Second birthday- Train themed- part 1

hi All,

We celebrated our little one's second birthday last weekend. Our theme was "Trains" as he is totally in love with trains. This was one of the few occasions I actually planned ahead. Our decoration was very simple, mostly handmade as I love DIYs. We invited ~35 guests and final turn out was 24 (11 kids). I will break the planning in different categories:

Venue: We rented a hall in our university community center. It was free of cost.

Food: Our party was 5-7 pm to avoid nap times. We planned a full meal that we catered from a Mexican restaurant. Our menu was:
Pork, Chicken, Rice, Beans, Tortillas and fruits. everyone made their own burritos/ tacos. For drinks, we had orange juice for kids, sodas for adults, water and chai (Indian tea).

Games/ crafts: We had coloring books, washable markers and crayons but kids mostly ran around and it was a beautiful day so they played outside some.

Decoration: To pull off the theme, I made a birthday banner with train engine and cars and a party hat with an engine and car on it. I used a chalk board to write my son's age as we decided not to use the candle again this year (we will use next year, at 3 he would understand the concept of candle better). His cake was our favorite " Tres leches" with a train theme (though we don't care about Thomas but there weren't very many choices). Other than that, I made a train out of fruits and used balloons all around.

 

Thank you all for the wishes!
Rakhii- the cake was Tres leches (in Spanish meaning 3 milks) with whipped cream. The Mexican bakery makes their own whipped cream and it is so yummy. Usually they have strawberry between layers (2 layered, half sheet) but my DH doesn't eat any berries so we asked them to have whipped cream between the layers as well. Because it is Tres Leches, it is soaked in evaporated and condensed milk that gives very different flavor.
Sure, I'd love to brain storm with you. Birthday planning for kids are fun and you always have great ideas anyway.