The Little Man turns 6 (almost)

Technically the Little Man turns 6 at 11:45 AM on July 9th. But Due to the July 4th holiday and people going away we decided to have his birthday party this past weekend. In years past, we've invited kids from his preschool and many couldn't attend because they were on vacation due to the holiday. This year I thought I'd be sly and do the party BEFORE the holiday and see if we could get more kids. I know my previous post about the art of RSVP seemed a bit ranty (and it was). But we ended up with a nice group of kids (even if half didn't RSVP until a day or two before the party).

Last year the Little Man had the birthday from heck. For his 5th birthday his present was a broken collar bone and his birthday was a total bust. I planned that party months in advance and it broke my heart that he had to sit in a chair and watch other kids enjoy his party. Of course by the time this year rolled around the heart break was lessened due to time and I really didn't want to have a "big" party. I hate spending the money for these things. But my Mom was kind enough to remind me how he was robbed last year and "that you owe him a big party" (thanks Mom!). So the party wasn't necessarily BIG but it wasn't cheap either.

And he picked the place. I tried to talk him out of it. They serve pizza there and there isn't any other option. He said he didn't care and that I could bring his safe pizza for him and everyone else could have the "wheat" pizza. So I booked the party and racked up some more Disney points on my Visa.

I think the kids had a good time:



He wanted a "Mario Bros theme" and if we learned anything from the Wall-E Party it's that Mama is not a baker or cake decorator. Wall-E looked a little drunk. So Mario was a plastic man surrounded by "mushrooms". That's all I've got people. Ace Of Cakes I am not.



Use your imagination on the "mushroom" part.



The kids thought the "eyes" were the coolest part and I used a Sharpy for that. L.A.M.E. is my middle name.



Look Mom, no broken collar bone!



The Little Man's class is made up of 15 boys and 4 girls. Could you have this party anywhere other than a bouncy place? I think not.



The Crew



"Beware" flying children



Happy Birthday Little Man! I'm glad the 6th birthday was MUCH better than the 5th!!

R.s.v.p. - It's a lost art

RSVP/R.s.v.p. "Répondez s'il vous plaît". It's French for Please Reply. It's a verb that means "please respond to this invitation". Sometimes there is a date that says RSVP by June 20. And the person may put a phone number, email address or both.

It means that the person sending the invitation is asking YOU the receiver to respond by a certain date so that the sender (usually the person planning the party) will know how many people to expect. Some times said party planner needs to know how much food to prepare or sometimes said party planner needs to give a head count to the party place because she is paying by the number of people (15,20,25, etc...).

It's polite to call on or by the date given on the RSVP line. I'll even accept on that date "ish". If you're within 3 days of the date, you're good. I know people get busy...

But it's not an option. When someone asks for R.s.v.p., it's because it's necessary and it's impolite not to respond. You are basically saying A. I am more important than you, and you and your party (or childs party depending on the case) is just not on my radar or B. I don't like you so you can just kiss my _____ (pick appropriate word and insert here).

Since it's my baby's 6th birthday, I'm hoping that it's A or that if it's B that I'm the one that they are telling to kiss something. But in case they don't realize it, it does come off reflecting on my son. It's his party. So he's the one that you are really ignoring.

The stress that it causes when 8 out of 19 people haven't R.s.v.p.'d is pretty undue. I know I am going to pay for kids that aren't going to show (or get stuck paying double for the ones that do and don't call). I still have a few days left but I had to give my final count yesterday. I really hope that 5 more kids show up. Maybe everybody is on vacation? Maybe the invite got lost in the mail? Maybe we've just lost all of our manners today.

For more rules of the R.s.v.p. etiquette see:

Proper Invitations, Acceptance, and Regret from Emily Post (1922)

Understanding the R.s.v.p. Etiquette from Stefanie Van Aken

Heart Breaking

I can't bring myself to stop at a BP Gas Station. I just can't. Someone on Facebook said "But you are only hurting the local owners...". I know but I just can't...

