Sound the Alarm!

front of invite

back of invite

Cal's birthday party was a success...PHEW!  I have been in planning mode for over a month now so I was thrilled for the party to come (and go!).  

Back story: The fire station is across the street from our house and we pass it every single day as we leave the neighborhood.  Cal LOVES it.  Sometimes, when we are out walking, if the garage door is up, we will stop in and visit the trucks.  There is also an ambulance in there.  Cal loves walking through the place pointing to the fire truck, ambulance, and JEEP!  (they have some jeep-type 4 wheeler thing in there as well).  The guys there are incredibly sweet and are very welcoming and always let Cal look around.  Just great guys.  

So, I asked these great guys if they ever did birthday parties...like, came to them with the truck.  They said they would love to!  So there, my friends, the idea for this party was born.  

Some of the cah-jillion pictures taken from the day.....

the decor/favors:

cupcake table

 I had the fire truck arrive about 10 minutes before the party was to begin.  They parked right in front of my house (sorry, neighborhood!) and even put up the huge ladder!  Pretty sure people knew which house was ours. We moved all of our porch furniture out into the back yard for more seating, and we carried all of Cal's big toys into the yard for the kids to play with during the party.

  Mr. Cal had an interesting party day.  He didn't go down for a nap as planned.... instead, he got naked (who is surprised???) and played in his crib like a wild animal.  I was pretty desperate to get him to sleep.  Finally, at 3:25, I went into his room and he was out like a light. The party started at 4.  SIGH.

Once the fire truck got set up, some kids started arriving and we didn't want Cal to miss out on anything, so Eddie went and woke him up.  I had ordered an outfit for him to wear (side note: I LOVE this outfit...Eddie felt it was too girly.  WHATEVER.  I will give y'all the website of this place and you will fall in love with their selection...and PRICES!).  So, Eddie got him dressed and he came outside and saw the truck:

I should note that in this picture, he was running directly into my arms as I was taking this.  Not that you care-- I just want to remember the way I felt as he ran to me.  Kinda like my heart was going to explode.  And like every minute of planning this party was worth it for the face you see above and the hug I received about 6 seconds after this was taken.

 The happiness was short-lived.  Cal was totally overwhelmed.  We put him in the truck for a picture, and this is what we got:

 I am sorry, but that is some kind of funny.  How can you not laugh at that??  It was just too much excitement all at once!  He had just been woken up and there was a freaking fire truck at his house!  What did we expect??

Eddie and I climbed up in the truck with him for a family shot and we got a little bit of a smile out of him:

also: see the sunglasses? It POURED the day before..and the day before that.  and the morning of the party.  But about 2 hours before go time, the sun gods came out for a visit.  Bless you, sun gods.

 Cal was warming up a little bit-- a VERY little bit, and let Eddie put him in the driver's seat:

For the first little bit, Cal only wanted Eddie's mom to hold him.  He wouldn't go to anyone else and wouldn't let me take his picture. He was whiny and fussy and just a real pill.  I thought it was going to be just a lovely party with him acting like that.  Then, something magical happened...

 BRAD SHOWED UP!

 It was amazing!  Brad got out of the car and Cal got SO excited!  He and Brad started running around each other in circles shrieking.  It was JUST what Cal needed to snap out of his funk!  It was like he didn't realize that he was supposed to be having fun during all of this, but when Brad arrived, he realized he could have fun too! The above picture is one of my all time faves.  They really are great buddies...even at two years old!

After playing on the fire truck for a while, we headed to the back yard to play on some toys and the swingset. Kids kind of went back and forth from the truck to the back yard again.  I had the food set up on the screened in porch out back.

I am betting he ran 5 miles that day-- non stop running!

 Then, I got the brilliant idea to try to get a picture of all of the kids in front of the truck.  Sounds easy, right?  Well, there were 21 kids at the party, the oldest being three.  It was a challenge!  I took about 50 pictures of the attempts!

Not sure any of those are award-winning, but they sure are fun to look at!

After the picture, we headed to the back yard to sing happy birthday and give Cal his cake.  We have been practicing the birthday song for a while now and Cal looooves to sing it.  He also thinks he needs to blow out the candle after the first verse (line?).

 We were still singing here and he was just blowing away!

 And after he blew out the candle, he was SO excited!  And having everyone else cheer for him made him even more excited!

After his cake "eating" performance at his first birthday party, people were anxious to see what he would do with this cake. He didn't disappoint.

 I put a fire truck train piece on top of the cake and he just thought that was the coolest thing!

 My favorite picture of the day:

after this picture, he took his hands on both sides of my face and planted a wet one on me...notice how messy his hands are.  We were both a mess after this!

I had a feeling he would devour the cake and destroy his outfit, so I ordered a back up t-shirt to wear after the cake (am I crazy, or what?  No need to comment.  Really... no need...)

One of my dearest friends is Julie-- Cal LOVES Julie! He openly tells her he loves her and always offers her kisses...

Cal headed over to the tree house for some juice and to hang out with his friends...

 love this squat....

It was SUCH a fun time with so many wonderful friends.  I say this all the time, but really and truly, we are so so lucky to be friends with such a great group.  Cal loves his little buddies, and Eddie and I really enjoy their parents too!  It's perfect!

Thank you to anyone reading this that wished Cal a happy birthday, either in facebook land, twitter land, or in person.  I think it's safe to say that it was just that: a happy birthday!

Notes:
invite: Tiny Prints
cupcake toppers: etsy
jon jon and t-shirt: Barefoot Designs (become a fan on facebook-- you will not be disappointed.)