Birthday Month!

August is “birthday month” in our house. My husband AND both my kiddos have August birthdays (the 1st, 15th, and 27th). So our entire month of August is full of birthday celebrations. Between separate parties for the 2 kids and family get togethers with extended family… by the end of August I’m spent!

But I love this month of summer. I love how we have off of school entirely (we pretty much do year round homeschool). I love that the days are hot and long and we spend a lot of our time in the water (pool side or playing in the sprinklers). I love that fall is on it’s way but not here yet. I love watching my kiddos bike outside for hours at a time. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love summer… unless maybe they live in the south in which case some days are like our winters (when it’s unbearable to be outside). But here in Minnesota, I cherish these few months of sunny weather bliss.

This month we did our best to stay “clean and healthy” with our meals. With traveling that can become difficult but with my daughter it’s a must since she has stomach trouble when we stray from her “elimination diet”.

My daughter’s party was “Lego Friends” themed and my son’s was “Star Wars”.

I made these amazing cupcakes more than once for each of the parties. My kiddos insisted that I use a baggie to make the frosting like this. My husband and I kinda think it looks like poop. 🙂 If it were up to me I would have just frosted them with a knife but I went with my kids’ requests.

For the cupcakes I made my “black bean muffins” for the base. Then I used the chocolate avocado frosting recipe from this cupcake recipe. My husband joked that I shouldn’t tell people what was in it (avocados) because it tasted like real frosting. I took that as a compliment. 😉

But my pride and joy was this watermelon owl filled with mixed fruit. I was watching the Rachel Ray show one day when I was on the treadmill and saw this little project. I took a photo of the tv screen and made it last weekend for my daughter’s birthday party! The kiddos and my husband were totally impressed. I was even impressed with myself because I thought this could have been a total fail if it didn’t turn out. But it was REALLY easy to do. All you need is a watermelon, grapefruit, kiwi, pineapple, and toothpicks.

We celebrated my hubby’s birthday at Famous Dave’s (one of his favorite restaurants). He got his 1/2 price birthday meal and a free ice cream.

And we spent time with extended family in Iowa.

I do have to admit that after 3 years of no processed sugar I caved! I bought my husband his beloved Dairy Queen Reeses Peanutbutter Cup Blizzard cake for his birthday. Usually I make something for myself so that I stay away from processed junk. But I just couldn’t resist. And this photo shows why I stay away from processed sugar. I don’t just have a little piece of cake… I go big!

Of course I had a huge bloated miserable food baby belly after eating this but it was a nice reminder of why I don’t eat like this every day. So now I’m back to my “sugar free” lifestyle. No harm done… except one night of feeling crummy which in my opinion was totally worth it. 😉

So, for the most part we ate really healthy and clean and had a fantastic birthday month!

I can’t believe my little guy is 6 years old and my daughter will be 8 on Saturday (we celebrated early since friends were in town). Time goes by so fast! I am just soaking in every minute of their youth.

I hope you are all having a fantastic summer as well!