mommy adventures, on the cheap!! Train birthday party

A few weeks ago, after sharing stories of a fun day with a friend, he told me i should be blogging this stuff!!! He was right, and being that I had blogged for years, his comment reminded me that i miss it. Why did I stop? Twins. . . thats why! That and a dying laptop, and a new ipad with no keyboard that I actually wanted to use. Fast forward to a new mac mini in the house, and I still didnt get back into it. My husband was wonderful enough to bring home a super cool keyboard for the ipad and Im set:) I didnt start though because I was trying to decide how to categorize our little adventures. . . price? transportation? season? Tonight, I finally decided it doesnt matter! I just want to share our stories and cheap/fun finds so my friends and their friends can perhaps benefit from our brilliance:) My boys turned 3 last month. I didnt want to host a conventional party, nor could we afford one of those cute indoor play facilites. . 300-400 bucks, and thats not even food, cake or party favors?!?!? SO! We took our inspriation from a super fun playdate with a mommy friend. We rode the new train line from La Cienega/Jefferson to the California Science Center! Train tickets are $1.50 per adult, per boarding, and kids are free until they are 5! Each adult ticket allows 2 kids (i think) so its not like one adult can drag 30 kids along. . . not that theyd want to. Anyway, we spent the morning together running around the museum, we ate lunch on the benches outside and rode the train home. This was one of several train trips we had taken since the recent opening of the metro/expo line, but every time, the kids get SO excited to ride the TRAIN:) For the kids party, we invited families to meet us early at the train station. We all met in the parking lot, which was a ghost town. . . who is riding the train at 10am on a Saturday? Families with young kids! :) We loaded birthday gifts into our car, and loaded up our wonderful beach cart with our party essentials (which were minimal since the location was the attraction!) A few families opted to drive their cars to the science center, but most everyone rode the train with us:) Once at the center, everyone weas free to explore on their own and we decided to meet back in the entrance to the rose garden at noon. We ordered pizza from a local pizza hut and went about our morning. I met the pizza guy a few minutes early and texted all the parents that lunch had arrived. The weather was hotter than I expected, but it worked out well. We found an empty gazebo in the rose garden and enjoyed lunch in the shade. Everyone was impressed with my fancy rainbow cupcakes (thanks pintrest!) and we finished out the day with bubble wands from the party favor bags. BIG hit and it made for great pix too!! The train ride back was prety quiet as our previously excited kiddos were zonked:) I was so thrilled with how their special day came out. Everyone had fun, and $$ was minimal:) We paid for adult tickets, pizza and drinks, party fee to the science center, party favors and cupckae mix (this was a big savings because I spent hours baking and decorating)