Firehouse Open House

A new and improved fire station just opened up less than a mile from our house. The kids were SUPER excited to go to the fire station open house this weekend, and boy was it a BLAST! It was one of the most fun events that I have been to with the kids in a long time. Benjamin, who desperately wants to be a firefighter and a paramedic when he grows up, was incredibly excited to check out the fire station and see the trucks. All I have to say is that those volunteer firefighters sure know how to throw an awesome party! You're talking free food, free drinks, an awesome cake, face painting, games, police dogs, police cars, a gigantic fire house bounce house/slide, fire engines of all sorts of shapes and sizes, a "safety" play house that the kids got to climb in to learn about fire safety, fire safety goody bags, Smokey Bear, the Chick-fila cow, not to mention the fire fighters and sheriff's officers themselves. My boys were in little boy heaven and Kate thoroughly enjoyed herself. Even Daddy, Mommy and Grandma had fun.

Not only was it fun, but it was very educational for the kids. One of the things we have been discussing a lot lately is emergency preparedness because I realized that although my kids know how to dial 911, they don't really understand what constitutes an emergency. Take this conversation for instance:

Me: "Ok, if Mommy fall on the stairs and you try to wake me up, but you can't, do you call 911?"

Andrew: "Yes! It's an EMERGENCY!!!"

Me: "Good. Ok. If Mommy falls on the stairs and hurts her ankle, but is still talking to you, do you need to call 911?"

Andrew: "Oh no! You broke your leg! Quick! Call an ambulance!"

Me: Explain in detail (minus the financial explanation of how much an unnecessary ambulance ride costs) why me breaking my leg on the stairs does not constitute a call to 911. "If there is a fire inside the house, what do you do?"

Andrew: "Call 911!"

Benjamin: "STOP, DROP, and ROLL! Call the firetruck so they put out the fire!"

Me: Explain in detail the difference between when you should stop drop and roll and when you should get out of the house as quickly as possible. "Ok, now, if there is a fire in the fire pit outside, what should you do?"

Andrew: "Call 911!"

Benjamin: "Can we make marshmallows?"

Me: Explain in detail why a fire in the fire pit is "safe" and why we can't make marshmallows right that second. 

So yeah, they don't quite get the whole emergency vs. non-emergency thing. We have already had one "false alarm" call to 911 last summer because Andrew wanted to see if it would really work.... fun times explaining to the operator why she should not send the Sheriff to our house and explain to her that everyone is fine at the moment, but might not be once I get my hands on my 6-year old.....

Back to the fun day. This day was so much fun and so incredibly educational. The kids walked away with a much better understanding of what to do in an emergency type situation. The highlight of the day: Benjamin randomly requesting a mustache from the face painter. He decided that he needed a mustache because "firefighters have mustaches." So, here is my french firefighter/pirate....

And remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires. 

(Hooray for the isolating the index finger! That is something relatively new for him... so YAY!)