&
'closer to fine'
(by the idigo girls
just in case you forgot your mid ninties song reference guide)
very good indeed

if this event comes anywhwere near you
& you know the password
'sir toppem hat'
go
go get your tatoo
& have a blast



ps i do feel an obligation to tell you
there is a booth to get your picture taken with sir toppem hat
or meet him or something
for those of you not immerssed in thomas culture
sir toppem hat owns (?) the railyard
or something like that
mostly he walks around yelling at the trains
& generally being very grumpy
yipee
you really want to meet him don't you?
anyway
it's a guy in a costume
& it is scary
giant head
doughy body
vacant eyes
plus the costume is so hot that every half hour
a man comes by & says
'sir topem hat, time to check your schedule'
so sir topem casually walks away
but i'm sure the minute he is out of child eye range
he is ripping the head off
& pouring ice water down the neck

when Q heard his name
he wanted to go see him of course
but the minute he got to his turn he clung to brian
like i would want him to to if he ever came in contact
with 6 foot tall giant headed dough bodied vacant eyed man..
good job Q!
trust your instincts!

besides that it was perfect
thanks thomas!
peep! peep!
:)