It is fact universally acknowledged that the child of a food nazi will be in want of a party, regardless of his mother’s positions on food coloring and sugar and all things processed!

This fact and the looming specter of another birthday for the intrepid lizard hunter has finally prompted me to blog about last year’s foray into “Crunchy Mama” birthday party throwing!

Last year, the theme was Phineas and Ferb, the preternaturally awesome tv show, of which both the Reluctant Suburbanite and the Reluctant Husband are huge fans, not least because of the burgeoning inventor it has awakened in our second son!  Last year, the cake HAD to be a blue wave cake with a beach (see if you can place the episode?). Last year, we also, absolutely,  HAD to have ice cream sundaes!  This was looking like an unwinnable contest of kid-will vs crunchy mama!

After much deliberating and a huge amount of searching, I finally found organic veggie based food colorings online, and set out to make the cake… Which turned out so well, I am tempted to make it again this year, if only he hadn’t requested a lego themed cake this year!!  But then the challenge of the ice cream sundaes reared its ugly head!  What to do?  Don’t you know that kids only like ice cream because it has all that bright, fluorescent, sugary, junk in it? Not so you say?  Well, after I had calmed down and realized that the WalMart ice cream aisle was not the best place for inspiration, I agreed with you too!  And so… ice cream sundaes with strawberries, chocolate chips, caramelized pecans ( made from scratch), and blueberries, with a raspberry sauce were guzzled by one and all!  Throw in a few organic  hot dogs on whole wheat buns and carrot sticks and there you have it; all the required components for a kids party with none of the junk!  Oh, and did I mention the giant slip ‘n’ slide?? Fun for the whole family (well those under 12 at any rate!!).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.