DIY Thomas Mini's Travel Train Track Set

I don't know if any of you have seen these little blind bag packs in the stores. One day we happened upon them in the Dollar Store. I let my 5 and 2 year old boys each get a pack and that is when the obsession started. They are so cute and small. The recommended age is 3 and up, if your child puts toys into their mouth still then these could be a choking hazard. This ended up being a fun thing Rowen gets when we are at the store. They run about $1- $2 dollars a piece and there are SO MANY different trains! Since our collection was growing I wanted to get a case for Rowen to carry them around in. I also wondered if they made special tracks just for these trains. They do have a few different sets that go specifically for these trains BUT I wanted to have more of an open ended toy that Rowen could use his imagination setting up. 

What I came up with has ended up being one of our FAVORITE toys! I have even caught my 8 year old daughter and her friend playing with it! Another awesome thing is all the supplies cost me under $10, excluding the trains. 

The three things you need to start are felt (2 green sheets and 1 blue 8X10), BIG "tongue depressor" wooden craft sticks, and a case to hold it all in. I was going to just use a case I found around the house but I ended up seeing this Thomas the Train tin lunch box case for only $6.99 at Hobby Lobby and then used a 40% off coupon. I call that a score!!!

Here is Rowen with his new Thomas box and a few of his trains inside.

   

The next thing you need to do is get a sharpie and draw train tracks on the wooden craft sticks. I just used another stick to draw my lines.

   

 With two basic 8X10 green felt sheets it takes about 8 wooden sticks to make a circle.

Next step is to cut some water out of blue felt and make a bridge out of popsicle sticks. Your water can be cut in any shape you want. For the bridge I used smaller craft sticks but you can use the bigger ones if you want. I just cut the sticks with scissors and used hot glue to stick the bridge together.

After you hot glue the sticks together just simply paint brown and wait for it to dry.

   

This next step was so fun. Rowen and I took a special walk to find some perfect size rocks to add to the scenery. After he picked about 3 or four we took them in to wash the with foamy soap.

Another simple and fun addition to Rowen's travel train track set is a little pack of dinosaurs we found at the Dollar Store. They also had the option for Safari animals but he wanted the Dinos!

   

After completing those few steps above, you are all set to PLAY!!!

Make sure to make extra track so your child can set it up however they want. They might even want the tracks off of the felt!

Here is a special close up of our bridge and rocks Rowen picked out. 

He loves setting the dinosaurs on top of the rocks.

After your child is done playing, just pack it all up in the case and it is ready for next time!

Since it's just Rowen at home with me on the weekdays these days we have many chances to take his travel train set with us to different places. I had an idea to go let him pick out a set of Thomas Mini's at Target. Then we got a snack and played at a table. He had so much fun lining up all of his trains. We even played a counting game along with his normal pretending.

Here is one last example of Rowen's set up at the Doctors office. I had a normal check up and Rowen had fun playing while I talked to the Doctor. This would also be a great idea to have on plane trips. 

One other thing I was thinking of doing is adding a few micro machine type cars and on the other side of the train track sticks made them road sticks for cars.