A fire station party

Yesterday the birthday celebrations for Drew continued with a small party for Drew and two of his friends. We gathered at our house, then made the trip to Battle Creek to visit the fire station. It ended up working out very well and everyone had a great time. At the end of our visit to the fire station, we took this picture, which I think gives you a taste for the excitement of the fire engine and the fire station. Before going to the fire station, we had kids running around our house wearing hats and blowing on noisemakers. The energy level stayed pretty high throughout the entire trip. The 3 to 4-year-old crowd is energetic!!

We also had birthday cupcakes (Drew chose them) at our house and sang to Drew. We had a total of four kids, so each cupcake had a candle in it and each kid got to blow one out. It worked out well!

Kate thoroughly enjoyed her cupcake!

Kate was big-eyed as we arrived at the fire station in Battle Creek. She loves the fire station and visiting Uncle Todd.

We got to try a little of everything at the fire station and that included Uncle Todd's fire helmet. That thing is heavy! Drew's favorite part of the fire station: seeing Uncle Todd's bed. Apparently it is fascinating that Uncle Todd sleeps at the fire station while on duty (although Todd didn't sleep much last night after we were there).

Drew thought it was funny when I wore Todd's helmet. He likes to tell me, "Dad, you're not a firefighter!"

I'm not a firefighter, but I can always pretend! Todd helped me get decked out in all the gear. I told Jana that I could pass for a firefighter, except for the beard. Firefighters can only have facial hair below their lips or above it (hence the high percentage of firefighter mustaches).

Kate made herself at home in the fire engine.

Todd got all geared up too and showed us that we don't need to be afraid of firefighters when they come to rescue us.

All the kids took turns approaching Todd and listened to his weird breathing through the mask.

Kate was fascinated by Uncle Todd in his mask and helmet.

Did everyone have fun at the fire station? Ummmm....yeah!

Todd demonstrated some of the equipment for the kids, including his marvelous bat catching technique. Probably didn't know that your local fire department can do that, did you?

The kids were quite interested in the tools inside the fire engine. The quote of the day came when we first walked into the fire station and upon seeing the fire engine, a child exclaimed, "Whoa! How did you built that??"

Todd took out some of the tools for the kids to hold. Parental blood pressure was probably the highest during this part of the visit, but everyone did a great job keeping their tools on the ground and just holding them.

At the end of our visit Todd opened up the doors to the fire station and we got some pictures of the kids on the front of the fire engine. I started with one of those pictures at the beginning of this post, and I'll finish up with a few more.

Here's a final video from the fire station that captures some of what we were doing. Todd put the lights on and run the siren a bit for the kids (which was very loud). It was wonderful because the room with the fire engine is entirely enclosed, so the kids could run around and on the fire engine and we didn't have to worry about them getting into anything.

Drew had a great time with his friends and was very proud of showing off the fire engine. Thanks to Todd and crew at station 5 for helping us with the visit. It was fun!!