Stop, Drop and Roll!

Since my 4-soon-to-be 5 year old is all about firefighters it made a perfect birthday theme this year. Our first stop, we met our guests at our local firehouse for a tour.  The kids were excited to me our local heroes and see where they live when they are on call.  They learned about all the different parts of a fire truck, we took pictures of each one as they walked through a fire truck, and our guide even did a full suit up and took pictures with the kids. 

Then it was back to our house for more fun. Guests were greeted with a front door covered with black butcher paper and die-cut words STOP DROP & ROLL in red, yellow and green, and inflatable Dalmatians on the porch that flanked the door. I covered kid tables with black tablecloths and set a wooden fire truck for each guest to paint while I set up for lunch. Bunches of red, yellow and orange balloons and a large Mylar fire truck made perfect porch décor, while overhead fluttered a birthday banner and cutouts of flames, Dalmatians, and fire hydrants hung overhead. I also scored on great plastic fire helmets, which I personalized and passed out to each child.

We had a "No Alarm" chili dog bar with all the fixins, red and yellow food like watermelon, grapes and mini carrots, BBQ chips and red fruit punch.  Our cupcakes were Devil's Food cake with red, orange and yellow swirled frosting and a fire hat pick, and of course chocolate chip ice-cream to mimic Dalmatian spots. 

After lunch, all the children went through a Firefighter Training Course.  One at a time, everyone put on my son's firefighter dress-up, boots and a great mask I scored from a local dollar store, and went through 4 courses.  With a plastic extinguisher full of water, they put out a paper "fire" taped to the side of our shed.  Second, stop, drop and roll down the hill on a blanket.  Third, 5 tires set up for them to run across, to test their agility.  The last station was a table covered in a black sheet with one side covered with red, yellow and orange streamers.  They had to crawl safely through the "flames" and out the other side of the table.

After the relay, we settled down for cupcakes and ice-cream and gift opening.  With great goody boxes shaped like fire trucks, I filled them with rubber firefighter cows, a Dalmatian sucker, a fire extinguisher sharpener, red firefighters, (like green Army men), and fire truck stickers. I also sent them home with a balloon, and they received a treat bag from the fire station that had another helmet, stickers, fire safety info, and a coloring-book calendar. Lots more pix at http://dawnypoo.blogspot.com/2009/06/fie