Team GeoTrax--All Aboard!

Ira recently celebrated his 5th birthday. Since we decided to take him to Disneyland in lieu of a birthday party I had planned on not having any kind of celebration other than a simple cake for his actual birthday. Well, a couple days before his birthday I decided that we should invite some of the extended family to join us for our celebration.

I think it turned out well. Ira wanted a fire engine cake and so I made an attempt. It turned into the "low rider" fire engine. Ira loved it all the same (so nice when they are 5, I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten away with it if he was, say, 13). Here it is:



The kids enjoyed playing with all the new toys. Emma is becoming quite proficient at the blowdart gun given by Aunt Myra and Uncle Scott. Ira even showed the cleaning ladies all his new water guns (and they were gracious enough to act interested).

For his birthday present I have been scanning Ebay for good deals on GeoTrax toys. I think I am now a GeoTrax expert of sorts. I eventually got a good buy on someone's collection of older GeoTrax toys (I learned never to give up on Ebay, eventually I find something at the right price). The very large box arrived a few weeks before Ira's birthday and he has been dying to open it since it arrived (I opened it and examined the contents to make sure everything was there and in working order).

GeoTrax was definitely a hit with the kids. I tried to encourage my husband to help build a system of track for them to play with but I guess this isn't really his kind of thing. Eventually I was able to get my hands free to help in the building. I wasn't fully satisfied with the results, but it was good enough for the kids. After the party, and once the kids were in bed, I went to work devising a new system of track.

My brother-in-law mentioned during the party that he could see who the GeoTrax were purchased for, and that night as I was setting it up I had to admit--I love playing with the GeoTrax, if only in the set up. The next morning I heard my oldest son and daughter busy playing with the new set up. My son was having a blast delivering "cargo" around the GeoTrax city I had constructed. It was fun seeing him enjoying the "city" I had built for him.

It's been a couple days and I'm itching to start changing up the track. I told Ira that one day he'll wake up and the track will be different. He was a little alarmed at this notion. I guess he and I enjoy GeoTrax for different reasons. I enjoy the "possibilities" that the track can construct while he enjoys giving "life" to the built GeoTrax world. So here is the current track set up, in all it's gloriousness: