2nd Birthday Party: An Allergy-friendly Celebration

We recently celebrated my son's 2nd birthday and had about 20 family members over at our house - just about all we can comfortably fit!  I was determined to make the food options safe for my son - especially since it was HIS party.  I felt like it was also a good "test" of some recipes and of my skills to entertain in an allergy-friendly way.  We had a WONDERFUL party, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the food.  Here are some of the highlights!

I created a musical themed birthday since my son loves listening to music, watching bands, dancing and banging on drums.  I found a musical themed invite on Shutterfly, and tried to get creative and still stay sane while party planning.

We decorated the house with colorful balloons (we spread them throughout the house), and used painter's tape to tape musical notes everywhere that I cut out from construction paper.

I displayed toy musical instruments on the tables (forgot a photo) and then created little gift bags for the kids at the party. We only had two other little ones this time which worked out wonderfully. I've heard a good rule to to invite the number of kids equal to your child's age, and two was a great number.  Not too overwhelming for anyone, especially the birthday boy.

I bought these music-themed gift bags at Michael's art store.

I bought the color place mats, egg shakers, and fish-shaped castanet at Michael's to stay with the music theme.  I also included some yummy organic lollipops that I bought at Wegmans.

We had a feast of allergy-friendly food.  Check out the menu below written on a huge chalkboard in our kitchen.  The only thing my son couldn't eat were the assorted subs and the rolls to go along with the meatballs.  I felt comfortable with having those items at the party since I knew he wouldn't care to eat them anyway and there were so many other options for him.

I made all of the items here except for the salsa (my mother-in-law brought her famous yummy salsa), subs (we bought at Wegmans), and birthday carrot cake (I bought at an allergy-friendly bakery!).

I wish I had taken photos of all of the food, but I'm definitely going to re-make the recipes so I will add links on my blog in the future.  I DID take photos of the fun rice krispy treat desserts I made that my son absolutely loved.  I made the basic rice krispy treat recipe and used Gluten-free Rick Krispies, Earth Balance butter, and allergy-safe marshmallows.

I pressed the mixture into a pan and let them cool for about 10 minutes, as the recipe calls for.  Then I used a guitar shaped cookie cutter to cut out the guitar shapes.

I also melted some Enjoy Life chocolate chips and used a toothpick to add the circle and line to make them look a bit more like guitars!

With the leftover rice krispy treats I made little "balls" and dipped them into the Enjoy life chocolate chips, and then into sprinkles.  Also a big hit!!

It was a wonderful party overall!