Firefighter/Fire Truck Birthday Party

My "baby" (Jaxon) just turned five! Where does the time go??? Anyhoot, this year he wanted to have a firefighter/fire truck themed birthday party. Here are some of the highlights:

THE INVITATION (addresses have been removed to protect yours truly):

THE MENU

• Pizza
• Red Velvet Cupcakes decorated with cherries (per the birthday boy's request)
• Cheetos (AKA flames)
• Pretzels (AKA matches)
• Chocolate Chip Cookies (AKA Fire Truck Wheels)
• Orange and Lemonade Capri Suns for the Kids
• Coca Cola in glass bottles for the Adults (because if I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, Have a Coke and Some Style)

ACTIVITIES, MUSIC, and GOODIE BOXES

Activities

• Rescue the Cats from the Tree (climb a tree to "rescue" stuffed animals that have been placed in the tree)
• Ring the Dalmatian (try to throw Dollar Store glow necklaces around an inflatable Dalmatian's nose - this is harder than you'd think!!!) 
• Fire Target Practice (shoot a water gun at a fire target that is attached to a tree - the kids LOVED this)
• Visit from Local Fire Department (Contact your local Fire Department to schedule a visit from a fire truck. The firefighters will explain the truck, equipment, and their jobs as well as hand out hats, stickers, and coloring books. If you're lucky, they might even run the lights and sound the alarm when they drive off - ours did! I do recommend having this as a "surprise" activity because we were told that in the event of an actual emergency, the firefighters would not be able show up for the party. So, to avoid having a bunch of disappointed guests - not to mention a disappointed birthday boy - we opted not to tell the kids about this activity until the fire truck showed up.)

Supplies Needed For Games

• Rescue the Cats from the Tree - borrow stuffed animals from your children's collections for this game (FREE) or if you are so inclined, this can be your giveaway for the party. (We opted for choice #1.)
• Ring the Dalmatian - 3 packs of Dollar Store necklaces (these come two to a pack - $3.00), inflatable Dalmatian (You'll probably never believe that we actually already HAD this gem - someone gave it to me and I squirreled it away because I was certain that I would need it for a party one day. Anyhoot, not that you can't Google it yourself, but the one we have looks like this Inflatable Dalmatian for $6.99.)
• Fire Target Practice - 4 sheets of poster board - 2 yellow and 2 red. ($3.00) Cut them into flame shapes and staple together. Tack to a tree. We already had a water blaster water gun and a large container to hold water for refills.  If you don't have these items, they should be easy to purchase cheaply at the end of the summer.
• Visit from Local Fire Department - It's a nice gesture to make a donation to the Fire Department that comes out to visit the kids.

Music to Play During the Games

• Burning Love - Elvis Presley - "I'm just a hunka, hunka burnin' love . . . "
• Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash - "I fell in to a burnin' ring of fire . . ."
• Disco Inferno - The Trammps - "Burn, baby, burn . . ."

Goodie Station and Boxes

The Goodie Station consisted of the following candy choices:

• "Stop" - stop sign lollipops - ordered from JuC Suckers by Lollipops Made 4 You on Etsy
• "Drop" - Dots Gumdrops - purchased the next three candy items on the list in bulk from Candy.com
• "Roll" - Tootsie Rolls
• "Firefighters Are Lifesavers" - Lifesavers

I purchased red goodie boxes a the local party store for $0.99 each ($9.90 for 10). I used Avery Round Labels to decorate the food table, candy bins, and goodie boxes.

The Avery Label number I used is 22830, and they were available at Staples ($14.99 for 90 labels). This label has its own template online, so it was very easy to create matching stickers for the party, and I have plenty left over for other parties down the road.

For the food table items and candy bins, I punched black card stock with a 3 1/2" scrapbooking circle punch and then adhered the stickers to the center of the circles. I punched holes in the circles and then tied them to the food table items and candy bins with red baker's twine.

All in all, the junior firefighters had a good time today!