David's 2nd Birthday Party

It was hard to decide on the theme for David's 2nd birthday party. He is into so many different things these days that whatever it was, he is happy as long as there is cake. Luckily, or not so luckily depending on who you are, last week David saw several firetrucks speed by with their lights and sirens blazing and all he wanted was "more fire trucks, more fire trucks." So we are sorry for whomever dialed 9-1-1, but we are glad David let us know what he really likes.


Putting together a fireman theme from scratch was somewhat of a challenge because we weren't sure how to safely entertain young and impressionable children around a firefighter theme short of lighting the trash can on fire and putting it out with a garden hose (Nate's first idea that was quickly overruled). We finally came up with a few (safe) ideas for games and had seen enough "Ace of Cakes" to confidently build our own cake.

Braiden, Caleb, and Dayson almost believed Uncle Nate when he said he practiced witchcraft to make the water smoke. Actually, Nate went crazy with dry ice trying to make everything seem smokey and thus need firefighter's to put out a not so real fire.

True to form, after several displays of magic smoke, he stopped responding to "Nate" and insisted everyone refer to him as "The Master of Special Effects." Of course, no one did, but that just encouraged him to try harder with his special effects projects and he ultimately sliced his finger pretty badly carving a watermelon. Unfortunately, he was also in charge of taking photos, so his better displays never made onto the camera because he was so busy making sure his props were sufficiently filled with dry ice. One of his better ideas was to move the playhouse near the back patio where we were, and set up several dry ice containers that made it slightly appear to be smoking. The kids all competed to see who could dump the most pales of water in one minute.

Laura put together a cake that made all the kids ohhh and ahhh. It was a burning house with a firetruck on the scene and firemen frantically at work. Nate tried to make it smoke, but his dry ice didn't work as well as he promised it would. David really liked it and only needed two tries to blow out his two candles.

Poor little Aaron was mostly forgotten. Although we really try hard to avoid inflicting an early case of middle-child-syndrom, he honestly just gets put somewhere (like a stroller) while we try to deal with hosting the party. You can see him here, lucky enough to have documented evidence of his existence, scowling at us for not paying more attention to him, and gnawing on someone's leftover watermelon rind. Aaron, we promise to make it up to you.