wolfie and the sneak

It's official, the little one is now 2.  We celebrated on Sunday with about 10 other kids and (I think) a good time was had by all. Of course, getting to party time while maintaining [my already questionable] sanity was another story.

 
We have general rules for living, nothing hard and fast, but some things that keep us in line with our beliefs. We don't generally buy single use products, we don't usually have processed foods in the house. We love thrift stores and used books and Craigslist. Waste is a topic we tackle with a good deal of forethought. Parties and waste, however, are besties 4-evah.


Yep, we had balloons.  I caved and okayed the plastic curling ribbon C wanted to buy for tying up the balloons. There were also paper plates [gasp!], paper cups [gasp!!], paper straws [gasp!!!], and paper napkins [gasp!!!!]. No biggie, you say? People, we don't buy napkins or paper towels, we have piles and piles of rags and cloth for that. It was a hard threshold to cross, but I did it, and I made it out alive!

I was feeling a little Peanut Free Mom when people asked for gift suggestions and my answer included the phrase "which I bet you can find at the thrift store".  I went into planning the food with the best intentions of no corn syrup and limited sugar, like a good ol' granola mommy, and did really well until I got to the cake.
 

Just check out that ADORABLE Plastic Foliage shirt the kid has on.

Not knowing how many people would be there, I bought several store-made cakes with no, or minimal food coloring in the decorations. Apparently carrot cakes must have bright orange carrot decorations on top so you know there are, in fact, carrots in the cake as well. I didn't read the list of ingredients. I saw how long the list was and put it in the cart anyway. I bought a variety of juices and made dye-free, no added sugar fruit punch. There were gluten-free, vegan brownies. Actually, now that I think about it, all the refreshments (minus the store bought cakes) were vegan.

Really, though, it all boils down to a little bit of flexibility. Fewer hard and fast rules and lots more magic! That is, after all, what birthdays are about, right? The magic of being alive...can you feel it?