I hate birthday party games. And shower games. I also hate Candy Land. I’m a party pooper. Sue me. That said, we will be playing two semi-tolerable games at our fire truck birthday party.

Pin the Tail on the Dalmatian

I thought I was super smart in coming up with this idea. Turns out I wasn’t. It’s on every fire truck, fire engine, firefighter and random dog birthday party game idea list ever written. However, it’s still a cute idea. And because it’s a) easy, b) cute and c) not overly annoying, we’re doing it.

I got the template for the dalmatian body and tails from Birthday In a Box (both .pdf files). I printed them out on our printer. Because I printed on flimsy regular paper, I glued them to foam (craft store), cut them out and now they’re studier. In fact, I think we’ll save this for future use. I don’t know if we’ll have another fire truck party as I feel my days of helping choose themes are drawing to a quick and emotional end, but hey, someone I know is getting a fire truck bedroom overhaul for Christmas. Instant wall art.

To play the game, we’ll put fire dog ears (oh yeah) on the child who is taking his/her turn, blindfold them, spin them around a few times and push them (gently) in the direction of the dog’s butt. Cue parental amusement. Winner is obviously the closest to where the tail actually goes.

Find the Fire Hydrant

Cut out fire hydrants on red (or yellow or whatever color you choose) construction paper. (Here’s a .pdf template.)Before the guests arrive, place them all over your party space. Have them line the walkway or stairway into the house or party area. Place them under tables, in easy-to-find hiding spots and in a couple higher spots for any older children.

To start the game, explain that when there is a fire, firefighters have to find a fire hydrant to hook up the hose in order to get water to put out the fire. I may cue them to make fire sirens while they are on their hunt because it will make for a good video even if I’ll be deaf for two days. Pairing up older children with the youngest will assure that everyone gets at least one fire hydrant. (Cut out three to four times the number of fire hydrants to children attending.) The winner is the one with the most fire hydrants.

As an aside, I swiped and changed this idea from a friend who did this game with bananas for her daughter’s monkey party. Kudos to one of the many Mandys in my life.

And that’s it. That’s all I can handle. We’ll all be deaf after the fire hydrant game anyway, so that should probably be the end of it.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about gift bags for guests. Which probably means I should make final decisions on that and, you know, order things. Oops again.

I’ve got to admit, I haven’t actually made this purchase yet. I’m busy talking with the person who owns the design I want to use, which you’ll see at the end of this post. I’ll buy it when we get something figured out — remember, this party is for two boys, not one. However, these are some of the decorations that I considered.

I hit Etsy first, of course. I loved this fire truck Happy Birthday Banner and associated accessories.

Toadally Cute’s shop has a bunch of amazing decorations, and I loved the colors in this fire truck set. The light yellow and the blue with the red are almost what I was looking for, and I loved the scalloped edges. Her matching cupcake toppers were cute. We don’t really “do” bottled water, but she even has labels for that! I loved how everything was light and fun and went together so well.

Next I found a “printable” set of firefighter decorations with red, yellow black and white fire decor.

This set is bright and fun too! In fact, it’s even a little brighter! For those unfamiliar with printables, you receive an email with the .pdf file and can print out as many or as few of whatever you like. It works for people with good printers (me!) who have a little extra time (hmm) and who have huge families and lots of birthday party attendees (me!).  We did a printable gift for FireDad this past Father’s Day. Anyway, this big set ($49) comes with everything you need. From the inivitations (oh, don’t need those) to the banner to a sign for the door and so on. In fact, one of the only reasons that I didn’t choose this particular set was because it had more than I needed. But Shindigsparties‘ has amazing sets.

I went off Etsy to look at what the mainstream options were. My mistake. Of the few options out there, this fire truck set was the only one I could tolerate.

It’s a little much, no? While I love bright stuff, it’s just a little overwhelming. I don’t hate it though. And if I went to a party where this theme was taking place, I’d just put on some shades and stand next to the punch bowl for awhile. With a flask. Maybe a firefighter flask!

In the end, I decided to go with a printable theme on Etsy that was a bit more simple. Tom Kat Studio came through for me.

I convoed the designer to ask if on the cupcake pics if we could have the boys’ names instead of initials. She was very accommodating and polite and generally awesome, especially considering her main designer was out of town. I honestly love the simplicity of this fire truck birthday set — white, black and red, vintage truck, simple lines. I will be pairing it with some baby blue streamers to go with the Meri Meri cupcake holders. And really, I like baby blue better than yellow anyway. No shades needed.

