"Mom, I'm ready to be a fire mans."

Second annual trip to the Bay Leaf Fire Dept open house. Weather was perfect and this year the kids were brave enough to participate in the awesome activities. They learned how to use a fire extinguisher, crawl through a smoke house and the rules for what to do when there is smoke and a door is hot. They learned quite a bit actually, I was quite impressed. 

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We got to see a "Jaws of Life" demonstration which Austin thought was the coolest ever. When they were done he said, "now it looks like a jeep!"

And a very cool fire demonstration that got a little out of hand. My video was a tad shaky at the end and I wanted to get our hot pants out of there! {Edited to add "there" instead of "their". Pet peeve and I even published it. Slap on wrist! Ouch!]

Very fun afternoon. I actually learned a lot and I know the kids did too. Now we have to plan our "evacuation plan" soon. My only question is...where were all the cute fireman that I normally see in calendars????  :) 

Team Austin

Austin's birthday festivities kicked off Saturday. We hosted a soccer party with all of his buddies (all 16 of them!).  I admit I loathe the goody bags at kids parties that are filled with candy so I made team jersey's for his friends to wear at the party instead.  

Austin requested a cake with "a dinosaur playing soccer" and what the boy wants, the boy gets. This cake was created by Val Plonski who has done several of our cakes and they are always a work of art.

What we did not know was that in the party room there were games and video machines. As well as an oh so convenient change machine. One look at this and Austin dumped his friends and stayed behind to play games. Mystery people must have kept giving him money because he never seemed to run out. He became quite good at the change machine.

To his credit, he did win 2 balls. I'm guessing it must have taken him a mere $30 in quarters.

Coach Josh did a great job of keeping the kids moving and playing. They all were smiling a lot and that is my usual measure of success.

Rob got beat on by a pack of wild animals. He's quivering in the corner!

Group pictures!

Cake time! Hmmm, which dinosaur do I eat first?

Thank you to all the kids and parents who helped us celebrate Austin's big day. It was very special and we are lucky to have such great friends! The rest of the photos are on the link to the right.