Jonathan is FOUR! We are so blessed to have him in our family. We decided to have a "big" party this year and invited 10 young friends over to help celebrate! The theme: FIRETRUCKS!
It was lot of work but I think our 10 little friends had a lot of fun! Thanks to some firetruck theme decorations given to us by a friend, a fire truck cake, and a giant box, this party was the most elaborate ever for our simple family. Oh yes, we had fire fighter hats too!
Talk about perfect timing! Around the beginning of November the school got new weight room equipment. They were kind enough to let us pick out a few boxes. I got this giant box, which I think contained an elliptical machine. It is bigger than even a refrigerator box and quite sturdy! One thing I think is funny is that the machine and the box were made in Hungary of all places! I tried to explain this to Jonathan and he kept asking "Why is that place named Hungry?" So as you see the giant box was transformed into a firetruck. Whoops I forgot to put lights on the top, but it does have 3 steering wheels, 2 doors and 6 windows. It was a big hit at the party. At one point there were 10 kids inside, and shortly afterward they decided to start driving it and pushed/lifted it all the way to the end of the dining room!
Oh my, getting photos of the party action was a challenge! There was so much movement that most of my pictures were just a collection of blurs! Here are a few fire truck action shots, though.
We had a firetruck version of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." The kids had to put a missing balloon on the bunch of balloons in the picture. First Dave demonstrated to the kids how to do it and made everyone laugh!
Here is Jonathan's turn. Everyone who participated got a gummy fruit candy.
So, the cake.
I'm not the type of person to make elaborate cakes, but somehow I got inspired. My first google search for firetruck cakes left me feeling defeated, but then my friend told me to search for "easy firetruck cakes" and I found this one! My friend, who IS the type to make elaborate cakes, came over twice to help me out with the supply list and the decorating. It was a 4 layer cake! The funny part was the frosting. The local red food coloring is just pink....the more you put in, the more pink. I thought I had it made because I had a small bottle of American food coloring. I guess it must have been from the dollar store because we put in the whole bottle and ended up with a bright pink cake! None of the kids ever mentioned it though. They all accepted it as a valid fire truck and there were no complaints!
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| Frosting can really only be enjoyed if you eat it with your tongue! |
The eating of the cake was the best part. Somehow, all of the kids spontaneously wanted to go outside at cake time to play. So as the cake was served, they all found places to sit outside and there were several spills but no mess to clean up inside the house!
We had the party on Saturday and Jonathan's birthday was Sunday. I had to include the morning surprise, a big floppy pancake shaped like a FOUR! I had a fiasco with the syrup, though. It's a long story, but I accidently mixed our maple syrup with sweet soy sauce (which looks identical in a jar in the fridge!)
Jonathan received several nice gifts this year, but here is one of his favorites: a box of "colored cheerios." A few months ago we were at the store and Jonathan quietly stroked the Froot Loops box and wistfully (but not whining) said "Mommy, I really like these colored cheerios." I couldn't justify buying them on a normal day ....so much sugar! His birthday seemed like a good occasion!
