Levi's birthday present this year was a bit of a challenge for us because we weren't entirely sure what to get him. He's a third child, there are already so many toys in the house that have been bought for or given as gifts to his older siblings. He gets all sorts of clothes passed down from his brother, has the hand-me-down tricycle that has been both Mikayla's and Gavin's, there is nothing he really NEEDS.
We got a great idea for his gift about a week before his birthday when we were at Chapters. We mostly go there for the kids to play with the Thomas the Train table they have set up in the children's section, and of course for the Mama to get a Starbucks. Levi had a blast playing at the table as usual, and REALLY didn't want to leave when it was time. Perhaps it was the screaming, or maybe the tears, or possibly even the kicking as we took him out of Chapters, that got us thinking about getting him a Thomas the train table.
But two things were holding us back a bit, first of all they take up so much space and secondly they are rather pricey when they are brand new. So we thought why not look for a second hand train table? But we found that a lot of people were over charging for these used tables, and we still ran into the problem of space. Here's where my brilliant husband said (as he often does) "I could build something better than that", and from there on we were on a mission to build a better Thomas the Train table.
Jan lovingly built a table top that fits on top of the coffee table in our living room. He filled the cracks and sanded it so the kids would have a safe, smooth surface to play on, and gave it a few coats of primer. Then the hardest part of the whole thing was getting the layout just right, it took us much longer than I'm willing to admit to.
After getting the layout down, we traced it in pencil and began painting, and painting, and painting. I added rocks and sand around the "water features", and painted, and painted some more. This night I got only 2 hours of sleep (oh the things we do for our children!)
The finished product is pretty amazing (if I do say so myself)
And needless to say, Levi LOVES it.
After opening it up first thing in the morning on his birthday he all but refused to do anything else, including eating the pancake brunch I made for him, or go down for his nap. I think we made a winner with this present.
You two did an AWESOME job with that. I never bought my kids a train table. I painted a folding cardboard cutting board (used for sewing) like a landscape. When my son wanted to play trains, he pulled it out from under the couch and built his train set. When he was done we folded it up and back under the couch it went.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea! Where were you 3 years ago when I needed you? lol
Thanks! I only wish we had thought of it 3 years ago too, so our older kids would have had more use from it.
DeleteHave I ever told you how amazing you are? So darn crafty, you put us other parents to shame :)
ReplyDeleteawww thanks moj. no shame for you, you're amazing too!
ReplyDeleteI was going to make something like this, what is the dimensions of the table? We don't have all the tracks yet but would like to plan for a future setup similiar to yours...thanks!
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