I wanted something fun and cheerful for my son's first birthday. I couldn't avoid a big party due to the size of our families so I just went all out with a train theme.   One of our local malls has a train ride so I rented the community room for starters. It had a kitchen and plenty of room, tables, etc.....   I decorated with red and blue tablecloths and red and blue balloons. I had train tracks made from black electrical tape leading into the room.  My father-in-law is a retired engineer so he had a few train mementos that I used for decoration, as well.  I got some RR crossing signs off of free clip art sites on the web that I hung around the room.   The cake was a choo-choo train cake that I made myself.  It came out so well that a few people didn't even realize it was a cake.  The recipe and directions can be found at Familyfun.com.  Click on cake finder and then choo-choo train cake.  On the cake table I had a framed picture of him at birth, six, nine and twelve months along with his baby book for people to thumb through.   I also made candy train party favors out of a roll of lifesavers, a pack of doublemint gum, a caramel, a Hershey's kiss, and four peppermint candies.  Hot glue the lifesavers on top of the pack of gum. On top and at one end of the lifesavers hot glue the caramel and then on top of the caramel hot glue the Hershey's kiss.  To finish, hot glue the peppermints at either end and on either side of the lifesavers to form the wheels. It looked like a train and was a big hit.  I served rolls with a deli meat tray, a veggie tray, chips and dip, and a couple of other finger foods. I just put canned soda in a cooler for drinks. At the end of the party all of the children were escorted to the train ride, which was luckily right outside the door of the community room, where they all rode the train. As they were leaving I gave them each their train candy favor. It was a blast. I know my three year old daughter had more fun than the birthday boy. He can see the pictures, though, and know his Mommy wanted him to have a very special first birthday.