This is a great way for kids to show their affection for their favorite stuffed animals, especially if their plush friends like to play trains with them! The idea came to me while creating a pattern for the felt engineer hats I've been sewing for some very special stuffed animals. At the time, ...
Assembling and Painting Wooden Trains with My Toddler
Here's another fun thing we picked up at the Northwest Railway Museum's gift shop last July, along with the Instant Foam Railroad I wrote about before. These are the Made By Me! Train Engine, Passenger Coach, and Caboose by Maple Landmark, an American company that makes high-quality, classic ...
Damage-Free Decorating for Wooden Train Layouts
In my post about our Valentine's Day in Vicarstown train layout yesterday, I promised I'd share my secret way to stick things to our wooden trains and buildings without worrying about ruining them. Well, it's not my secret, really. My husband showed me how to do it. Originally, he came up with ...
Painting with Trains on Canvas
Painting with trains or other toys with wheels is nothing new -- and this certainly wasn't the first time we did it -- but here's the Little Engineer's latest twist on it. His ideas led the project deeper into the realm of pretend play, and resulted in a pretty cool end product. Not that the ...
Thomas the Tank Engine Shirt for a Birthday Boy
The Little Engineer needed something to wear for his second birthday party. When he turned one, I had a cute but run-of-the-mill first birthday onesie lined up well in advance. But due to his getting opinionated about his wardrobe over the course of his second year of life, a week before his party I ...
Cut the Rope + Wooden Trains = the Candy Train!
The Little Engineer loves Cut the Rope. Months ago, before he figured it out himself, he used to watch Dada play. When the candy would fall off the screen instead of into the adorable green monster's mouth, he'd make Om Nom's sad noise and do a sign he made up that combined the signs for "cry" and ...
Hi, I'm Jessica! While playing trains for the last several years, my Little Engineer and I have had a lot of fun and learned so much together. I'm excited to share our discoveries with other people who have kids who love trains in their lives.