For “extras” at the party, we’ll be throwing in some of the following: silver/white and red fire truck balloons, some other red balloons, two big Mylar fire truck balloons (as LittleBrother specifically asked for a fire truck balloon for his birthday), red, white, black and light blue streamers, red plates and cups and such, and confetti … if I can find some metallic confetti like this that isn’t located in the UK.

And, voila! Party-for-less. As we always have more than eight people, we can’t just buy a “party in a box” for eight. It doesn’t work. I like the idea of printing (and keeping) decorations. It saves me money and doesn’t hurt my eyes. Win-win.

If you’re looking for fire truck birthday invitations, I wrote about those yesterday. Tomorrow I’ll be writing about my least favorite part of a birthday party: games. Yay…

[Disclaimer: I will be paying for the decorations I order. I accepted no compensation for linking to other decorations. This is pure opinion up in this piece.]

Today I’m going to talk about invitations. I don’t know why, but I love picking invitations. Kind of like I enjoy looking through site after site for the perfect Christmas card. I found quite a few during my month long search. I ended up going one route, but I thought I would share a few possibilities with you.

First of all, I love photo invitations. I hit Etsy first this year, and really liked this fire truck photo card.

I love the colors! (Though, as the designer states, you can change them. She even shows the yellow as a blue background which is equally adorable.) In fact, this whole Etsy listing is really awesome. I love when designers are willing to work with customers, and Announcing You sounds like she really, really gets the concept.

As an aside, because I love giving credit when it’s due, the photography in this photo card is by Captured Moments by Mandie.

Next up, a digital-scrapbook-like photo card design.

This scrapbook-like fire engine invitation from Scrapless Press is stinking adorable. I love the dalmatian spots detailing, the hose at the bottom with the RSVP date and the general “vintage” feel of this particular invite. I also love the wide spot for a photo. So perfect.

I also found a surprisingly large number of non-photo firetruck invitations that were just as cute.

This red and yellow fire truck invitation was my favorite on Etsy.

By RachelP at Etsy, this listing is actually for a printable invitation. You tell her what you want on it (names, dates, locations, etc), she whips it together and emails it to you. (Just like the above invitations, in fact.) I love the bright, bold colors, the fun uses of font and that spectacular fire engine!

This fun fire truck invitation by Invitation Consultants rounded out my favorites.

Apparently yellow is a big color to compliment red, and it works well here, too. I like the simplicity of this card combined with the general fun of the flashing lights. I can almost hear the sirens. As an added bonus, Invitation Consultants are fancy-pants and offer matching things like address labels and postage all in one place. Super fun.

As much as I liked all of these invitations, I went with another one — for a few reasons. I got generally overwhelmed by the choices and waited too long to print them myself. I definitely wanted a photo card. And, really, who doesn’t like ease of use combined with a good price?

I ended up going with a fire truck photo card invitation from Snapfish.

Ease of use is huge for me with our schedules. I imported my photos from flickr to Snapfish, inserted them into the fire truck card, added the info, paid the extra for one day shipping (oops) and, voila! We have ourselves a firefighter themed birthday invitation with two of my favorite little firefighters! (If the link doesn’t work, go to Snapfish, log in or create an account (it’s free), click on products, cards, browse all cards and search for “fire birthday.” It will be the first result.)

Honorable mentions go to Tiny Prints’ fire engine birthday card (non-photo), Lil’ Duck Duck for their “brothers” fire engine birthday invitation and simplicitycitypapers on Etsy for an elegant black, white and red fire truck invitation.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about fire truck party decorations. Which means I should probably make a final pick and order ours today. Let me get right on that…

I lied.

I didn’t do it intentionally. The “I Don’t Know” answer is an automatic reflex. “What do you want for dinner?” I don’t know. “Where do you want to go on our date?” I don’t know. “Why can’t you ever just answer my questions with a decisive answer?” I. Don’t. Know. I usually have answers to these things. Something spicy. The theatre, and not the movie kind. Because I like to drive you crazy? Right?

The truth is that there are a lot of things I might want to open on my birthday. A funky fisheye lens and adapter from Photojojo would be swell. Or some good books. Or even what I assume is a horrible book, though I still feel compelled to read it. I’m also eying this awesome necklace on Etsy.

