It has been a whirlwind month around here. I can’t believe I started this post over 2 weeks ago and am just now getting it posted! Aaah!
Here’s a quick recap: Corice started potty training; Eliza was born to my older brother and sister-in-law; Braden turned 8, got baptized, and started cub scouts; my parents’ washing machine flooded 3 rooms, and consequently their freezer got plugged into an outlet that only sometimes works. So, yeah, we’ve been busy. After the review, there’s a bit about Braden’s birthday party.
A couple of weeks ago, Andy bought a box of Chocolate Sesame Bars, made by gluten free Café. I was a little shocked to see them, because I thought gluten free Café only made frozen entrees (and if you look at their website, that’s all you will see).
I stuck a few of these in my purse for a day out with Grandma. We sat on a bench at the botanic gardens and tried them out. Now, if you hate the taste of sesame, then these are definitely not for you. They are basically sesame seeds stuck together with chocolate, along with a few bits of peanuts and flax seeds. Mom, of course, loved it (she loves most foods full of seeds – I think she’s part bird). Braden didn’t like them, because he didn’t think the chocolate was sweet enough. Carter and Corice scarfed their bars down and asked for more.
We recently had Braden’s birthday party. I was a little hard-pressed for time, so I was not as crafty/creative as I usually am. I made a batch of chocolate and a batch of vanilla cupcakes (recipes from You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free!). I used a new recipe (same cookbook) for peanut butter frosting. Oh my goodness, was that tasty. Instead of getting fancy (I had wanted to make cakes in the shape of Lego bricks and decorate with lightsaber-fighting Star Wars Lego people), I used some skinny neon candles and black Jelly Belly jelly beans to make lightsabers. Not my best work, but it was alright in a pinch.
We had a variety of chips from Kroger (all marked gluten-free on the bags) that we munched on, along with our Jedi energy drink. We spent a lot of time in the “Jedi training arena” (the backyard) just sparring with our lightsabers (pool noodles cut in half). Darth Vader (Andy in a mask I bought at a party store) came to visit. We were ready for him with our Gungan boomers (at least that’s what Braden called them – they were water balloons). Andy was quite surprised by that.