Happy 7th Birthday, Topher!

This past week we celebrated Topher's 7th birthday. Since this fella was 3 years old he has been in love with Thomas the Tank Engine and anything {seriously, anything} to do with trains.

When he was 4 we took him to ride Thomas at Huckleberry Railroad in Flint and he was giddy the whole time.

Each year, since that 3rd birthday, Toph has requested a Thomas cake of some sort. The first year was simply a generic train cake pan decorated to resemble Thomas the Tank Engine. His 4th birthday was an actual Thomas the Tank Engine cake pan, his 5th birthday was a scale size replica of James, James' tender and several box cars.

Last year, for his 6th birthday Sir Tophs-a-lot requested a cake with Cranky the Crane... which I managed to make.

Each year this guy sets the bar a little higher and requested a scene from a Thomas episode.

So, my friends, I give you "James in a Mess." In this episode James crashes in to a line of Tar cars after being cheeky to the other engines and shunting the freight cars quite dreadfully. Percy and Toby come to help clear the wreckage and take James to the freight yard to be mended and cleaned {cuz he has tar dripping down his face... you see...}

I used two 9x13 pans to make a cake long enough to hold all of the cars. Swiss Cake Rolls play a special role here as Tar Cars and Raisinettes took a turn as coal in the cars James is hauling. I frosted the whole cake green and put a chocolate frosting layer down the middle with Oreo crumbs on top of that. I swiped landscaping items from Topher's train table and plunked a few Rolo's in to Percy's car to resemble the spools he was hauling in the episode.

This is the super happy birthday boy, about to blow out his candle. Does this cake look super long or what... thank goodness people at Patrick's work aren't picky about cake that looks super odd with the decorations missing. I couldn't leave the cake sitting around the house now could I? Not one of my three children are big candy, cake or ice cream eaters so it would have either sat until moldy or I would have felt bad for all of the Ethiopian children who are starving and ate the whole thing myself - which would have prompted a whole 'nother blog post in itself... and I just don't want to go there - k?

We decided against holding parities for the kids this year for many different reasons. We live pretty far away from everyone now, we don't have the extra $ and I would have to clean my house - oh, the horror at the mere thought! The upside of no party is that Topher was able to talk to many family members via phone and he received loads of cards in the mail starting the week before and going in to the week after his birthday, not too shabby.

One of the highlights of this particular birthday was the special trip to Toys-R-Us. We signed the kids up in the birthday club years ago and now they get a fun little gift certificate to use in the store for money off a purchase. When they arrive at the store they are given a fun crown and Mylar balloon to wear. The extra perk this year was Toph's choice of a few different free items, he went for a free hair cut at SportsClips.

SportsClips is awesome! This was Topher's first time there so he was given the MVP treatment. After his haircut he was given a scalp massage, a hot towel treatment, a back massage and special glue for his mohawk to spike it up just right. I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

This was a super fun birthday that this super fun boy is not soon to forget!