A Smokin' Hot Fire Truck Birthday Party

I’m sure there are plenty out there who will disagree with me, but as a mother of two boys, I often feel like decorating for girls is way easier. Add some frills, some bows, some pom poms, some flowers… and you’re good. Not so with boys. Nevertheless, I was pleased with how my son’s recent three-year-old birthday party turned out.

I tried to keep it simple. I already shared about the chalkboard fire chief helmets and the rescue water buckets that were given as favors.

I used the invitation from Paperless Post as inspiration for the water bottle labels and this graphic:

For decorations, I used the following:

the graphic above (in an 8×10 frame I already had at home)
the Melissa & Doug Giant Fire Truck Floor Puzzle (which I gave to my son as a birthday gift the night before… he loves it and it was perfect for the table!)
red tablecloths from the dollar store
red plates and napkins
various firetrucks we already had
some chalkboard labels (same ones I used for the 1 day to 1 year pictures project)

The only semi-significant cost was the giant puzzle (which is only $12 and has already gotten tons of use at home). The water bottles were more time-consuming than I expected, but since the fire hats were very cheap and the rescue buckets came from the dollar store, I didn’t mind spending a little more time on the water bottles. Plus, the birthday boy was obsessed with them. Seriously.

I tried to keep the menu simple, as well. We had sausage and jalapeno kolaches (aka “fire dog kolaches” and “3 alarm kolaches”).

I found some beautiful strawberries and watermelon (which seemed like a good idea because they’re red… anything red works, right?).

And I made two kinds of cupcakes: dalmations and flames.

Like I said, simple really was my goal. I didn’t do anything fancy once we got there; I just taped the tablecloths down and put the stuff on table. After all, three-year-olds couldn’t care less how fancy it is, right?

But every kid adored the fire hats:

And enjoyed the fire truck playground (the park is fabulous, by the way, with tons of other equipment for all ages, all fenced in and beautifully maintained):