But if you don't want to boycott BP Gas Stations (and it's not just BP, you'll have to do a google search to see what other stations use BP Oil), there are things you can do to help.

Donate to the Gulf Coast Fund

If you live in the area, find volunteer opportunities on The Spill Site

Alabama residents are asked to contact the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program at 251-431-6409;

Or contact the Mobile Baykeeper at 251- 433-4229 to volunteer anywhere along the Gulf Coast;

Save Our Seabirds is a Florida bird rescue group that is looking for volunteers as its response team prepares to help oiled wildlife. To help, call 941-388-3010;

Don't forget to do your homework before donating. You want to make sure that you and your money are doing the most good.

Buy a bottle of Dawn Dish Detergent. 1 bottle = $1 dollar to save wild life

Don't forget that people died in this tragedy. Pray for them and their families.

Stop using so much fuel. Walk, ride a bike or buy a hybrid.

Turn up your air conditioner (or open windows instead) and turn down your heat in the winter.

Decrease the other products that you use that are made from petrolium

What other suggestions do you have? What else can we the people do about the spill?

Tip for the day: When you know the news will be there, apply more make up

The boys took place in a flag retirement ceremony last week and it was taped by a local TV channel for "Flag Day" (today). Afterward the camera guy came over and asked me a question. I tried to hide behind a tree and I tried to run but he got me. I begged him to leave me alone but he wouldn't. Here it is. The boys look cute. You can see the Little Man but I don't see too much of the Older Boy (ironic since the Older Boy is actually part of the Scouts and the Little Man isn't technically a Scout until the fall). I'm Mom #2. My mouth looks like I had a stroke or something - kind of twisted. I could use a lot more make up too. Why couldn't that camera man have left me alone?

Life Embrace.

Food Allergy Initiative - Videos about food allergies

Visit the FAI home page for more information or to see what you can do to take action to help those with food allergies.

And please feel free to share these videos with your community or on your blog.

Product Review: Enjoy Life Trail Mixes

A few weeks ago the nice people from Enjoy Life sent me 2 bags of their trail mixes at no cost to try for the sole purpose of doing a review on the blog. The boys were super excited to see these arrive at our house!

This is the only trail mix that I have ever found that is gluten free, dairy free, egg free, soy free, peanut nut free and tree nut free. I have never seen a trail mix that didn't contain nuts!

The first one we tried was the Not Nuts! Beach Bash. The ingredients are: Raw Sunflower Kernels, Pineapple*, Roasted Hulled Pumpkin Seeds (Sunflower Oil (Sunflower Oil, Citric Acid), Salt), Cranberries*, Apricots*

The Little Man LOVED the pineapple as he is a lover of all things pineapple. Since my older son is anti fruit, he gave all his pineapple and apricots to his brother (it all worked out for the best).


We then tried the Not Nuts! Mountain Mambo. The ingredients in this one are: Raw Sunflower Kernels, Roasted Hulled Pumpkin Seeds (Sunflower Oil (Sunflower Oil, Citric Acid), Salt), Raisins*, Dried Apples*, Chocolate Chips (Evaporated Cane Juice, Chocolate Liquor, Non-Dairy Cocoa Butter), Cranberries*

We all loved this one, but this one was my favorite due to the chocolate chips. Mama loves herself some chocolate. The chocolate chips along with the saltiness of the sunflower and pumpkin seeds was the perfect combination for me (the boys had to stop me from eating the whole bag!).

All Enjoy Life Products are made without: gluten, wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish, shell fish, casein, potato, sesame, and sulfites. Made in a dedicated nut- and gluten-free bakery.
Ingredients have been additionally tested to ensure strict allergen control standards are met.

So we'll be keeping both varieties at our house from now on. These are a great snack to keep on hand. The seeds satisfy the salty cravings but are on the healthier side vs. chips or pretzels.

These snacks are another winner from our friends at Enjoy Life! Visit the website for coupon for 55 cents off any Enjoy Life product.

Allergic Living Magazine VS. The NY Times

I originally posted this on WEGO Health but I LOVE that Allergic Living took on the NYTimes and their misinformation so I thought I'd share it here too (just in case you missed it on WEGO Health).

