Birthday Complications

The rapid approach of Damian’s sixth birthday is bringing trepidation, complications, and plenty of children with no food allergies. Now that Damian is in school, he naturally wants every child in his class to come to his party. This raises numerous issues for me.

First of all, our house isn’t that big. This means that I will have to choose a fun place other than my house. The leaders in birthday parties would be McDonald’s or ChuckE Cheese, but the places are a disaster waiting to happen for Damian. Kangaroo Jacks is wonderful and so is Jumpin’ Monkey but they both cost a fortune for a maximum of 2 hours. That isn’t including allergy friendly food either! So, my options are very limited. Perhaps a park? As long as it isn’t cold, but still we run the risk of weather changes causing chaos. Not to mention the fact that I am anaphalactic to bees. I have the pen but if I get stung, the party is over. I live in Virginia so the bees are out in March as long as the weather is nice.

Then there is the issue of food. Of course I always make the cake from scratch. However, because his cake contains a lot of substitute ingredients, should I check with other parents first? I mean, what if their child is sensitive to soy, or eggs? I would never even consider these things if I didn’t have a food allergic child. His ice-cream is expensive. Do I buy a bunch of it and offer everyone, or do I make it a bring your own ice-cream? Would it be horrible to not offer ice-cream at all? Snacks are easy. Just throw some dairy free chips, pretzels, and popcorn together in a bowl. The kids love it!

I know I will figure it out. Damian will have a wonderful birthday despite his food allergies. I will be a nervous wreck trying to prepare for it, but that’s becoming a given. But this is what I have to go through because my child has food allergies. All this planning, and I can almost guarantee that somehow, I will end up catching a would be dairy disaster anyway. Aww Geez, I am getting a headache just thinking about it.