But I didn’t feel like telling him any of those things. Sure, stuff is nice. But, what I really want for my birthday is for someone, be it my (loving, attentive) husband or my (loud but loving) sons or my parents or my friends or my (stinky but loving) brother or, really, anyone to make a Big Deal about my birthday. Not with gifts. Just a Big Deal. I want someone to bake me a cake. Or buy one. Or cupcakes! I want a nice dinner with my family. Or without them. I want music to be playing. I think I might want a glass of wine. Or three. I want to hear laughter. I want to be surrounded by my friends and family. Not a fancy thing. Not a big thing.

That’s right.

I want a birthday party.

When I was thirteen, which is a big birthday for a girl, none of my friends remembered that it was my special day. No one said, “Welcome to teenagedom!” No one gave me a card. No one passed me a note in the hallway wishing me a happy day and year. I got on the bus and cried all the way home. The year that I turned twenty-five, FireDad had to work. I stopped at the grocery store to buy myself a cake mix, some frosting (these were my pre-baking/cooking days) and margarita mix. When the cashier asked if I was throwing a party, I said, “It’s my birthday!” She said, “You’re baking your own cake? That’s sad.” I cried the whole way home. I know the song goes, “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to,” but I’d really like to experience a birthday without tears. Unless they’re ones of happiness or laughter.

I’ll soon turn twenty-nine. I remember being young and thinking that 29 sounded positively ancient. It’s not. In fact, I’m realizing as those numbers loom at the end of this month that it is so very young. And you know what? I’ve done a lot with my twenty-nine years. And I’m proud of it, of myself. Even though LittleBrother told me, just this morning, that twenty-nine was “vewwy, vewwy owld.” I’ll remind him of that some day but, knowing him, he’ll probably just laugh. I could learn a lesson or two from his easy-going personality.

I’m unsure if I’ll throw something together for my birthday or not. I know that my parents will probably drive  out, given that my birthday is on a Sunday. April weather is fickle so I can’t necessarily plan a cookout or anything spectacular. But I know I want people to be around, and not just my three favorite boys. I’m not asking for a surprise party (I hate surprises). I’m just asking for a get-together. Without a house/brush/vehicle fire calling my husband away from the house as happens almost every year.

Is that too much to ask?

So, who is coming?

_
[Disclosure: Some of the links above are through Amazon Associates. Others are not. And if you buy that Etsy necklace for any purpose other than gifting it to me, I'll cry. See above for how I feel about crying this birthday.]

What can I say? I like my sleep.

We usually like to stay in, put the kids to bed a little later than usual and see just how late we can really stay up. I’ll be honest: it’s rarely midnight. As much as I like my sleep, FireDad likes his even more. A few times we’ve talked about braving the elements and going to New York City (without kids) or even visiting Pittsburgh (like I did #10yearsago) or Columbus for their festivities. Then we remember that we’re old souls.

But this year we’re getting all wild and crazy.

We’re packing up the kids, two bottles of wine, a pot of meatballs, Mario Kart, an extra Wii remote and the camera(s) and heading… over to our friend’s house for games, food, drinks and apparently a Mario Kart race off. That’s how we roll. The sad thing is that this is the biggest plan we have ever had for New Year’s Eve in the history of our marriage. We’re awesome.

The truth is that our plans, while not all that wild and crazy, sound like a blast to me. Our kids get to have fun with other kids. We get to attempt adult conversation over the roar of five children racing, playing, laughing, talking and likely arguing over something. Did I mention the wine? I did? Just thought I would mention it again so that I can say FireDad is the designated driver tonight. Safety is so important. Remember that yourselves tonight, okay? Good job.

I don’t think I would be doing anything overly outrageous tonight even if my children were merely figments of my imagination. I prefer low key to lots of people and noise (except on Saint Patrick’s Day in Pittsburgh). Some of that may be my social anxiety. Some of that may be the fact that I prefer yoga pants to anything remotely hip. Some of that may be the fact that I don’t like today’s music. And, really, I think some of it is because I like to take time to reflect a bit on the year we’re closing the door on and that’s rather hard to do when you’re yelling at your friends just so they can hear you. I mean, I’m loud but I don’t like to yell at my friends. Often.

Volume aside, or perhaps in spite of, I’m excited for this evening. Good friends, good food and what will hopefully be a good time. Sounds like a great way to end a very good year, doesn’t it?

Happy New Year!

_

Also, as a quick aside, I went with this for my January 2010 desktop. You can download it here. It makes me happy.

