You may have caught on that I try to promote a mostly vegan diet of whole foods. I haven't always been this way. Not at all. And it's not an easy transition to make with four kids and a husband who haven't always been this way and aren't as sure this is the way for them. When birthday parties roll around, especially piggy-back birthday parties, all I can do is look the other way and remember that this too shall pass and it won't necessarily mean my kids will come down with type-2 diabetes or die young--I hope.
Our birthday traditions of letting the kids choose their favorite breakfast and choose where we're going for dinner (because let's face it, "vegan*ish," they always want out for dinner) have led us down junk food road this year yet again. SoSo's party landed on his actual birthday, so his birthday was basically a harbinger of chronic disease.
SoSo's Birthday Menu
Hootnanny Cake (oven pancakes chock full of eggs, butter, worthless flour, milk, sugar & a pinch of salt)** & Juice for breakfast
Donuts & Ice Cream & Soda at the party (this pretty much turned out to be lunch, too)
Taco Bell for dinner (at least it's inexpensive death)
Cake and Ice Cream for dessert (family celebration with JJ & Dine)
The whole gang around the table (of course I forgot to charge
my camera battery, so there are only a couple of shots of his party)...
when LiLi saw this photo as I was posting it, he made me pause on it
and drooled (and I quote), "See my ice cream? Yummmmy, yummmmy."
"Let them eat cake" takes on new meaning...(this is classic LiLi)
Though it may look like SoSo is dreading the junk food
he's about to eat (I sure was), he's really just a shy boy hiding
behind his hands as we sing to him.
It is a tad comforting that the kids probably worked off a lot of the calories at his party. A huge indoor jungle gym, glow-in-the-dark mini golf, and an arcade meant tons of action and a great way to spend a couple hours.
Ran out of individual candles for the family celebration,
didn't have a "7", and so we made do with "1" and "6"
(simply helping him get ready for school again)
Thanks for the spider cake Dine and JJ!
Chlo Bo's party wasn't on her birthday, so the overload was spread out over two different days...thank goodness.
C's Birthday Selections
French Crepes** & Juice
Ribs & Soda & Mashed Potatoes for dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ (Dave's not exactly fond of vegetables either; he and C get along)
Baskin Robbins for dessert
Godfather's Pizza for her party lunch (I did offer watermelon and carrots to go with it--not a single carrot was eaten)
Cupcakes & Ice Cream at her party
Has your stomach lurched just thinking about all this junk? Mine has as I sat here and typed it all up. But again, it was good that C's party was action-packed. We took the party ice skating for a couple hours first.
Go Babe
Decorating their own cupcakes...
A rainbow in the making
Though a decadent whirlwind, our party week was fun. And let's face it, I'm a realist. Even though I didn't like what we were eating, I realize that birthdays are "vacations" from the day-to-day and that there will be more of them. So after her party, I replaced the lid on the the Pillsbury Cream Cheese Frosting can and set it on the shelf in the fridge...right beside the organic vegetable broth.
**C's taste buds are so refined that she always catches me when I sneak in alterations, so I didn't do it for her crepes. It was her birthday afterall, and I didn't want to have to battle her. And believe me, she would put up a fight about it. But SoSo doesn't ever object, so here's how I tweaked his Hootnanny to soothe my conscience a little (and C ate it just fine): used organic cage-free eggs, split the flour 50-50 between worthless regular flour and whole grain brown rice flour, split the milk 50-50 between water and organic whole milk, cut the butter in half, and used real unrefined sea salt instead of table or kosher salt. Also, I now make my own syrup so that I can reduce the amount of unnecessary chemicals and preservatives in our diet.
