Our One Year Old Fire Chief

This is Jonas Beef the Fire Chief:

And he is officially 1 year old now.  So, we decided to spend his day living any little boy's dream.  

Food:

 We kept it simple and dined on every kind of hot dog or bratwurst you can imagine (or that Wal-mart sells).  Daddy fired up the BBQ and Mommy prepped the toppings.  It was quick and yummy - what more could anyone want?  Poor Jonas didn't even get to enjoy the hot dogs at his own party.  I was too concerned about him choking to death on his big day so I opted for a nice jar of baby food for the big guy.  But he did get to dine on watermelon and he is a LOVER of watermelon.

Family & Friends:

We were lucky enough to have some family and friends over to support Jonas' and his big day.  And they were SO helpful in chipping in to make sure everything went smoothly.  Jonas may not technically be old enough to have his own "friends" but we were happy to share ours with him.  And I'm sure he'll grow up and love them just as much as we do.  

Special Treatment:

His party was on his actual birthday so it was fun spoiling him rotten from sun-up to sun-down.  We started his day with Addison & Daddy & Mommy coming in to his crib and serenading him with the Birthday song.  I can't remember how many times I just busted out singing him happy birthday throughout the day.  Or just randomly shouting "Jonas, it's your birrrffffdaaayyyy today!  You da big boy!!"

Cake:

He got to indulge in the smash cake tradition (one of my favorites) and enjoy his own little round decorated cake.  It was adorable but I don't think we got any actual shots of it.  It was a tiny little thing with white frosting and a cute yellow fire chief hat on the top with his name on the side.  He loved it of course...especially once he got a taste of that sugary goodness.  He didn't dive right into it but after he warmed up to the audience and the taste of the cake, he started getting a little more into it and a little messier.  However, he was actually cleaner than his sister was with her smash cake.  And he's the boy!  Maybe this is a sign for our future on who the messier child will be?

The rest of the guests got to indulge on these:

Thanks to Etsy and down to the last wire, I finally found some cupcakes worthy of a fireman celebration party.  There weren't a lot of ideas but I think these turned out super cute.  And best of all, they were E-A-S-Y which is always a welcomed task on such a busy day.  

Presents:

Lets just say the gaggle of children in the audience (especially his sister) were more interested in the gifts than he seemed to be.  Of course, I don't blame him, with about 10 kids crawling all over him to help or look at every gift or bring him more or play with it, it was a bit overwhelming.  We weren't able to get too many shots of him with presents since he was covered in children and wrapping paper and bows.  We just went to survival mode and sped right through the unwrapping...for both mine and his sakes.  However, he LOVED all of his cute and thoughtful gifts that everyone brought.  I know this because he has happily played with all of them....in the quiet of the living room without the gaggle of excited children.  Thanks to all who gave such special gifts to such a special boy.

Balloons:  

Yes, he liked the presents, the cake, the friends, etc etc but I think this boy would have had just as fun if he were in a room with a bunch of balloons and nothing else.  I almost debated on even buying balloons to decorate with.  However, I'm so glad I did since he was thrilled with them.  I think he played with those balloons throughout his whole party and in to the next two days.  My, I could have saved some money on presents and party planning. 

Firemen & Firetrucks:

And thanks to Pinterest, I was able to learn that community firemen are eager to not only show their trucks and gear to young kids they go even further and bring the actual truck to your house!  I had no idea but I was so glad to find this out.  I was a bit nervous to call the Fire Chief and take his time with non-emergency things like a little boy's birthday party but they were so kind and generous and went above and beyond in coordinating it all with me to make sure it went perfectly.  I don't know who was more excited to see the fire truck....me or the kids?!  I made sure not to hype it up too much just in case they had to spend their time fighting an actual fire instead of entertaining at our party but luckily the stars aligned and we got our visitors.

So at 5:00 on the nose, they drove their big old truck up to our house and honked the horn and let the kids crawl ALL over everything and explore.  They even brought little plastic fire hats for all the kiddos.  It was wonderful.  They even suited up in their HOT gear on an already HOT day and taught the kids about fire safety.  Namely, not to run AWAY from the "scary fireman" if they were in a burning building.  It was such a fun thing to do and was by far the BEST and CHEAPEST party entertainment I have found to date.  

Look at that grin!  He loved driving that big truck!

    

It's true what they say.  Firemen ARE cute....especially with juicy lips like those!

 

Teaching the kiddos some fire safety in the hot sun.

A nice group shot.  Thank you Centerton FD!

 Overall, it was a great party and was a great time celebrating the little man and his first year of life.  I have LOTS more to share about our special guy but I will save it for his picture post once I get those back from our photographer friend.  Just let it be known he is SUCH a joy to have in our family.  And there is definitely a bond that a Momma has with her boy and I'm so glad that he's mine......oh and Daddy and Addison's too.  We are just a lucky family to have him be a part of it.

Happy Birthday Jonas Beef The Fire Chief!!