Fire Station Open House

Last week was Fire Prevention Week!  Many of the schools and fire departments in our area had been sponsoring special events so we decided to take the boys up to the Indian Harbour Beach VFD Open House on Saturday.  It’s an annual event that the kids love attending.  This year we rode our bikes over there.  Because it was perfect Florida fall weather and the ride was maybe a mile, we figured that the boys could make the trek without a problem.  They did great!

The garages were all open and many of the fire trucks were parked outside for the children to explore.

I love the old fire engine they had on display.  Modern fire trucks should have open air cabs 🙂

We got to watch the firemen raise the flag on the ladder truck.

Cutie Pie didn’t want to leave the fun of buckling and unbuckling the seat belts and harnesses.  He could have stayed there all day if we let him.

Wildman wanted to shoot the fire hose at a wooden target.  Cutie Pie was content to watch.

Cutie Pie was all about climbing the ladder and going through the window at the top, however!

It was a fun morning spent with the family.  We came home with a bag full of fun giveaways for the boys that included fire truck flip flops and coupons for free Slurpees.

Fall would not be fall without a trip to the fire station.

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Firefighting Activity Day

Like most boys I know, my kids look up to firefighters.  They alert me whenever they see a fire truck on the road.  Their shrieks of excitement are even more emphatic if the truck’s siren is on and the lights are flashing.  Preschool trips to the fire station are main highlights of the entire school year.

So, when I saw that our city was advertising a Firefighting Activity Day at the local fire station, I immediately signed the boys up.  They’ve been eagerly anticipating the event all summer.

Yesterday was finally the day that we got to go to the fire station!  I didn’t think Cutie Pie was going to be able to participate since the advertisement indicated that only elementary school age children could register.  I figured that he would be just as happy to watch.  We were pleasantly surprised to find out that there were some cancellations when we signed in and Cutie Pie would be able to participate after all.

The firefighters divided the children into three groups.  My boys were in the red group and got to put out a real fire for their first activity.  Wildman volunteered to be the first child of the day to use the fire extinguisher on a fire.

I was so surprised that they let the children do this activity since it involved actual fire.  But it was very well supervised and the children LOVED it!

Next up for our group was shooting down cones with the fire hose.

Cutie Pie did not want to do either of the first two activities.  He was happy to watch from the safety of my side.  He came out his shell by the time we arrived at the smoke-filled room though.

Of all the things the children got to do that day, this was the one thing I thought Cutie Pie would not do since it involved limited visibility and crawling around away from the security of my side.  But he readily volunteered to go into the smokey room and search for a boot, a ball and a glove.  He and his brother found everything!

FYI: the smoke they used to fill the room was not real smoke.  It was the stuff they use for night clubs and other events.  The firefighters called it “disco smoke”.  🙂

The children ended their time at the fire station by running around in the water screen.  We all had a great time and look forward to doing this again next year if it is offered.

The firefighters gave the children honorary Jr. Firefighter certificates, juice boxes and a goody bag filled with candy and cookies to take home.  Wildman and Cutie Pie were naturally over the moon!

October is Fire Safety Month- Time for a Field Trip!

The 4- and 5-year-olds at Wildman’s preschool took a trip to the local fire station and police station last Thursday.  Since Cutie Pie didn’t have school that day, he got to go along too.  We walked many, many block in sweltering 90-degree heat to get to our destination.  Gotta love record breaking heat.

It turns out the fire fighters have a sense of humor…

The children enjoyed touring the fire station.  They got to check out the conference room, the dispatch center, the bedrooms and the garage.  The garage housed not only the fire engines but also the fire boat and the fire jet ski!

After our fire station tour, we crossed the street to the police station.  The preschool director’s husband is a police officer there so we were treated to a special tour courtesy of Officer Ryan.  He took us into the 911 call center where he placed a call to the operator so the children could experience what it would sound like if they ever had to call 911.

Then he locked up the teachers in the facility’s one cell.  Very Mayberry.

We headed outside to check out a real police car.  Hopefully this is not foreshadowing.

By the end of the tour Cutie Pie wanted to go home.  This self-portrait cracks me up.

When we got home that afternoon, and for subsequent days thereafter, Wildman and Cutie Pie wanted to play fire fighter and police man.  Luckily, they have the costumes in their dress-up clothes box!