I love celebrating birthdays and milestones, and often celebrations involve food. That seems tricky when you are on a special diet, but does not have to be. Creativity and a celebratory spirit are what is needed!
Here is how we celebrated:
On her birthday she received three kisses from all of us in the morning. She found a special gift from her dragon friend, named Chou Chou. It was a beautiful green stone. The fairies left her a "3" that fits in wooden celebration ring on our table. She opened some gifts - a book (Goldilocks and the Three Bears), a bike bell, a ring. We had our morning juice and eggs.
At lunch we told the story of her birth. I wonder now if it was a coincidence that I went into labor with her in the produce department of the Skagit Valley Co-Op? We had homemade chicken/vegetable soup and sunflower sprout salad for dinner three hours before she was born. I made a snack of red peppers and salami for Natalie to eat during the birth and labor was so fast I didn't even need to eat the honey sticks we had for energy.
We baked her GAPS friendly birthday cake in the afternoon. I used this recipe, for the cake and frosting. I did not use egg whites but added extra coconut milk to replace whites, used less honey for both cake and frosting and used the juice from half a beet to turn the frosting pink. Funnily enough this is her first birthday cake that looks like a birthday cake - previous years the cakes have been made with garbanzo bean flour and butternut squash "frosting." Put a candle on anything though and it is a celebration!
We went to the pool for an hour and came home to make the birthday girl's requested dinner: squash, beets, peas and eggs! While dinner cooked we made paper birthday crowns to wear, even some for the dolls.
We sang songs, opened some more gifts and took pictures. We shared the meal and the cake and L was most excited about the blueberries decorating it - sweet girl.
We continued our celebration later in the week with a simple gathering with our close friends from down the street. The children played outside, the adults talked and played and blew up balloons. We served chicken, squash, broccoli and the Vitamix made a wonderful mango coconut ice cream. Popped a candle in L's dish and sang her happy birthday. It is amazing the silence ice cream can bring on a summer night.
Happy birthday, sweet Laurel!
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