Before I jump into the pros and cons, however, I have to mention that this concept was a complete departure from my previously beliefs. When Britney Spears had her second son just days after her first son’s birthday, someone commented that she’d at least have it easy and could have their birthday parties on the same day. I exclaimed in horror that I would never do such a thing. That’s probably why LittleBrother was born exactly one week after BigBrother’s second birthday. While I am eight years older than my brother, our birthdays are only eleven days apart. My parents never threw a joint birthday party. I’d assume most of this was due to age. In later years when we both had friend parties, we each got to have a big friend party every other year. On the off year, we just had cake and ice cream and presents with our parents.

So I was staunchly opposed to the concept of dual birthday parties. Until I realized that throwing two parties in a seven day time period with Thanksgiving thrown into the mix seemed like sanity suicide. And, here we are, one day out from our Joint Birthday Party. Here’s what we think of it.

Pros

• Timing wise, it’s so much easier. One party and you’re done. Friends and family also find it easier to attend and neither child feels slighted as they would if a friend could attend one party  but not the other. Furthermore, if you have family or friends that have to travel quite a distance, like my family, they only have to do so once.
• One big cake or two little cakes instead of two big cakes. Hooray! We have a big family so we need a big cake. As such, if we were having two parties, we’d have to have two big cakes. This year, we got one big cake as they both wanted the same design. Next year we may go with two smaller (but equaling one big) cakes if they want a different design.
• No one feels left out. While we still make a big deal about their individual days (see below), the other one can feel left out if a party is thrown in honor of the other. I do believe that’s a life lesson (“not all parties are for us”), it’s still hard. One party ensures that two little boys feel special.

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• One invitation! Even if you don’t send it because you’re sidelined by the swine flu. Whoops.

Cons

• The realization of price. If you’ve only thrown singular parties in the past, you have been blessed to separate the costs. When the cost is thrown into one party, you may be caught off guard. Six balloons for each birthday boy resulted in a much higher cost than I expected. Sure, I would have paid the same for two separate parties with six balloons each. It’s just the realization of cost that is somewhat off-putting. On the flip side, you only need one set of plates as opposed to two. So, maybe it works out in the end.
• Age differences do matter at times. I’m the first to say that age doesn’t matter. Much. In a birthday party setting, it can. I had to help LittleBrother open his presents (though he got it by the end) so I couldn’t pay as much attention to BigBrother opening his presents. That kind of stings my Mommy Heart a little bit. Things like music choices and age appropriate games may be difficult for some age gaps or certain years. Age difference issues also come into play with regard to child-friend attendees. Keep that in mind when making your guest list.
• Attendees have to bring two gifts. Granted, like the realization of price, they’d be bringing one gift to two separate parties anyway but it’s that realization that can be a negative thing for some people.

Of course, the biggest con that every parent fears is that the children will feel slighted in some way. Everyone deserves their special day, don’t they? That’s why we still have a (small, homemade) cake with each boy on their individual birthdays. We also give them their birthday presents from us on their birthday-days, not at their birthday party. We want them to realize that they are special and that they are loved. We also want them to realize that they have family members who love them very much and want to be included in the celebration and, as such, it’s just easier for them to attend one party than two. Life lessons again. Shouldn’t birthdays be exempt from life lessons? I don’t know.

I do know that it worked for us. This year. I’m curious as to how it will work in years to come. Judy left a great comment on our previous post as to how her family made it work though that gives me hope.

My one sister and I are two years and one day apart and we used to have joint parties. Then when we were older, we would have parties on the same day but in different rooms of the house (doing the fun stuff separately but cake and opening present at the same time? I think???).

That’s an idea to keep in mind for the future when they’re old enough to entertain their friends on their own. That’s also an idea to keep in mind when we look to purchase our next home (three years from now) so that we have enough space to shuffle children off into separate rooms. Mark that down on my “want list” for our future purchase.

In the end, I’m really glad we went with the joint party. The idea of having another birthday party next weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, makes me twitch just a little bit. I’m sure if I made my family travel out here two weekends in a row just to endure a kid’s birthday party that they might be a little twitchy as well. I think we’ll have to revisit this topic again, each year, to assess and reassess whether joint parties actually work for us but, as for this year, it was a success.

Exhausting. But a success!

If you have experience with joint parties working, not working or needing to change your approach over the years, I would appreciate a comment!

The theme, of course, was Toy Story.

