Tag Archives: Birthday

Our birthday boy

Over the past few days, we’ve been celebrating young Master M’s 8th birthday. It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long since he first crashed into our world and whilst the time hasn’t been easy, it certainly has flown past fast. The last 8 years have been filled with a lot of laughs and smiles and it’s exciting to see just how our “little bean” is growing up. Obviously, we’ve had a lot of health worries along the way – this blog wouldn’t exist without them – but those haven’t overshadowed the joy and good times of having M as part of our family.

M has become a little boy with a big personality. Like most other boys of his age, he loves everything Lego, Star Wars and Angry Birds and is a keen member of our local under-8s football team, where he can be found most Saturdays running around the pitch and even occasionally kicking the football. He loves discovering new things and although he’s not the most academic of children, his passion for new facts, knowledge of the world and probing questions have been flummoxing his teachers for years. M does struggle due to his dyslexia and dyspraxia, but the strides he has made since we got the diagnosis last year are amazing and he never lets them stop him being an active participant in class. He enjoys school now more than I ever thought possible and is keen to get there each morning to spend the day with his friends.

He adores his big sister and even though he spends most of his spare time planning new ways to wind her up, he will be the first to leap to her defense or comfort her when she’s upset. He will go off to search for a scrap of her “rag” when she’s in tears, though he will also hide it from her when he’s in one of “those” moods. They love nothing more than playing together in the garden and enjoyed most of the weekend’s sun by washing my car with M’s brand new super-soaker.

Perhaps more unusual is his flair for all things theatrical. M has never been backwards in coming forwards and I have photos of him stepping up to perform karaoke age 4. He loves to perform and is always looking for the next opportunity to do so. His current favourite musical is “Singing in the Rain”, though he’d probably also mention “Lion King”, “Matilda” and “Oliver!” in no particular order. M has a dedicated dressing-up wardrobe and has fancy dress to meet every occasion. No matter what character you’re looking for: be it “Odlaw” from Where’s Wally, “Bert” the chimney sweep from “Mary Poppins” or the “Ringmaster” from “Ninja Meerkats”; I can guarantee that M will have already been there and worn that!

When it comes to coping with his EGID and his diet, M is a trooper. He takes his medicines with the minimum of fuss and accepts the food restraints with relative good humour. He’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, far from it, and really struggles at times with frustration and anger that this is his lot in life. Yet he nearly always bounces back and keeps going with a positive attitude. The latest challenge of no potatoes has been one of the hardest M has had to face and he has really found it difficult to accept that he might have to avoid them longer term; but even he has had to agree that things have improved since we whipped them out of mealtimes and is now hoping that our next GOSH appointment will bring a food trial instead.

To celebrate in true style, I once again attempted to bake the double and created 2 cakes for M to enjoy – one for our family dinner and one for him to share with his friends at his party. The first he chose from my cupcake decorating book and the second was inspired by G and M’s current passion for all things “Despicable Me”. It took two long and extremely late nights, but I achieved my goal, was pleased with the results and, more importantly, so was the birthday boy himself.

School trip!

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WOW! Haven’t things changed since we were young? Way back when, I remember the school trips from my Junior school years. They always seemed to be to places of historical importance or museums and not necessarily to the places my friends and I would have chosen for a day off school. As I got older, the trips involved a little more travel and even, very, very occasionally, a theatre trip, or suchlike, that required additional financial input from willing parents. These days school trips appear to have changed dramatically or, at least, that appears to be the case this term for my pair. They appear to be far more exciting than any school day out that I remember.

Courtesy of http://www.education-gate.com

M’ school trip happened a couple of weeks ago and, as it fell on a day I didn’t have to work, I tagged along for the ride. The day itself was grey, wet and miserable, but that didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the 27 7- and 8-year olds going out for the trip. We clambered aboard the bus and off we set, amongst much discussion of just how long it would take for us to reach our destination. Fortunately, a mere 20 minutes later we arrived, disembarked and were ready for the next 2 hours. Our location? Pizza Express!

Last year, Pizza Express teamed up with the Children’s Food Trust to encourage children to get cooking. They offer free visits to schools, where the classes are taught about the provenance of the food they eat, learn basic health and safety in the kitchen and have the opportunity to make their own pizza to enjoy. What was even better, from my point of view at least, is that Pizza Express offers an excellent experience for food-allergy sufferers, which meant that M was able to participate fully on the day itself.

They started with a tour of the kitchens and a quick step into the enormous fridges – if they dared. We saw the pizza ovens, where we were told that a pizza takes no more than 4 minutes to cook, which certainly left us adults scratching our heads and wondering quite why it takes so much longer when you’re waiting at your table! This was followed by a food-based quiz, where 1 of M’s classmates impressed me by being able to identify oregano just from a photo and the children were able to taste, if they wanted, some of the ingredients they would be using later. Next, the pizza chef on site prepared from scratch one of the most popular pizzas, cooked it and offered a slice to everyone there.

