Little Engineer

Thomas inherited a MASSIVE wooden train collection from Grandma and Grandpa who bought the set in small increments for cousin Mariah (now 15).  Add that to the several sets he has received since birth and you are looking at a very impressive railway.

You wouldn't know it however, because he never plays with it.

Yesterday we were in Barnes & Noble and he made a beeline for the Thomas the Train Engine set up in the kids area.  A few weeks ago we went in the train store in Ashland and he and Bryce played and played with the set there.

Clearly, he loves trains. Not as much as tow trucks and all things cars--but he loves trains.

So, I got to thinking about it.

• He doesn't have a large train table to set up all the pieces.  He has a small one, and a VERY small figure 8 will fit, but that is it. No cool bridges and such.

• He has cloth boxes full of train parts and pieces at his reach, but as I realized quickly: train assembly is hard! (Creatively that is, they snap together easy peasy)

The sun returned today.  And, I got an idea.

We have a large patio table on our back deck.

Today we made it into our very own train table.

I pulled out the boxes and bins chalk full of train track and bridges and pieces and we spent hours finding ways to fill the table with different routes.

Now, it did not match any sort of awesome layout you can find in the stores, but it worked--and our trains had fun riding the rails. We often had to tweak different spots, but it was a lesson in patience and engineering (the science kind, well, I guess and the train kind).

I think that this solution was a great one and I think a train table day maybe once a week or so is in the cards for this fall.  We can of course use the living room or play room floors, but I loved that we could walk away from this on a sunny day and return when we wanted to without tearing it all down and without it getting kicked over or stepped on. Plus, it was waist high--much easier for train play!

 Choo-Choo y'all!

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