I think, perhaps, I’ll write about the pros and cons of having a joint birthday party for your children tomorrow. As for tonight, I’m pleased with everything that happened, glad to have spent time with friends and family and thrilled that I have two healthy, happy boys that are fast asleep in their beds. I’m not far behind.

Birthday parites are exhausting.

And it was. But, oh, surprise parties are difficult.

You see, in order to get my Dad off of The Farm, we had to create a story about his two brothers owing one another a golf game due to some bet that one lost to the other regarding some sports game. We threw FireDad into the golfing mix, making it his first official golf outing with the men in the family. Surprisingly, my Dad didn’t even raise an eyebrow. (To be fair, the party was thrown the weekend before his party so he really wasn’t suspicious.) The problem, however, was that we sent away four very helpful men; four very helpful men who usually put in a lot of work on big family party days. Cue panic!

My Mom had a mini-meltdown with about two and a half hours left. To be fair, I was also kind of worried but I figured that two hosts panicking wouldn’t really result into anything resembling a put-together party. So, I switched into Super Hero mode, kicked her out of the kitchen and took over the coffee, tea and pierogies. (And clean up.) Somehow this worked though I was really just flying by the seat in my pants by assuming that she needed someone to take over the kitchen. Eventually we were ready. And minus a random yellow jacket sting to LittleBrother’s cheek, the party went off without a hitch. My Dad was surprised. My children were well-behaved. And everyone said that they party was lovely.

But I’m still exhausted. I told my mom that we’ll throw her a known-about party so that all people involved are available to help set up. Also, I don’t have many pictures from the party because chasing my almost two year old and almost four year old around while hosting a party is difficult. At best. But we had so much fun. Ate too much food. And celebrated the best Dad on the face of the Earth. And the best Papau to two little boys. (Although only one is pictured because LittleBrother was snuggling his Daddy and being checked out regarding the yellow jacket sting. It’s good to be married to a fire-medic, no?)

I’m so glad that we followed through with this idea. And that I can finally talk about it. I’m not good at secrets or lying or basically anything that a surprise party entails. Did I mention that I’m exhausted?

Happy 50th, Dad! You were worth it all!

_
[To see the invitations and a review of Vista Print's services, visit Stop, Drop & Review.]

We decided to make you a video (and share it with NewBaby.com!) that includes a few tips on how to throw a kid-friendly (Steelers!) Super Bowl party. In the video you will see a recipe and get some ideas for what to with kids. Below the video (underneath the “read here for more” link) you will find links to some of the things we have mentioned including the fully written out recipes.

Now that you’ve watched our video, if you need more information on the recipe for Texas Soup, want another snack recipe, a link to the cake idea or need the links for the coloring pages, please click the link below to read more.

Recipe for Texas Soup
(As found in our video)

1 lb ground meat
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 package taco seasoning
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans yellow hominy
1 bag frozen corn
1 can pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
Enough shredded cheddar cheese to top each bowl
Sour cream
Enough corn chips to top each bowl

Brown the meat. After it is finished browning, add the onions and let them cook together for a few minutes. Then add taco seasoning mix and stir together. Begin adding each can of the ingredients without draining away any water. Add the bag of frozen corn. Stir together. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on.

After it is finished, ladle into a bowl. Top with a bit of shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream and a few corn chips. Stir together in the bowl. And eat!

For a snack, consider Shedd’s Snack Mix
(Not on our video)

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

1/4 cup Shedd’s Spread Country Crock® Calcium plus Vitamin D, melted
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. hot pepper sauce
1/2 cup unsalted cashews
2 cups oven-toasted rice and/or corn cereal
1 cup toasted whole grain oat cereal
1/2 cup pretzel sticks
1/4 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 300°.

2. Combine Shedd’s Spread Country Crock® Calcium plus Vitamin D, Worcestershire sauce, salt, garlic powder, onion powder and hot pepper sauce in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Turn into large shallow roasting pan and bake, stirring twice, 25 minutes or until slightly toasted. Makes four cups.

This recipe is from MakingLifeBetter.com! You should go visit for some other easy Super Bowl -slash- everyday recipes!

And, if you want to make a football field cake, I think this one sounds like the easiest, most child-friendly way to go about it. You can prepare most of it in advance and let the kids go to town with the decorating.

After you eat, here are the links to the coloring pages in our video.

1. Steelers Logo.
2. Steelers Helmet.

And, just another reminder: Do NOT drink and drive.

Have a very happy and safe Super Bowl. GO STEELERS!