Birthday Boy

Let summer begin as we have just completed our first long weekend of the year.  Victoria Day weekend, also affectionately called May 24, is upon us and what many consider the official start of summer.   Thankfully the weather peeps graced us with amazing weather the whole weekend.

Last year we celebrated the May 24 weekend for a whole different reason, when our little guy was born.  This year it was an awesome weekend to celebrate his first birthday!

This being such a special occasion I wanted to make sure that we celebrated it properly.  No I didn't hire a clown or have a petting zoo, or invite 100 kids to the event.  But I did get balloons and decorations and a cake and invited all the close family members who we thought would want to join in the celebration.

 Here are my steps to planning a birthday bash ...

Step 1: Invitations

We of course started with the invitations.  A quick Google search quickly made me realize that just an ordinary birthday invite would not be good enough for my little man.I needed something that was going to show off my cute little boy.   This brought me to Costco's photo centre website.  While they didn't have any great birthday invite cards, I was able to transform one of their templates to suit my needs.

They turned out amazing and were actually ready in only a couple of hours.  Cost for the 25 flat cards was $11.99 and well worth it.

We quickly sent out the invitations and then waited to hear from people.  And waited ... and waited ... and waited.  Hello people you are suppose to call and tell people if you are attending or not. (sorry rant over)









Step 2: It's All About the Food

Simple and easy is the name of the game when it comes to food at a birthday party (or well any party really).  Even though it is going to be a beautiful May afternoon I have decided that my slow cooker will take the lead for this event instead of my BBQ.

Now the recipe needs to be just as simple and of course uber yummy.  I also want to make something that was paleo, but not something that would make people notice that they are eating paleo.

This lead me to a fantastic recipe I had tried out back in January of Crockpot TexMex Carnitas from Life as a Plate blog.  You can get the recipe here.

In the past (aka pre-working mama days)  I would have made all the guacamole and salsa to go with this item, but now I don't have time for that.  Thankfully there is once again Costco to help me with this.






Step 3: Decorations

Decorating for a party has never really been a big deal for me.  Usually I clean the house and use the food and the decorations.  Somehow I don't think this will work for a baby birthday party.  Again after a search on Google I found that the best places to buy party decorations are at party stores.

There are two main ones in my area, Party City and Amazing Party Store.  After many many hours of looking at the online inventory, Amazing Party Store was the winner of the where will I shop contest.  It really helps that this store is only a 3 minute drive from my house as well.

It is amazing how quickly the cost for decorations adds up.  Plus you can't have a first birthday party without having lots of helium balloons.  Those have to be pre-ordered to make sure that they can do them on the big day.  Also I learned through research that not all helium balloon suppliers are equal.  Some balloons last for days others may only last for hours.





Step 4: Relax and Enjoy the Party

I think this one is pretty self explanatory.  Spend all day running around if you must but when the first guest arrive that is when everything is done (finished or not) and you relax and enjoy the party.  Hopefully you get lucky and the guest of honour is in a good mood.

The Dentist

I have great teeth.  Just one of those things that I was born with.  They are straight without ever needing braces and they have somehow managed to never get a cavity.  Yet even with these great teeth I still hate going to the dentist.

Its not the actual sitting in the dentist chair while they work away at cleaning my teeth that bothers me.  Although really, I can't see how anyone can enjoy lying there with their mouth wide open while someone scraps and pokes and sucks water out of your mouth.  

What I hate about going to the dentist is how they treat you like you don't know how to brush your teeth.  Or how they feel the need to tell you that you should be flossing 10 times a day and then scold you when you admit that you don't floss at all.

Yes, I admit it, I am not a flosser!  But with never having gotten a cavity I am not sure I see the need to floss.

The other thing I absolutely hate is how they new decide to measure your gums and prick them with something sharp to see if they will bleed.  Hello news flash ... I am human, if you prick me with something some of my blood is going to seep out.

My dentist tries to get me into their office every six months.  Which is an improvement on the last dentist that I went to who tried for every 3-4 months.  No way I want to go sit in that chair every six months.  I manage to do every nine months, which is still more frequently that is probably necessary.

Fisher Price Disappointment

Little man got some awesome gifts for his birthday.  He loves all of the toys he receives and actively plays with everyone of them (and not just the box they were in).

One of the awesome toys he received was the Fisher Price Little People Discovering Animals Farm.  He loves this little set and has already spent a lot of time pushing the tractor around putting the animals in his mouth.

After taking a closer look at the box, we realized that there were suppose to be 2 fences included in the set that weren't.  Not wanting to go through the hassle of returning a product that R loves and has already played with a lot we decided to email Fisher Price and ask for them to send us the fences that should have been included.

The box that the toy was packaged in that clearly shows fences.

What is Fisher Prices response ... we don't do  do the fences any more too bad for you.  Oh but if you want you can buy other accessories at our website.

Fisher Price you get a great big

FAIL

Not only have you failed to provide the product that you advertise on the box but you also failed to have any reasonable customer service to deal with your false advertisement.  Shame on you.

BIG DISAPPOINTMENT

The secret ingredient

Besides using the freshest ingredients available there is one other thing I have noticed about all of my meals here in Provence.  A fanatastic ingredient that the French are not afraid to use and don't skimp on is the fat.

Whether it be the morning crossiant that must each contain a pound of butter to make them taste so yummy or the dips like aioli that is based with oil.  The other evening we had dinner at Leopold's in Aix en Provence, where I ordered the duck confit.  Confit is essentially the slow cooking of the duck in its own fat.   There was even a nice tasty drizzle of this fat on my plate that I happily sopped up.

Then there are the desserts.  This evening when we were out for a stroll we stopped in at Béchard, one of the top pastry shops in Aix (or so I have read). The smell in the shop alone is enough to make your mouth water and want to order one of everything.  I settled on a mini Tarte Tropézienne.  From the first nibble of cream you could tell that there were no low fat ingredients used in making this pastry. The cream was wonderful and the puff pastry part again must have had a pound of the best butter. 

After eating all these yummy full fat foods for a month it has done a number on my waist line. I wish I could figure out the French secret of how they eat all these yummy foods and still stay slim.