"In TRAINing" Obstacle Course

September 28, 2012 By 2 Comments
If you were with us on Monday, I started sharing about my son’s 5th birthday party.  If you missed the first part, be sure to stop here.  Today, we are talking about the awesome obstacle course (yes, I’m biased).    
A child’s imagination is a wonderful thing and often under-used for a kids’ party.  Our party theme was trains, something my son loves.  Even yesterday, we were back out at the railroad and my son told me he just wanted to walk the tracks and pretend he was a train.  (I love the innocence and imagination! . . . and don’t worry, these are 1/8 scale ride-able trains and tracks.)  
Before the obstacle course began, I gave “the speech” to the crew of five year olds.  In order to ride the train, they would need to become train engineers.  They would be challenged, put to the test and we would see if they were ready.  Can you sense the drama?  If they finished the obstacle course, they would be worthy of becoming train engineers!  
It was really fun to see their excitement and their wide-eyed faces as we described each challenge.  We stagger-started the kids, blowing a train whistle each time the next trainee could start.  Thankfully, each task was manned by one of the parents armed with a hole punch.  The kids were given a boarding pass with the name of every obstacle (see above photo) and the parent would punch their pass when it was completed.  
The kids had to throw the bean bags (aka coal) into the pipe.  
Just like the trains, the kids had to haul freight.  
What freight, you may ask.  One of the kid’s 2 year old brother!  

This was my son’s favorite.  All they had to do was send three Thomas trains down the tube.  
And let me say that this is when saving everything comes in handy.  My husband came home one day after buying pieces of siding for the house.  He told me that he would regret it, but I was going to love what the siding came in.  He was right.  I knew we would do something fun with it.  I mean c’mon, who doesn’t have a 12′ piece of heavy cardboard tubing stored in their garage?

For Brewster’s (Chuggington character) Boulder Pit, the kids had to dig through the newspaper boulders in search of diamonds.  I used my leftover giant diamonds from my daughter’s tea party.  
Clarabel is a friend of Thomas the Train.  Her crossing was a fun rope 
obstacle set up by my husband.  I love this kind of stuff! 
Badge Quest is a phrase from Chuggington.  I made little railroad badges (RR signs) and hid a couple under the cups.  The kids had to search until they found one.  Because I was concerned with the cups blowing away, I stuck skewer halves in the ground to help keep the cups in place.  It kind of worked . . . but it did allow me to stick the badge on the skewer and keep those in place.  
The far container had lots of “ball pit” balls.  The kids had to move 10 balls from 
one container to the other as fast as they could . . . switching freight.  

Koko, another Chuggington trainee, often says, “Can’t catch Koko,” as she quickly chugs off.  The kids had to carry Koko on a spoon between two points.  When I tried this at home, my son had no problem.  But when we got on the uneven ground, the kids struggled.  We let them put one finger on Koko, but if you’re going to try this, I would suggest a larger wooden spoon.

At the end of the obstacle course, each child ceremoniously received an engineer hat and was told that they were a train engineer!  And with the closing of the course, we headed over to ride the trains.  

Before you start thinking I’m crazy for doing all of this, if you are new here, you should know that I used to be a Wedding & Event Planner . . . parties were (and still are) my thing.  You should also know that my husband and I were youth leaders at our church for five years.  We dreamed of obstacle courses, challenges and fun games.

Still more to come!  Check back next week or subscribe by email so you don’t miss a thing!

Related Posts:  
A Chugga Chugga Choo Choo Train Party (part one)
The Train Party (part three)

Linked up with:  I Can Teach My Child, Cheerios & Lattes, Tutus & Tea Parties

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Filed Under: Birthday, Birthday Game, Birthday Party, Train Party

Comments

  1. Cindy says:
    October 6, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    This is fabulous!! I was already thinking of a train party for my little guy’s next birthday. Thanks so much for sharing and making my planning all that much easier!!

    Reply

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