Finally, as every child was now nearly at bursting point, they were sent to wash their hands thoroughly before starting to prepare their pizzas. An impressive array of ingredients was set out on the tables, enough to satisfy even the most picky of eaters, without overwhelming them with choice. Pizza bases were passed along the lines and the restaurant manager made certain that M’s gluten-free base was on its own tray to avoid the risk of any cross-contamination. M was given his own spoon and first go at the tomato sauce, so I was confident that his pizza would remain “safe”.

Every Pizza Express restaurant has a reference folder which shows every ingredient used in their recipes and indicates what allergens each contains. I was confident that the pepperoni provided was M-friendly, but it was fantastic to be able to check so easily and without fuss. I had prepared some slices of our newly discovered Violife cheese too, which meant M could finally have a pizza with cheese, rather than without which has so often been the case. M stood happily with his friends, laughing and chatting as they each designed their idea of the perfect pizza.

Once the pizzas were made, including those of all the teaching staff and parent helpers present, they were popped into the massive ovens to bake. As soon as they were ready, they were placed into individual takeaway boxes for transporting back to school and each box carefully labelled with each child’s name. All the hard work done, it was back to the coach and to school, ready for a pizza lunch.

It was great morning out and once again my heartfelt thanks go to Pizza Express for ensuring it was an experience that M could share in too, despite the multiple food allergies. Not only do they provide great ingredients and plenty of allergen information, but they are clearly conscious of the risks of cross-contamination for food-allergy sufferers and work hard to ensure those are minimised as much as possible. I was impressed with the birthday party we had there for G and equally so that time and care was taken to make sure that this school trip was 100% successful too. I have no idea what trip is planned next, but I suspect it will take a lot to beat this one!

A Duo of Birthday cakes

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As this year was a milestone birthday for G – her first in double figures – I wanted to bake her a cake she’d love and remember for a long time. Some time ago, I had seen this post by fellow allergy-friendly blogger, The Free From Fairy, and had duly filed away the information in the depths of my memory ready for the right occasion. I loved the idea of creating a cake for G that would be as unique as she is and would have that often elusive wow factor too.

The morning before her party dawned and having bought every colour of icing under the sun and ensuring I had enough supplies of all the key ingredients, I started to bake. In an attempt to make the cake extra-special, I decided to sandwich together layers of chocolate cake as well as plain sponge and used the tried and tested recipes I had developed earlier in the year. The chocolate cake was perfect, but I wasn’t happy with the plain sponge layers as they were too soft in the centre to allow me to successfully cut and stack the cake as I needed. I desperately searched for an alternative recipe and quickly found one that I tweaked according to the new principles of allergy-friendly baking that I have learnt this year. This second Victoria sponge worked brilliantly well and has now been added to my allergy-friendly repertoire.

With cakes baked, layers trimmed and stacked and my icing ready, I attempted to construct G’s rainbow pinata cake. I filled the hollow with a selection of G- and M-friendly sweets before struggling to cover the structure with icing, ready for the final decoration. I have to be honest and say that I wasn’t totally happy with the end result. I found it hard to create the stability needed using an “everything-free” sponge cake. With hindsight, I wish I had assembled the cake layers whole, rather than trying to create the arch of the rainbow as I think the outcome would have been even better. All that being said, G and her friends loved the cake and were thrilled to discover the pinata-effect of the sweets hidden away in the middle of each slice.

Of course, me being me, I wasn’t satisfied with just one cake to celebrate such an important occasion and once the party was over and done with, I set to finding the perfect creation for the big day itself. My inspiration for this second cake came from the amazing book, “Cupcakes, cookies & pie, oh my!“, which had been part of my recent leaving present from my job. G and M have spent hours drooling over the wondrous creations featured between those pages and I determined to create a cupcake piece of art just for G. I now have several great cake recipes to choose from, but stuck to our new favourites of Chocolate and Victoria sponges, though I ambitiously attempted to marble these together for the cupcakes.

The challenge this time round was that I needed to bake the cakes, ice and finish the decorations all in one day. Usually I bake the day before and then spend the evening before the party finalising my ambitious decorating plans, but with G’s birthday falling on a Friday, I had to do it all whilst the children were at school. Cupcakes and 8-inch cake baked, I started to prepare the icing, which needed carefully combining to ensure I had the final effect I wanted. Everything ready, I put all the component parts together and perused the final masterpiece. G had fallen in love with the cupcake peacock in the recipe book and I have to say, it has quickly become one of my favourite bakes too. Needless to say, the birthday girl was delighted and it tasted pretty good too!

