Three year Castle Pines residents Josh Nowak and Jennifer Clayburn hosted an exciting party at the Byers Fire Station on April 15 where a car fire was staged to set the scene to reveal baby number five’s gender. Thirty guests, along with firefighters on duty and numerous passers-by, looked on as the colored water from the fire hose let everyone know the gender of the baby.

Article and photos by Kathy Fallert

Sugar and spice and everything nice or snips and snails and puppy-dogs’ tails? That was the question of the day on April 15 when Castle Pines residents Josh Nowak and Jennifer Clayburn hosted a gender reveal party for their new baby who is due to arrive on August 27. Already having two twin girls Genesis and Trinidee (11), and two boys Aiden (10) and Greyson (4), in the family, the unexpected baby number five was about to turn the tide to a pink or blue majority in the family.

Nowak is a 15-year firefighter with four years in Byers and ten years along the I-70 corridor, so they were searching for a firefighter themed reveal celebration. Clayburn commented, “There are a lot of firefighter gender reveal parties on YouTube and they are pretty much all the same. They shoot water out of the firetruck which is either pink or blue to reveal the baby’s gender. But when Chief (Mike Disher) and Josh put their heads together it was like ‘Oh, no! That’s not going to cut it. Go big or go home!” They did just that by setting a car ablaze and putting it out with colored water for their reveal.

The Byers Fire Department often gets cars from the junkyard for training purposes. This allows the younger, more inexperienced firefighters to learn how to respond to a car fire and how to use the jaws of life to cut open a car with victims trapped inside. This sparked the idea to incorporate a car fire at the celebration.

While everyone involved is grateful for a healthy baby, there was a little friendly competition for “Team Girl” and “Team Boy.” The party included pins that everyone wore to state which team they were on. And there was a “Hose or Bows” themed cake and décor.

About 30 guests attended, plus the firefighters on duty. Many passers-by even stopped to take photos and watch the car go up in flames. It was an exciting and quite dramatic display. With daddy Josh holding the fire hose, the water came out blue followed by a rush of emotion. Three of the siblings were in tears; Genesis and Greyson were a bit sad as they had hoped for a baby sister; Trinidee was experiencing tears of joy as she was thrilled for a new baby brother.

Get your scorecards out: Josh and Aiden were team boy and Jennifer was team girl. So a family truly divided all in all – 3 against 3. Clayburn said, “At first I was a little sad that it wasn’t a girl. Now I’m really excited to know that he will have his big brothers to play with, and his older sisters will be so good with him too. Josh was on cloud nine and wanted another boy all along. Of course, we are all just so happy to be bringing a healthy baby into the world. We are very grateful for all the people in our lives who are making baby number five so special for us!”