Birthday parties.....birthday parties. I really love taking my kids to birthday parties. And I really love the personal touch of having my own kids' birthday parties at home. However, I really need to find a birthday çhef-fairy that will actually "throw" my kid's birthday for me. Planning an activity? no problem. Decorating? No problem. Finding people to show up? No problem. Food? Problem. If you remember this post, we try our best to avoid artificial color, flavor and sweetener. This tends to present a problem when your birthday boy wants RED cupcakes and YELLOW cake pops.
Sometimes, I hate being that mom. That mom who thinks her kid deserves only the best, most natural food. Well, I don't really hate being that mom. But the fear of a reaction the artificials will cause can make me a bit irrational at times and I may politely say "no thank you" to the lab produced snack you try to hand my child after a basketball game, but inside I'm screaming, "DON'T FEED THAT TO MY CHILD". So yeah, I do really hate being that mom.
So, I try not to go too crazy and I admit I've been a bit of a slacker as of late, but I know my kids get real food most of the time at home. So we make allowances for birthday parties or other events if I haven't had time to make an alternative.
With a little research and A LOT of time in the kitchen, we pulled a natural foods birthday party off. Thanks to everyone that came and made my boy's day special. I'll also post photos of the food along with resources for ingredients.
Birthday boy
I had mason jar of legos and the kids guessed how many for a prize.
What's a birthday party without a meltdown from the birthday boy because his friend Charlie won the prize?
The kids picked out heads, bodies and accessories to build their own lego mini-figure. Cutie pie Matthew cheesed for every picture.
We had a contest to see who could build the tallest lego tower in 1 minute.
And the token sleeping uncle......
Ok FOOD.
Lego cupcakes from Cupcake Bliss because I knew they made them from scratch. They were very expensive and not as good as the mini cupcakes I made on the right. (Lesson learned). Central Market just started carrying natural food coloring. I made the mini cupcakes from scratch and the icing is an organic vanilla brand from Central Market tinted with natural coloring. You have to be careful to not use too much because it's tinted with vegetable juice (and tastes like it!) which is why my "red" icing is closer to pink. The colors are all a bit pastel in comparison with food dye made in a lab.
Organic crackers and god ole cream cheese held on the circles of cheese I cut with one of my frosting tips.
Lego pops: Homemade marshmallows from Central Market with HEB brand melting candy (no artificials listed on the label). I melted the candy and tinted with the natual yellow dye. Now, the faces are the ONLY not natural addition as I couldn't find a natural food pen anywhere. But it's such a small amount, I was OK with it. And of course the M&Ms but they were for decoration only.
On a side note, we thought we might try to complicate our eating habits even more this week. Yesterday, Thade thought he'd try the Paleo diet to get "buff". Without a bit of research, I said I'd try it with him. We both made it 45 minutes before we eagerly consumed a cupcake. Thade made it another hour before devouring 4 breadsticks.