A Decade of Parenting

A Pizza Express birthday

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The first day of December heralds the start of the busy season for most, but an especially hectic time in our household. As well as the much-awaited day itself with all the associated celebrations at school, work, choir and church, we also have to fit in a 10^th birthday and a wedding anniversary. This weekend we got the ball rolling in fine fashion with an early birthday celebration for G.

Whilst G is most definitely a December baby, this year other commitments near her birthday led to my decision to throw her party early and sneak it in at the end of November instead. The first discussion was about the format her party was going to take. G was keen to combine cooking or baking with a sleep-over. I was less keen. The prospect of organising a group of near 10 year-olds (and two 7 year-old boys) to prepare, cook and possibly decorate a selection of M-friendly foods lacked appeal. Add in M’s inability to settle and sleep at the moment and I could see that it was more likely that full-scale battle would break out, rather than the joyous birthday celebrations G had in mind.

Thanks to some wise words from Canadian friend F, I found the perfect solution – a pizza-making party at Pizza Express. Now I appreciate that throwing a pizza party for a child with wheat- and dairy-intolerances and her multiple food-allergy suffering younger brother sounds somewhat off the wall, but thanks to the gluten-free menu introduced by Pizza Express earlier this year, we knew it was a viable option. We discussed our requirements with our local restaurant and were reassured that both children could participate fully and work around their dietary restrictions.

The date was duly booked, invites sent, travel arrangements made and finally the day dawned. Following our prompt arrival at the restaurant, each child was given an apron and hat to don before their starters of garlic dough balls and a side salad were served. Thanks to the information provided by Pizza Express, I was fully equipped for all eventualities and the chef was able to lightly toast 4 slices of M-friendly bread, which was served with garlic butter that I had prepared at home.

Next the task of making the pizzas themselves. G, M and their friends were given a ball of pizza dough each and were then instructed in the art of rolling, pressing out and filling the pizza pans. The children had varying success with their pizza bases, but eventually, after a couple of false starts, everyone had a base to be proud of. They were then given a selection of toppings to add before their pizzas were baked in the ovens. G and M were able to take full part in this, preparing pizzas for Mike and me to enjoy.

Stretching and fitting the dough to the pan

Adding the GF tomato sauce to the base

Once these pizzas were ready to be cooked, G and M were then given the opportunity to make their own lunch. Our party host was fantastic and explained just how Pizza Express make sure that their GF options are kept safe from the risk of cross-contamination in their kitchens. The GF pizza bases are pre-made and kept in separate storage as is the GF tomato sauce for the base and they use different pizza pans to cook the GF pizzas, which are easily distinguished from the normal ones. I had brought our own supplies of grated goats’ cheese for G and chunks of Violife vegan cheese for M, which is both dairy- and soya-free.

G’s with goats’ cheese and ham and M’s with black olives and Violife cheese

We finished the meal with a small portion of ice-cream with various toppings they could add at their discretion. Once again I had been able to bring with me a tub of Booja-booja chocolate ice-cream for G and M to enjoy and was thrilled to discover that the Pizza Express toffee sauce was safe for them too as the party host had made the effort to check the detailed allergy listing for all their products and could reassure me that it was safe.

A game of “Pin the moustache on Paulo” entertained them whilst the pizzas were cooking

All the children had a wonderful time and we were hugely impressed by the attention to detail that PIzza Express makes to ensure that their allergy-friendly options remain safe, even down to serving G and M’s pizza on separate platters to once again ensure no cross-contamination occurred. It was a real treat to be able to offer a “normal” birthday experience to G and for them both to enjoy the birthday celebrations with their friends.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

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I’m disappointed that my surprise post to wish Mike a very special birthday whilst M and I were in hospital didn’t quite work out as planned. I’d forgotten that the vagaries of the blogging system mean that even a scheduled post requires me to log into my account at some point. I’ve decided to post it now, even though it’s a little late, because we didn’t forget it and we wanted to make sure Mike knew we hadn’t!

It isn’t quite the birthday we had planned. Presents were bought and wrapped, cards chosen and written and I’d searched high and low for a way to make a M-friendly lemon meringue themed cake to mark the occasion. I was even prepared to put my new meringue recipe into action as the topper.

Well, I can dream that it might have resembled this!

However, M’s admission to GOSH for scopes has played havoc with my best made plans and instead, Mike will be celebrating his birthday with G and my Mum, whilst M and I spend another day incarcerated on Kingfisher ward So, what M and I both want to say is “Happy birthday to a special Daddy! We love you lots and will see you soon.”

Courtesy of depositphotos.com

7 years to diagnosis

Searching for an answer