Noah's Firetruck Birthday Party

Now that I've updated you about Noah's 3rd year, it's time to talk about the party!! When I asked Noah what he wanted for his birthday party theme this year, he told me he wanted firetrucks. Well, firetrucks and Darth Vader, so we settled for firetrucks. ;) So, away I went planning an adorable red, yellow and aqua firetruck-themed party for my little guy. First on the agenda, the invitations. I love including photos of the birthday boy on the invites, so I thought, what better way to do this than to have Noah driving the truck?! :)

I was so happy with how they turned out! I wanted to create a more vintage-inspired design for the truck itself, and I like how this one came together. It had to have a dog, because well, my boys love dogs! Instead of printing on the back of them, I decided to mount them on red card stock. As a plain white invite, I thought they might look nice with a bit more color around them, as well as how sturdy they become with the added layer. I also wanted the water from the hose to stand out more, so I hand-painted the aqua water splashes with aqua (on the lighter color) and clear (on the darker color) acrylic paint on each invite. It gave it a nice texture as well.

After the invitations were mailed, I started brainstorming (aka, browsing Pinterest) ideas for the party. To decorate the house, I bought some red, goldenrod yellow and aqua latex balloons (inflated with helium and hi-float) at the local party supply store. For this party, I also bought a silver "3" and a generic firetruck balloon. I made a custom banner that read "Happy 3rd Birthday Noah" using the same firetruck/color theme.

Here's an example of the banner letters, close-up. I used dark gray yarn to string together the pendants. It worked well and looked great!

For the party favors, I bought plain white paper bags with handles (from Michaels) and added personalized tags with each child's name and picture to them. Inside the bags, I added a firetruck coloring book and red firetruck crayons that I made (I bought this chocolate mold and these red crayons, melted the crayons down, poured them in the mold, and voila, red firetruck crayons!). For a themed "snack" I bought individually wrapped white Lifesavers and packaged those in clear, plastic bags and topped them with favor tags (reading "Thanks for coming! You're a real LIFESAVER!"). To help decorate the room, I set the bags on our bookshelves and tied a balloon to each one, and set a firetruck hat on top of each bag. I personalized these for each child as well with their names, along with personalized fire chief stickers that they could wear. I also set out a jar of the Lifesaver mints for all of the party guests. :)

This year, I made a cake and cupcakes for the party. I didn't want to attempt any elaborate decorating of the cupcakes on the day of the party, so I made cupcake toppers (coordinating with the banner and invite elements) to stick in the simple, white-frosted, vanilla cupcakes that I baked that morning. I purchased these cute white cupcake liners from Michaels. For the cake, I made my favorite vanilla sheet cake recipe in two 8" round pans. I tried a new recipe for an icing that I found here. To decorate the cake, I used Wilton's color flow icing to trace the firetruck to place on top. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. ;) All of the plates, bowls, napkins and utensils were purchased at our local party store.

I found a recipe for a gorgeous golden yellow punch here. I roughly followed it, using 1.5 large (46 oz) cans of pineapple juice, a 2 liter bottle of Sprite, 2 cups of Country Time lemonade mix and 2 cups of cold water. I topped it with some slices of lemon as garnish. The flavor was delicious and the color was perfect! For those who didn't want punch, I also provided bottles of water personalized with labels I made. I bought the cute, 3-gallon drink dispenser at Walmart last summer. I had the aqua straws leftover from his party last year, and added some red ones that I found at Michaels.

For the dinner menu, I chose:

• HOT dogs (100% all-beef hot dogs)
• BBQ pulled pork sandwiches (pulled pork tenderloin with Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce)
• SMOKEHOUSE baked beans
• RAGIN' CAJUN macaroni (macaroni pasta with a Cajun-seasoned cream sauce)
• FIERY fruit (strawberries, oranges, pineapple)
• MATCHSTICK carrots (carrots with ranch dressing)
• FLAMING Jell-o (layers of raspberry, mango and lemon)
• BLAZING cheese dip (jalapeño queso with blue and yellow corn chips)
• SMOKIN' s'more pops (marshmallows coated in chocolate and graham cracker crumbs)

I wanted the food to go with the party theme, which is why I chose what I did. Thanks to my mom, dad, and sister for helping me get all of the food ready, as usual! I also did a small ice cream topping bar to top the homemade vanilla ice cream that my dad makes. Sooooo good!!

Here are some pics of the birthday boy enjoying his day!! :) His firetruck outfit (how lucky I was to find it in coordinating colors, too!) was purchased at Kohl's.

The final item to take care of was the thank you notes. I started with a flat 4" x 6" card, but decided to go with a folded 3.5" x 5" card instead. Plenty of room for a sweet thank you for friends and family!

I wanted to try something new for address labels, so I made a "wrapped label" that puts the return address on the back, and the mailing address on the front. They're cute and fun! :)

Because who doesn't love getting something sweet in the mail instead of bills? ;) It was an adorable, fun party for a little guy who loves firetrucks!!

Happy 3rd Birthday to our tiny man!

All items you see above are available for customization and purchase through my business page, kreations by kristy. You can also find me on Facebook and Etsy.