FIRE TRUCK Party!!

Yes, I realize this post is overdue AND that Ethan's birthday was almost a month ago AND that his party was 2 1/2 weeks ago (AND that Lynnie has been dropping "subtle" hints to post pictures). What can I say other than I'm sorry, we've been busy and at least now you can enjoy it!! All is forgiven... right? :)


So I decided to do a fire truck themed birthday party for our little Ethan because he is currently obsessed with fire trucks and ambulances, due largely to the fact that we live across the street from a fire station... Go figure. I did a little research online and learned that you can pretty easily set up a tour of a local fire station with just a phone call. Unfortunately we were unable to go to the NEW 2-story, 2-fire pole station across the street (not open to the public until June and you can bet we'll be there!) so we opted to tour another station in town. Sean, Ethan and I met up with my mom and sister, Lizzy, along with my cousin John's wife, Steph, and their two boys Jackson (2 1/2) and Baron (4 mo.) It was a pretty interesting tour, learning more about the equipment on the trucks and the specific jobs each crew member has. As a sidenote, this post could have easily been titled "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" because that's exactly what Ethan did! We had to wake him up from his nap to go to the tour and as much as he loved looking at and being inside the super-cool fire truck, listening to the guy talk about everything didn't exactly hold Ethan's attention for very long. Oh well. Also, notice the little kid with yellow helmet at the bottom of the two pictures above? Yeah, this kid was in almost every shot we have except for the ones at the end. He was dressed in his "firefighter" outfit, complete with raincoat (what??), safety goggles (um, ok) and that weird yellow construction hat/helmet. He was a "funny" little kid who shooshed Ethan several times during the tour. (Yeah, yeah, my cranky 2 year-old's a little fussy... now beat it, kid!)
After the tour was over, they let the kids explore the fire truck a little more and then Ethan was very happy! They even took turns "driving" the truck... SO COOL! A dream come true for little boys. :)

Carefully watching the road like a good little fire truck driver.

And, of course, he had to wear one of his fire truck shirts (I think he has like 5 different ones now... thank you Kohl's for your $5 shirts).

Cousin Jackson was all grins! He was such a good boy on the tour... I was really impressed (and wishing my 2 year-old would cooperate just a bit more)! Thanks to Steph for making the drive down from Portland with her boys - it was great to see you! (And I'm realizing now that I have no pictures of you or Baron from that day.)

Even Lizzy-Lou took a turn in the driver's seat!

Thank you Fire Station #4!

And now... on to the party! After the tour, we headed back to our house and while Sean went to pick up the pizzas, cousin Jeff, Shalene and baby Summer and also Gramma Sandy and Grampa Chuck showed up to help us celebrate.

We had the dining room all decorated... red streamers, red and orange balloons and a giant mylar fire truck balloon! And then, of course, there... was... the... CAKE!!

The lady who decorated Sean and I's wedding cake for our Oregon reception is in the process of going in to business for herself. I got her number by word of mouth and she agreed to make Ethan's cake. Originally the plan was for her to just draw a fire truck on to a 1/4 sheet and call it good, but she asked if she could try sculpting it and this was the final product!

We were very impressed by her attention to detail. She even went to the station to take pictures of the fire truck that Ethan always sees across the street.

There were a few more "issues" with our birthday boy that evening... going back to the whole "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to" deal. Thank goodness Jackson was willing to share his new toy car (again, wishing Ethan would cooperate a little more)! We had a great time with all of our family and missed those who couldn't make it. Thanks for helping us celebrate Ethan entering the "terrific" and yes, sometimes "terrible" twos!