5 Year Old Fireman

 This boy is 5 years old.  And it scares me just how quick he got there.  My oldest went fast but this kid I swear I am supposed to have an extra year or two before he hits these milestones.  This means he is now old enough to attend Kindergarten.  And like his big sister I still remember all the details of his birth like it was yesterday.  He is my child that has taught me all that I have yet to learn about being a parent.  He is loving and sweet, boisterous and loud, and yet so meek in his need to feel loved and accepted by those he loves deeply.  You know when this kid loves you.  It radiates from his eyes and is expressed in his actions.  Sometimes he loves a little too much.  He is Passionate and smart.  He is a mama's boy.  And I love him so very much.  This year he wanted to have a party with his friends and wanted red, strawberry everything, and fireman everything.  I asked him what he wanted to take to school for a treat for his birthday and tried to convince him to do chocolate or white cake but no he wanted strawberry cake with strawberry frosting.  I even tried to get him to let me put chocolate frosting on his cupcakes but he said "no", because Quote"I don't want people to think I like chocolate".  Funny thing is he likes chocolate but for some reason he doesn't want anyone to think he does.  He cracks me up.  So I made lots of cupcakes and froze half of them for his party.  Actually much easier than his sister who wants something different each time.  Some people might think I am crazy to be willing to do that but we don't do gifts for birthdays.  This is our gift to them.  As well as let them pick what they want for dinner and spend the day with them as well as going out to lunch with them unless their birthday is a Sunday.  Then we do it another day and they get to celebrate a couple days. 

 So for his party he wanted red licorice, strawberries, pretzels, ring pops, red kool-aid squeeze bottles, and cheese balls.   Oh and the Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting.  We originally planned to do the party outside but it was a windy day so we did most of it inside.

 

When everyone first arrived we let everyone color Fireman Sam Coloring Pages. We had 5 different characters to chose from.

 

We sang to him and let him blow out a candle.  The cupcakes had Fireman Sam toothpicks stuck in them.

 We did a bean bag toss to try and put out the fire.

 While they threw the bean bags they enjoyed the treats and made their goody bags.  They got to pick a thing of bubbles, a bouncy ball and, a water gun.  The water guns were originally going to be for a game where the boys were going to shoot water at little cups with a fire on them.  But due to the wind that didn't happen.

 Then we came in a played Pin the Hat on Officer Steele. 

 Then we opened presents where he got a few firetrucks, gum with money, remote control truck, and a large coloring book with a pincher thing.

 Then we had some time left.  With my daughter we ran out of time for her party.  For my son we had extra time.  I planned the same amount of activities but either it is their age or gender or both or my fear of running out of time that threw things off.  But luckily boys like to run around and play tag.  So they did that until their parents came and picked them up.

  For his real birthday cake he wanted Surprise a Strawberry cake.  But he also wanted a fire engine cake so we didn't do the strawberry frosting and went with plain cream cheese frosting.  Thank you Betty Crocker for having great directions online.  However we couldn't find licorice wheels for the hose so I improvised and rolled out Tootsie rolls till they were a long rope and rolled it up into a hose.  Funny thing though the Tootsie rolls melt when exposed to the moisture from the cake over night.  Who knew.  For dinner he was very specific about what he wanted and would except no variation.  He wanted Hot dogs, Vanilla coated Strawberries(white chocolate), and Cheetos.  I tried to convince him to let me add more fruit but he would have none of it.  So that is what he had.  I figure it is his birthday and for one night a year I know he will eat everything on the table it is good.  Grandma and Grandpa came for dinner and brought him a gift.  They were so tired after their trip they came home from the night before.  It was very sweet of them to come still.  It made my son's day.  They gave him a kid shaving kit with a fake razor and a bubble blowing machine.  He loved them.

 Saying thank you.