Birthday party fit for a future firefighter!

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, all Aidan could talk about was garbage trucks. He was fascinated with watching the garbage truck come to our house and pick up the garbage, he always pointed out garbage trucks on the road and pretended everything was garbage. Being the attentive parents we are, we of course bought him a garbage truck for Christmas. Immediately after Christmas, he was suddenly obsessed with all things firetrucks and the garbage truck that we so deliberately sought out, sat untouched!
Well, when I began thinking of ideas for his birthday party, I immediately thought of firetrucks. In researching a firetruck theme, I came across this tutorial for making a firetruck cake (originally from Family Fun magazine)and it was decided.
My first objective was to find invitations. Though I have made the invitations for the kids recent parties, I wanted to do something different. I found a photo invitation that I liked, uploaded my pictures and ordered them in a fraction of the time that it would have taken me to even make a mock up invitation by hand.

Once the invitations were finished, I began to work on the decorations for the party. I found and printed some symbols of firefighters, a fire hydrant and a crest. I cut them out and traced them onto colored scrapbook paper and dressed them up with some markers. I added "The Firefighters Prayer" and a picture of my little cutie next to a real firetruck made to look like an award for Firefighter of the Year. Finally, I printed a few templates for dogs and cut them out. Then I had the kids cut out black dots and glue them to the template to make dalmatians. They had so much fun cutting and pasting that they kept asking to make more! I added all of the decorations to the kitchen cabinets where the party guests could enjoy them while they got their food.


I purchased a few plastic fireman hats at the Dollar Store for the guest of honor and all of the guests under age 5. Along with the firetruck shirt (from a set of pj's we purchased on clearance at Gymboree), the birthday boy was looking pretty cute!

The final element was the food. Though I wanted to have food that went with the theme, hot dogs, hot wings and four alarm chili, we thought that BBQ pork and cheesy potatoes was a more favorable option for our guests. I made the firetruck cake according to the tutorial I mentioned earlier. Besides the fact that the cake was dark pink rather than red, I think that it turned out pretty cute! And most importantly, the Birthday Boy loved it!


The birthday boy received so many wonderful gifts.


On a side note, I tried to create matchsticks by dipping pretzel sticks in white chocolate (colored red)like these from Modern Moments:
Unfortunately, mine ended up looking more like they were intended for a bachelorette party (sorry, image too x rated for this family blog)than for a 3 year old boys party, so we ended up eating them ahead of time and hiding the remainder before the party!
Despite the match stick debacle and the pink firetruck cake, the party was a blast and the birthday boy and guests had a great time!

Family Pictures

Since our oldest child was born we have always gone to the photography studios that supplied instant gratification! We schedule an appointment, take some pictures and walk out 1 hour later with photos in hand to disperse to various family members.
A family friend recently started doing photography and I was so excited to try her out. Though it was nice in the past to have pictures taken and receive the prints the same afternoon, I was tired of the same old poses and backgrounds. Our family friend was willing to meet us anywhere we chose to do outdoor shots. We chose a local park, where the kids could run around and play. Though it took us about 2 hours to get all of the shots that we wanted, it was a lot less stressful for me not having to hold the kids down screaming and crying to take a picture in a blank white room. Without further adieu, here are our family portraits all courtesy of Lynn at Portraits by Lynn.

A totally impromptu moment where Reese grabbed Aidan in a big hug!


Randy and I looking at each other with googly eyes.


Family portrait


Love, love, love this one!


Pretty as a princess.


My handsome little prince.


There are so many more, I don't know how I am ever going to choose!

Big Boy Room

A few months ago I decided that it was time to finally take down my sons' crib and replace it with a big boy bed. I oringinally chose his crib because it was the same wood tone as our spare bedroom furniture. Though we would need to replace his crib with the queen sized bed and frame eventually, I figured that the dresser and bedside tables would last through his teenage years. Here are a few before pics of his baby room:


I absolutely love the Eddie Bauer crib set which I found at a local children's consignment shop for about 1/3 the cost of a brand new set! I purchased the truck shaped toy baskets at the same consignment shop on clearance. The red curtains were purchased at JC Penney's on clearance. I used a coupon at Bed, Bath and Beyond to purchase the metal stars throughout the room. I also used a coupon to purchase the letters from Michaels. The sports themed rug was from Sam's. I showed you how I recovered the chair in his room here.

We originally took off the front rail of his crib and turned it into a toddler bed, but he was always rolling out, even with the addition of a toddler bed rail. My husband and I purchased a new mattress for our room at about this time and I decided to try the old one out in my sons' room. I placed it on the floor so as to lessen the distance to the floor if he happened to roll out in his sleep. I was very happy to learn that the back of his crib was the perfect size to use as a headboard. We simply screwed a few screws through the existing holes to attach it to the wall.

Someday I think that he will want the bed off the ground, but for now it is perfect.

I found the sports themed hooks on clearance at TJ Maxx and thought that they would be perfect to hang his crib quilt. I attached some loops to the back of his crib quilt and love that the quilt can be a part of his room just a little bit longer.


The room is basically the same, we just moved things around to accomodate the larger bed. Though I like the neutral paint color of the room, I would like to paint the room. I have not yet painted the room because I am not sure what color I want to use. I am also putting off painting because I would like to have another child. As we only have 2 bedrooms upstairs, we would have the kids share a room. Depending on the sex of the child we may have to swap the kids rooms.
I would also like to purchase new bedding, but am having trouble finding something I like in queen size. Unfortunately most of the character or sports themed bedding that I like is only available up to full size.
Aidan is loving his new, big bed and his room. I am loving that the changes to his room were basically free!