As a salute to our nation's brave and heroic firefighters, I'd like to tell you about my son's 5th birthday party. He wanted to have a firefighter party with about 20 friends (aaaaah!), so I tried to make things simple on a budget.  The day of the party it was 105 degrees in Kansas, so we had to do "cool" activities. First, we sent fire engine invitations purchased from the party store with coordinating cups, napkins, etc. The guests were invited to wear any firefighter gear they had, but we collected enough fire helmets for most of the kids to wear once they arrived. The birthday boy was fully decked with a fire coat, boots, and helmet! When the kids arrived, we played "pin the tail on the Dalmatian" that my artist friend drew for us on posterboard (You could also do this using a blown up Disney 101 Dalmatians clip art pix). Each child received a fire helmet to wear as they finished.  We then moved outside for a "fire shoot-out". I used large red plastic tumblers half filled with sand to weigh them down and stuffed with metallic red, yellow, and orange sheets of cellophane (the kind you stuff into gift bags) to look like flames. I set them on a ledge of our wooden playset/fort, then two teams of kids took turn with a "nozzle" (garden hose w/nozzle) spraying the fire out and trying to "knock" the fire down from the ledge.  We then had a bucket brigade relay with water balloons. The kids tried to toss water balloons to one another without breaking them - ha!  They loved soaking one another! It was time for cake and gifts inside in the cool air conditioning (it was so hot that the kids were dry by then). We had a gorgeous fire truck cake from a local bakery as well as shaved ice with syrup or ice cream.  When my son opened his gifts we took his photo with the child who gave the gift to send in the thank you note.  I found a fire truck pinata at the party store, and the kids batted at it WITHOUT a blindfold (too dangerous at this age!) beginning with the youngest kids and ending with the oldest so that everyone had a chance before it burst. Each child was given a paper bag with a pix (clip art) of a firefighter and their name stenciled on it to hold their candy as well as miniature firefighter figures found at a discount store. For the grand finale, I had arranged several weeks earlier with the closest fire station to have a crew come in a big red fire engine to our house. The engine came around the corner with lights on and the siren going, and the kids went WILD. They were able to climb into the cab of the truck with the firefighters, and the engine even sprayed a little water onto our HOT driveway for the little bare feet!  OK, my husband happens to be a firefighter, so this was easy for us, however you may be surprised what these great guys will do if you ask nicely! \*remember that if the firefighters are on an emergency call, they will not show up, so I DIDN'T tell the kids ahead of time!!! I let it be a wonderful surprise rather than a disappointment to them.  Also, I remembered to thank the fire crew with a card, note, and best of all something edible - cookies!! An alternate idea would be to call your local station and ask about a visit, taking the party there for a little "party trip". We all waved goodbye to the firefighters, and everyone went home exhausted and happy.  My son was absolutely overjoyed, and talked about it for a long, long time! Best of luck!