Sound the Alarms

My little J turned a BIG 4 yesterday! I simply can not believe that he has made us smile for 4 years now!  He was such a special little miracle to us......and he has tugged at my heart ever since.  He makes a cloudy day sunny, and though he is a tiny little guy,....his heart is one of the biggest I know.  

He chose a firetruck birthday party....  a perfect little boy theme.  I found the idea for these cookies here, and I knew they would be perfect to recreate for our party.

And because my little man loves chocolate almost as much as his mama does....I made these bite size little cuties.   I used a dark cocoa that I ordered from The King Arthur Flour Company, and made a fabulously easy chocolate roll out recipe on another of my favorite blogs.  And the home-made buttercream came from the Queen of Cakes herself, Miss Amanda of I am Baker!

Here are some of the goodies at the table.

But the best little "goodie" of all is this little man.  Here he is with his cake.  I was not happy with how the cake turned out.  I found the cake idea on Pinterest, and when I read that canned frosting was used to frost the cake.... I.just.couldn't.bring.myself.to.do.it.  Sure... the picture of the cake that I saw looked smooth and creamy...but I felt like I would be cheating if I used a can.  So... I set out to look for a "creamy" buttercream. I found a recipe that actually turned out to taste pretty good...but it was not super spreadable, thus accounting for the "sloppy" frosting job.  But... in the end... J liked it... and that's all that matters!

Strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting were also on the menu.

And last but not least ....the favor table....and the invite for the party designed by Dimple Prints on Etsy.  Carli and Mike were amazing to work with and have some great designs to offer!  

And though our trip to the fire station was cut a bit short (as the fire fighters had to rush off for a REAL emergency)... I think this Four-year old still had a pretty great time!  Happy, Happy 4th to my little J!