Sing it with me... "Thomas and his FRIENDS" or We are officially UNCOOL

We went this morning to our family celebration of James birthday (he will be 3 on 15 August). Since we don't plan much of a b-day party here on the actual day-- we will have a cake, but not a big friends-invited shendig at the house, primarily because we just moved here and don't know any other kids yet. It is fortunate that he is not old enough to really realize... it is all the same to him at this stage.
A few weeks ago I looked into railroad/railway museums in CT because I thought it may be fun to take a little train ride for his birthday. Well, who could have guessed that Thomas' Day Out would be in town in Thomaston, CT-- conveniently named, for sure-- but based on the NUMEROUS giant clocks dispersed throughout the town we presume that Thomaston is named for Seth Thomas the clockmaker.
Anywho-- we headed this morning to Thomaston at 7:30 AM-- which I am sorry to say was at least 1.5 hours after we woke up... Willy has dropped the morning nap and is not yet in sync with a good wake-up time. It will happen soon we trust.
About a week ago we told James that today we would be going for a 'special birthday suprise'. We told him it involved Thomas but didn't go into the details. He was pretty excited nevertheless.
The event turned out well considering the potential for major child meltdown/bank-account-draining-commercialization. We signed up for the earliest train (9AM) and it was not overcrowded, hot, or full of fussy kids. It was delightful-- a really fun train trip through the CT countryside-- towns, hillsides, streams and rivers galore. The extremely marketing-savvy folks who run this show then give you a "coloring sheet" on which you should obtain stamps at 4 of the different booths at the event, namely the photo-op with Sir Toppam Hat, the Storytelling center (featuring readings of Thomas books, or playing of DVDs), the coyly named 'imagination station' (where they show you ALL of the different railways they make featuring Thomas), and not surprisingly the "Gift Shop" tent, where you can buy ALL of the items featured in the other tents. Once you get your four stamps you receive a FREE picture frame! But of course by that time you've blown your birthday budget at the Gift Shop.
They also had a live (small) animal tent and the typical fair food booths. The train museum was super cool, and we will definitely visit again with James' grandad Peppy the train enthusiast.

James and Will holding hands on the car ride to Thomaston

James in orange on the right staring intently at Thomas

Tree Frogs!

Mike was mostly interested in the timbers used in the building...

Mom and James enjoying a model-train enthusiast tent

James not really interested in standing still for a photo...

Sir T-Hat

sugar-infused train set-up by James and Mom