Simple Firefighter Birthday Party Theme

Little Brother is the kind of kiddo who when he makes up his mind he's pretty set on what he wants. In September (yes, September, as in 7 months ago September) he told me he wanted a firefighter birthday party. And he stuck to it all the way to the birthday party last weekend.

For his party we decided just to have a few playdate friends over. It was nice to have a small crowd and to focus on a few simple activities.

I will admit, I was surprised not to find more firefighter party products at our local party sources, but we got a little creative and has fun with some of our ideas!

Vehicle Week (Simple Summer Theme Week #3)

We're still really enjoying our Simple Summer Theme weeks even though summer is quickly passing us by. It's no secret we love playing with cars and trucks, so Vehicle Week was a lot of fun for the boys!

Week Three: Vehicle Week

One of my favorite things about this week was that we already own so many of the materials we needed. It also encouraged us to get out some of the transportation toys we already owned and hadn't used in a while. 

TRUCK inspired Sticky Collage

This month the Virtual Book Club for Kids author is Donald Crews. We read several of his books last year as we explored our Vehicle Week as they perfectly fit our Simple Summer Theme.

The book the boys enjoyed the most was TRUCK. The book follows one tractor trailer truck as it makes its way across the delivery route. The brief text and bold, colorful illustrations make it appealing to even the littlest reader. 

Build-A-Road Playdough Play

Toy cars abound at our house, so it's always fun to find new ways to play with them. One thing the boys really enjoyed this past week was this new playdough invitation, with a slightly new twist on our playdough recipe.

This invitation was one that was definitely high interest for all the boys, even though they are at slightly different ages. 

Homemade Race Car Coloring Mat

It's great to have a handful of go-to activities that you know your kiddos enjoy no matter the circumstance. Creating a homemade race car coloring mat is definitely one of ours. We've been creating them for quite a while now; they're great for rainy days, cold weather days, multiage groups, and just any time you need a simple, quiet ongoing craft for kids.

What makes this project great is the materials are simple and something we often have in the house. It can take as long or as little time as needed. Kiddos can take it in any direction they want on their own or get as much adult help as they need to create what they have in mind. 

Fast and Easy Fire Truck Play

The other week we had a friend over to play. With three little boys in the house, the play quickly turned to our extensive collection of vehicles. All three boys especially became focused on using our well loved fire trucks. (We have two fire trucks which were one of our favorite yard sale finds last year, two for $2!)

They kept trying to find things "to put out" which led to this fast and easy fire truck play set up. 

Road Crew Sensory Snow Bin

Although the first snow storm last week didn't bring us as much as we expected, the second storm this week combined with with a few smaller storms has definitely started to make the snow add up. And although some grown ups may feel differently (this time I was actually excited to get some snow, but who knows how I'll feel in a few weeks) most kiddos usually get pretty excited about the snow coming down.

The other thing that my boys get excited about is watching the plow trucks.

We live on a small, dead end road but our town road crew, or highway department as they're called in larger areas, plows a large chunk of our roadway. For our boys, that's part of the highlight of a snow storm: they get to watch the plow trucks at work.

This lead me to be inspired to create our newest sensory play activity: Road Crew Sensory Snow Bin.

Across the east coast cities and towns have people busy at work plowing, loading, and removing snow. What kiddo wouldn't enjoy recreating the same experience?

Monster Truck Painting & Note Cards

Monster Truck Painting has been one of our go to activities for quite a while now. We car and truck painted quite a lot when Big Brother was a toddler, and around the time he turned three we discovered that the best way to create this kind of painting was with Monster Trucks.

Monster Truck tires are perfect for this type of painting because they have a great tread on their tires, which make great prints when painting.

Quick Pick & Project of the Week: Little Blue Truck Sensory Bin

This week I'm wrapping up the current school year, which means many of our projects are quick and easy to set up. We love the book Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle. The Little Blue Truck teaches the Big Dump Truck a good lesson about being kind to others in return for a helping hand.

Little Blue Truck Sensory Bin

This post contains affiliate links, thank you for your support. 

We had a fun idea for an easy sensory bin set up to go with the book. A little over a month ago we created a sensory bin to go with the book In the Tall, Tall Grass and it lead to some fun play. 

Soap Foam Car Wash Bins

If you've been reading our posts for a while you know we love transportation play. The other day we were looking for a new way to play with our matchbox cars. Lately many of them have been spending some time in our sand and water table and getting a little dirty. This has been inspiring Big Brother to pretend to wash them. I decided it would be fun to set up some car wash sensory play.

In the earlier stages of spring we discovered soap foam play from Fun at Home With Kids. We turned it into some really fun clean mud. It's such a cool, easy way to create a different sensory experience for kids.

"Clean Mud" Soap Foam play

This past Sunday it was pretty rainy and chilly outside, which meant we were in need of something fun to do. I had seen this gorgeous rainbow soap foam pop up on my facebook wall earlier in the week and tucked it aside in my head as a must try.

This sensory play was super easy, fast to create, and fun for all!

Letter Match Race Car Village

We love playing with race cars, they are a continuous favorite toy for both boys. We also love creating our own raceways using large paper on the kitchen floor.

We've made ones with different themes, including winter, summer, a candy village, and more. A while back we even made an ABC Raceway. This time we took some inspiration from some other ideas we've seen on the inernet and created a Letter Match Racecar Village.

1st Birthday Construction Party

Last week we celebrated Little Brother's first birthday. It's hard to believe how fast this year has gone, or how quickly my little guy is turning into a big guy.

I had a lot of fun getting ready for his first birthday party, and I have to thank Pinterest for most of my inspiration. The danger in perusing Pinterest is sometimes the parties are just so well put together and so well planned, that you forget they are not always the real party but something put together for show. As I looked my favorite parties were the ones that are real family parties, like the one we threw for Little Brother. The best part was, we had so much of this stuff, we didn't need to buy too much.

Mud Season Monster Truck Bin

Everywhere I look there are reminders that spring is coming: Facebook, all the stores, Pinterest . . . that is everywhere I look that is not outside our windows. Last week's storm dumped another 18 inches on us, which has settled on top of what we already had to place us back in a Winter Wonderland. And these weeks cold temps are not helping.

Of course, in our part of New England before we get to spring we need to get through Mud Season. It's the fourth season here in Vermont. At this point I'd love to see that bare, brown time of year with just a hint of green; but you can remind me of that in a few weeks when I'm groaning at how the mud keeps getting tracked into the house.

To have a little fun with that idea I set up a Monster Truck Mud Season Bin for Big Brother. It's already gotten him excited about the idea that spring may actually be coming.