Firefighter Birthday Party

My dear Sebastian turned four just a few weeks ago, and to celebrate, he requested a firefighter birthday party. And so that was what he got.

In past years we have done a rocket party, a car party, and a robot party (which was before this blog was started). Some of them have turned out well, and some of them…well, yeah. But this one was a good one.

Let me share the details:

The Invitation

I went simple this year. Just a cute graphic and some details about the party.

The Apparel

I always like to have my boys wear thematic appropriate shirts for their birthday parties. I had intended to buy a firetruck shirt from somewhere, but I kept putting it off, and by the night before his party, I realized that I was going to have to make one. But it all worked out because by the time of the party, Sebastian had gotten obsessed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and especially the shirt he got on his actual birthday. So to satisfy us both, I made a firetruck shirt with a Ninja Turtle driving it. I just used this freezer paper stenciling method, and it worked out great.

As a prize for one of the games (detailed below), I made firefighter hats for all the kids. I had considered just buying the thin plastic ones that you see all the time, but we had destroyed so many of those that I really wanted something a little sturdier than that. I saw this red foam cowgirl hats at the dollar store and decided that I could use that as my base. I think they turned out pretty well. I’ll post a tutorial about how to make them soon.

The Craft

To go along with the firefighter theme, we made “fire” nightlights. I got this idea (and many others) from this great blog. To make them, I gave each kid a canning jar, some modge podge, and some squares of red, yellow, and orange tissue paper. The kids painted the modge podge on the jar and then stuck the squares to the modge podge. After they did as much tissue paper as they wanted, they finished by covering the jar with another layer of modge podge to seal it. Then they each got a flickering tea light to put inside the jar. I was really please with how this craft turned out and how the kids responded to it. It was definitely a win.

The Games

First we had a water drop game. I covered some pennies with blue tissue paper to resemble water droplets, and the kids had to try to get as many drops into the bucket of  “fire” (an orange bucket) as they could while standing on something tall (our ottoman). This game worked pretty well, but I think I needed to have more water droplets available, and it was definitely necessary to stress and re-stress that the drops be done one at a time.

Our second and last game was a letter scavenger hunt. I printed the phrase “Happy Birthday Sebastian” on individual flames and had my sister hide them around the house. Each letter had a number on the back that corresponded to my poster. The kids had to look for the letters and then slide them into the corresponding bucket of water. This one was a lot of fun, but we had trouble finding one letter. I actually didn’t find it until well after the party, But the adults were able to help the kids figure out the “secret message”.

The Food

This was the first year that I was able to do cutesy little name tags for the food. I loved it! We served fireballs (meatballs) both gluten-free and not. We had flaming fruit and fire sticks, which were just red, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables. And that was served with smoke, a sour cream dip. To drink we had fire extinguishers (water bottles), and four-alarm hot cocoa, served with whipped cream fire extinguishers.

And for dessert we had fiery jello and a burning building cake. I strategically placed the candles in the windows so that my little firefighter could blow the fire out.

The Take Home Treats

Aside from the hats they got earlier, each kid got to take home a rice krispie treat pop and a book of “matches”. To make the rice krispie treat pop, I made a thick recipe of rice krispies, cut them into rectangles, and dipped them in white chocolate. While the chocolate was still warm, I added a flame that I made out of red and orange modeling chocolate. Add a stick (or a straw in our case) and wrap it up, and you’ve got a cute little favor.

I saw this book of matches on a Pinterest pin, but there weren’t any instructions to go with it. So I just made some up. I was really happy with how the look of the red chocolate dipped pretzels with the paper matchbook covering turned out. Is it bad that I was excited to have Sebastian hand these out?

And that was basically it. All in all, we had a great time celebrating my four year old firefighter. Happy birthday, sweet boy!