Yesterday was Sam’s THIRD birthday. I plan to write something more sentimental about my boy soon; but, for today, I wanted to share some details from The Easiest Birthday Party Ever last week…
We actually debated whether or not to have a party at all this year. (Side Note/ Informal Poll: Do you or will you plan to have a birthday party for your kids every year? Just curious.) But, in the end, we decided to do something very low key – seriously – and I was SO glad that we did. This was the first year that Sam actually (mostly) understood the concept of a birthday, and he got so excited leading up to Thursday. He was telling random people at Chickfila and the playground about his “firehouse party” for DAYS. Plus, watching him and his little buddies faces – filled with delight, fascination, and curiosity, made the (very minimal) amount of money, time, and energy we invested in putting things together MORE than worth it!
Free design from Evite that I just emailed to friends and family
I actually got the idea of hosting the party at the fire station from Katie at Loves of Life, but I kept things even simple-er (she’s basically a rockstar) and planned just a tour for Sam and a few of his best buddies after dinner on a week night. Sam is crazy about all things fireman, so I just knew this would be perfect for him. Plus, I was all about NOT hosting at my house this year – especially since we left for the beach before the sun on Saturday.
Basically, I just called our local fire department and worked with the awesome PR gal there to set things up – she took care of all the details for me and all I had to do, literally, was tell her what time and how many kids they should expect. Then, we just showed up about 10 minutes before things kicked off. The fire station provided hats for all the boys, and they had about 30 minutes (which was all three year olds can really manage) of bliss climbing on the fire trucks, checking out the firemen suits (or, suitcases, as Sam calls them), looking around the station, etc. They LOVED it.
The tour was completely free (although we do plan to make a nice donation to the station), and the guys there were SO great about it… They seem generally happy to show us around and were great with the little ones! Even the parents enjoyed learning more about the inner workings of our neighborhood fire station.
Afterwards, we enjoyed some pizza with the firemen in their kitchen. Then, our crew (six little guys and their parents) simply crossed the street to a neighborhood playground that we frequent. (Thank you weather for holding up!!) I had ordered two-dozen cupcakes and invited our families and very close friends to meet us to round out the celebration. We sang, ate right-before-bedtime sugar, and let the boys run and play. It was the THE BEST.
By 8:30, we were totally wrapped up. Other than throwing away cupcake wrappers and taking down the three balloons I bought, there was zero clean-up. We went home with a VERY happy birthday boy, and pretty much nothing else.
Family photo at the end of the night. Sam is, clearly, one loved little boy.
Seriously, this is the way to go for birthdays. Easiest/best birthday party ever. I may never host a party at my house again. 😉
Have you done something like this before? How did it go? What tips do you have for keeping birthday parties simple and sweet?
E
P.S. Sam’s adorable firetruck shirt is from @gingertees on Instagram. She hand-painted it for me, and it turned out perfect!
I do an at home theme birthday party for each kid each year, but only because I really enjoy doing it. This looks like a great party! Perfect for the age group.
This is SO cute!!! And seriously perfect for a little boy. I am already stressing a little over Isaac’s 2nd birthday… in October.
Such a cute idea! I love the idea of a really simple fun child’s birthday party. I am old school and do think you “need” to have a party every year. For Sofie’s 2nd birthday we had a “Owl Brunch” and she had TWO friends over. HBD Sam!
this looks like SO much fun!
happy birthday to sam 🙂
we’re planning to scale back — especially now that we have more than one baby to celebrate. two big parties a year seems just exhausting and excessive, ya know?
this year we’re just doing an “immediate family” party for david. and we’ll see how it evolves as he gets older.
Aw yay! It’s good for a girls birthday party too 🙂 (cough cough) I am so glad you did this! And also, we are seriously not having a 2nd bday party for Lucy this year. Maybe pizza and cake at my parents? Not sure. I am over throwing parties, for real
Will loved attending Sam’s party! It was a perfect three year old party. He is still talking about all the fun stuff he saw. Thanks so much for a great evening.
I love this party and am going to do it for my little guy’s 3rd birthday in December 🙂 I already can’t wait!!! Because it is in December, we are going to use a conference room at the firehouse for cake and such.
Heya.
A few years back I had to have a birthday party for a one year old in order to celebrate. I did it all on the cheap however of course. I decided to make all the party food myself. I even did the invitations and drinks myself as well. I saved a lot of money that way. Good luck. In terms of the party games there was Rummikub and Ticket to Ride too. I had a entire day to make the food for the party in question in advance. All the food was laid out on oven trays for guests to eat at leisure.
Drinks that we provided included a couple of mock tails and lemonade. I screened a very old action comedy film in the background in the front room of my house additionally. I hung up some really old party decorations on the front door and also on the walls. I also decided not to have any party bags however. That was it mainly. There was a nice free birthday cake at the end. That was a fun experience for sure. I had fun.