Birthday plans

Last night I sent out the Evite for James and Philip's birthday party. After weeks of going over different themes with the boys -- every night they change their minds, one night it's Buzz and the next it's Superman and the next it's trains or motorcycles or probably whatever they were playing with just before going to bed -- they decided (actually I decided) on a firetruck theme.

The plan is to first go to Menlo Park's fire station #6 and go on a little tour that I've arranged with the firemen (hopefully they'll even give the kids plastic fireman hats and badge stickers!). All I had to do was call them up and request it, but it could be called off if they have an emergency that they need to respond to. So I'm also going to take along some firefighter books and read them to the kids while waiting for the rest of the party to show up.

After the tour (or if the tour never occurs, I just can't shake the feeling that it might!), we're going to head out to Round Table Pizza, which is just around the corner. They have a private party room that can be reserved with no extra charge, just order pizza and drinks, and we can even use discount coupons! The room has a TV and VCR so we can play a firefighter video for the kids. I also ordered some Sesame Street firefighter activity books from the USFA Kids website, so the kids can work on those or take them home. Add a firetruck pinata, red balloons and a pin-the-firehat-on-the-clown (using the clown poster we already have) , and it promises to be a fun party!

My biggest party-related dilemma now is what to do about their birthday cake (note the oh-so-pressing dilemmas of housewives like me when people are dying by the thousands in Darfur): Do I get one cake or two? Do I get it at Costco (cheaper and larger but less tasy) or Safeway? Or do I make it myself (I can make individual cakes but they may turn out dry and tasteless)?

Stay tuned for the account of the actual party. Hopefully it will turn out even better than I'm imagining!