Fire Brigade to the Rescue

Charlie perks up whenever a fire engine passes, sirens blazing. He knows the locations of all the nearby fire and rescue stations. His toy collection includes fire vehicles of all sorts: ones that hook up with Thomas the Tank Engine trains, a Little Tikes model with a shrill siren and a Playmobil version whose tiny accessories I live in fear of losing.

When Charlie turned 3 last month, I was ready with the perfect party location. Parents whose children were born in warm weather have it easy: Invite a bunch of friends, send them out to the back yard with bubbles and balloons, maybe rent a moon bounce. With my son's January birthday, I had to be creative. I worried about too many kids in the house at once, party overload since we had just had a New Year's bash, Charlie not sharing his toys and the dog stealing the cake.

So we celebrated at the Cabin John Park Volunteer Fire Department in Bethesda. Cabin John, unlike some other firehouses, guarantees that kids will get a chance to play on the trucks. Party slots fill up early. I reserved Charlie's birthday time in September.

The plan was simple: A pizzeria would deliver lunch. Station volunteers would do a fire safety presentation. Favor bags with plastic firefighter hats were included in the price of the party. All I had to do was send out invitations and buy a cake and paper goods (red, of course).

Many Washington area bakeries make elegant designer cakes, but I was keeping things simple and geared toward Charlie, not trying to impress the adult guests. At Giant supermarket, he and I flipped through the cake design book. Alas, no fire engine designs were to be found amid the Elmo, Nemo, Bob the Builder and Barbie styles. Charlie's heart was set on a fire engine cake, so I bought tube icing and had my husband (a lawyer who majored in art) decorate a white-iced cake with a fire engine copied from an Ed Emberley drawing book.

The party guests were a mix of adults and kids. Ten of Charlie's friends arrived, all accompanied by at least one parent. My folks from Buffalo, my brother from Miami and my in-laws from Howard County joined us.

It doesn't take much to decorate a room for preschoolers. At the station, my dad and I blew up balloons, which the kids enjoyed tossing as soon as they arrived.

At his age, Charlie has no problem socializing with girls as well as boys. His friends Hanna and Samantha practically ran the show, participating most vocally in the fire safety presentation. Samantha refused to board the fire engines, however, despite her parents' encouragement. Ethan and Graham, at Charlie's request, sat beside him during lunch.

Parents hovered over the kids. We poured juice, wiped pizza grease from hands, made sure nobody fell or grabbed or pushed or had a bathroom-related accident. The station volunteers kept the party on schedule during our allotted time, 11 to 1. Nobody fussed much when it was time to get down from the firetruck; they were ready for lunch -- and cake.

Charlie sang "Happy Birthday" to himself along with his guests, blew out the candles with Hanna's help and then refused to eat any cake. He demanded that we not cut into the fire engine design. The uneaten decorated portion of the cake remained on our dining table for the better part of a week, growing stale, until I finally threw it out. In typical 3-year-old fashion, Charlie never noticed.

CABIN JOHN VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT 8001 River Rd., Bethesda. http://www.cjpvfd.com. 301-365-2255. $12 per child for two-hour party.