I love a good rebuttal.  And Allergic Living Magazine gave us just that.  I saw them tweet it yesterday.  So I tweeted it.  And then I found Food Allergies Not Just A 'Trendy Condition' But A 'Serious Threat' from Top News You Can Use this morning talking about the article. 



An Allergic Living Magazine Senior Editor questioned the "30% of the population `supposedly believe' that they suffer from food allergies" statement in the recent NY Times article slanted against the rise in food allergies.  The Senior Editor emailed one of the lead authors of the original JAMA paper supposedly sited by The Times, and Dr. Marc Riedl of UCLA replied back "The Times was sloppy with the details of the figures, especially the 30 per cent `believing' they have allergies. Most data suggest that self-reported food allergy is in the 10 to 17% range for the U. S". 



Whoa! That 10-17% is quite a bit different than the 30% number thrown about by The NY Times!  Even the 10-17% figure (which was given as a worse case scenario) wasn't in the JAMA article.  So where did the 30% figure in the NY Times article come from?  Allergic Living Magazine asked Gina Kolata, the author of the NY Times article, and she said Dr. Riedl.  So we will never really know for sure.  But we do know that the 30% is incorrect.  And we also know that because the NY Times is such a respected news outlet that this piece was picked up by several other news agency and republished as fact many, many times.  At the time, I was less than happy about this coming up again during FAAW and so were many others.  The information in the article really wasn't anything that we in the community didn't already know, but now to come to find out that it was FLAWED also adds insult to injury. 



We work very hard in the food allergy community to educate others about the seriousness of food allergies and anaphylaxis.  Those that suffer from real food allergies aren't just picky eaters.  If they eat the food that they are allergic to it has the potential to be life threatening.  And that is a fact. And if you don't think we still need to work at educating people about food allergies,  just take a look at the comments to the Allergic Living article.  People really don't get it. So when a respected news source like the NY Times writes an article that basically states "93 million Americans" are overstating their food allergies, it really sets us back.  And to do that during Food Allergy Awareness Week makes me wonder what ulterior motives The NY Times and Ms. Kolata have against food allergies.  Do anti food allergy articles sell more papers?  Was it a slow news week for her that week?  Does she just like to be contrary?  And if the statistics were wrong in that article, what other statistics are wrong?  Should we get a fact checker for every news article we read?



What I did see happen from all of this is a community that came together to dispel the statistic from a well respected newspaper.  I love how people came out to voice their opinions even if it wasn't the popular opinion.  And I really love how Allergic Living Magazine went straight to the sources to get to the real scoop (or as close to the real scoop as they could).  They really took the bull by the horns with this one.  I hope we as a community will remember this in the future.  We take a lot of hits, but we don't have to take them lying down.



Did you notice the "30% statistic" and find it odd?  How did you feel about the original article when it came out?  Is this being discussed in your community?



I admit the article itself bugged me because of the slant, but I missed the 30% statistical error.  Thanks to Allergic Living Magazine for picking up on that one.

 

You can find Allergic Living Magazines original article about all of this here.

 

Allergic Living Magazine's Facebook Page

 Allergic Living on Twitter

 

A jam packed Memorial Day weekend

Whew, that weekend flew by. It was kind of a blur! Besides Thomas the Tank Engine, Saturday evening we visited my sweet nephew, Sunday afternoon was carnival rides and both boys marched in a parade and Monday was parade number two. It was fun, but it was busy.




Basketball at Uncles



Woke up Sunday morning to this.



It couldn't make it's flight and landed in the neighbors yard. Hope the neighbors were awake.




Carnival Rides



Happiness is.... your own Bucket O Fries



Here comes the parade



My boys in the parade. The big one intentionally threw candy at me and hit me in the eye. Nice one son. I'll get you back when you least expect it.



Monday's Memorial Day parade



This little piper was too cute!



The Little Man marching



Older Boy



Everyone follows the parade to the cemetery for a ceremony.