Great Things!

Indeed!

Mozart turned three this weekend and we had his Fire Truck party as requested.  We'd planned on having the party at home, per usual, but found out Home Depot hosts birthday party's a couple weeks ago, so I called 'em up to see if they were available when we wanted and the only thing we needed to do was pick the theme.

Seriously.  That's all we had to do.  I said fire trucks and she said, "Cool, would a Rescue Plane craft be ok?"  Uh, yeah! Cool!  I went back to Mozart and he then changed his theme to be "Rescue vehicles with fire trucks."    This was a good because, while I'm sure I could have fashioned a fire truck cake, I really didn't want to poison the children with a Red Dye #40 cake.  Mozart agreed to a "fire rescue scene" for his cake.  So I got to work.  I used the same recipe as his owl cake, which, admittedly takes a bit longer than your typical non-freezer affairs, but it was just so good that every time I made a cake TW would say, "Oh, yes, she's an excellent cook, but nothing will top the OWL CAKE."  So yeah.  Had to.  Not because it was asked of me, but because I gotta show what I got from time to time :D

So Thursday night I got to work.  Went shopping.  Spent entirely to much money.  Changed the landscape of the cake from round to square pans because they didn't sell the sizes I needed in round locally.  Went to a second store for food dye (I threw it all away last year because I was disgusted with the chemical dyes, but then I couldn't come up with viable options for real colors, so I caved). Baked three cakes and a batch of cupcakes.  Set them to the freezer. Made the frosting.  Made the daycare edition cupcakes for his party the next day:
 

And put the crumb coat on the main cake:


....before falling into bed.  I went to my job as any zombie does the next day and set to work when I got home.  First another batch of cream cheese frosting.  A double batch this time.  Made various colors. And set to the landscape:


I hadn't a plan for the burning building when I was in the baking process, so I ended up fashioning it out of graham crackers.  I did a second crumb coat for good measure, then applied the grass, and of course, the underground was made of Nutella.  Finally, I decorated the fire station, and put a crushed graham cracker and cocoa gravel down on the road before applying the rescue vehicles.  But all said and done, I'd say, a pretty fine Fire Rescue Scene cake:


The kids loved it (as did the adults)...


Oh.  And not so insignificantly, Home Depot does a BANG UP job on birthday parties!  This is what we were greeted with:

That's right, not only did they decorate and provide a craft, but they really went all out ~ that piece of art hanging over the chair there in front of the fire truck place mat, and under the suspended fire truck, was a hand-painted workman's apron for the little man.  Each kid got the choice of doing 1,2, or even 3 crafts (Pirate Ship, Race Car, or Trojan Horse Piggy Bank), and while they didn't actually have any Fire Rescue Plane kits left, they were able to give Mozart one that was already built.  So we did our crafts, and had a blast.  Mozart tested out the roadway for the ambulance:


And we served up the cake:


AND THEN the FIRE DEPARTMENT showed up!!!  Mozart gave all the firefighters hugs, and then got to explore the TWO trucks they brought, and THEN he, and the other kids, got to practice ACTUALLY USING the fire hose!!  It was a truly amazing day.


So all of that was Saturday.  We'd been telling Mozart for several weeks now that he needs to be potty trained when he turns three because he's not a baby anymore and that we're not going to buy any more diapers.  Despite all of that we were meeting a great deal of resistance to the whole potty training thing.

But you know what?

Sunday he got up and peed on his potty.  Put his undies on.  And stayed dry ALL DAY LONG!
Monday, he went to daycare in big boy pants, and stayed dry ALL DAY LONG! (he did wear a diaper for car transport)
Tuesday, he went to daycare in big boy pants, and stayed dry ALL DAY LONG! (without aforementioned diaper in the car)
And today he also stayed dry THE WHOLE TIME he was in big boy pants!  He did have a diaper towards the end of the day as he hadn't yet pooped (today was the 4th day), but then tonight, after MUCH ADO, he POOPED ON THE POTTY!

Yahooooo!  We are going to the pizza house tomorrow in celebration.

Fire Trucks and More Fire Trucks

Since wanting to be a fire truck for Halloween, Mozart has become a little obsessed. To be honest, his obsession probably was in place long before that, but that is when I became aware of it. And when I learned he wanted to be a fire truck (not a fireman, mind you) I got to work.

I hummed and ha'ed, built a fire truck in my head, put that design to paper, made a list of supplies, went all over town to try and find them without breaking the bank, and put my plan in motion.  Unfortunately,I don't have pictures of the various stages, buy I'll try to r explore explain:

In my head I thought of a cardboard housing with suspenders to hold the whole thing up. Wheels would have to be off the ground, and the cab of the fire truck could double as his treat bucket. And, of course, there would be flashing lights!  'Course since it's a Halloween costume, and likely to be trashed, one wouldn't want to spend too much money, so I figured using duct tape for suspenders would do.  I thought of paper plates as the wheels and paper fasteners to attach them.  I went out to Home Depot to get spray paint, the duct tape and some reflective tape.  TW went back to HD to get some draft insulation tape a and a nozzle to use for the fire hose.  Then off to the dollar store and found some stick-on touch lights to use for headlight/brake lights.  Made a ladder from cardboard and more duct tape.

My first try was a little front heavy.  It was already listing forward and there wasn't even any candy in the cab yet, so I shortened the cab by half, and at Mozart's request, added handles.  Up until this point, I hadn't been able to find any flashing lights, but a trip back to the dollar store solved both the handle AND flashing lights problem! Below is the final front view.










And here we have Mozart in action!  He'd gotten some loot, so the front is again listing forward, but he was still having a really good time here.

I'm sure we would have won some sort of prize for his costume - we got TONS of complements, but the costume judging was held after the trick or treating, after the parade, and a long walk down a hill, and frankly by the time he we got down there, he was completely melted into a screamy mess.  And, you know, a screaming toddler is MUCH less cute than one who is not screaming.  So, yeah, we didn't win anything.

Even though he was thoroughly miserable by the time the evening was over, he requested wearing his costume several more times and we even went on a couple other outings in full regalia.  Until I just couldn't keep it together.  Below is the just after the truck's last outing.

I thought that the whole fire truck theme would have calmed down after Halloween, but Mozart, it turns out, REALLY likes fire trucks.  We went to visit with the fire fighters and see the real trucks on several occasions, and while he had wanted a tractor, for the longest time, for Christmas, from after Halloween right up until Christmas, all he wanted from Santa was a fire truck.  Somehow, Santa got the message.

And now the young man wants a fire truck birthday cake!  I've got to put my creative hat on again and figure this out.  I'd really, really like to have a cake without red dye #40, but I can't think of a way to make a RED fire truck (and not a pink or purple fire truck).

We'll see.

I'll post once I figure it out. Or don't. Regardless, I'll post results.