My Little Man is One - A few Mustaches, a Couple of Tears , and an Egg Free Take on the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Devil's Cake Mix.

Today my little man (now referred to as Big Boy) turned ONE. Happy Birthday my playful, fun, busy Big Boy!

We let him go to town on the cake. The benefits of a summer birthday. This would never happen in the house!

I'm finding it a very emotional milestone. I don't remember feeling this way with the girls.

Not sure if it is because he is my last one. Although I'm sure the 250 people at my brother's wedding think I'm pregnant because I refused to drink a shot of Anti-candida diet Tequila. Or he has just been such a blessing. Not only because he is a fun guy. Which he is. Very playful. Always ready for a quick laugh. But because he just completed our little family. I felt an instant sense of peace when I had him. He was the missing piece of the puzzle. When he was about two weeks old a relative of my Mom's (which I had never met) said "you don't look like you just had a baby - my wife was so tired all the time". Its because I was beaming. I still remember my Mom saying "Its because she's happy".  I didn't really have time to think about it. But yeah. I was. I am.

I had an inner turmoil going on from the moment I had my first child. My heart wanted three kids. My head thought my heart was crazy. Should I have three kids. Can I handle three kids. One kid is hard. Two kids is really hard. Maybe I'm not cut out for this.

Didn't help that I was suffering severe burn out around the time I had "planned" to start trying for a third.

Luckily, I listened to my heart and my burn-out had lifted enough that we did decide to go for number three. Now my heart is happy. My heart was right. He was meant to be with us.

So we had to have a big celebration of his birthday. A Big Boy Celebration. With lots of Mustaches. And it had to be a celebration that my daughter could partake in. Namely she needed to eat the cake. Because that girl loves cake. And she can only eat cake that is gluten, egg and dairy free.

Since I'm still recovering from my brother's wedding I wanted to do a boxed cake. So I bought the Betty Crocker Gluten Free cake. It calls for water, butter and three eggs. Hmmm, obviously some experimenting needed to happen.

I modified the recipe (ignoring the instructions completely) to use 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk, 3/4 cup of Chia gel (about 3 tbsp ground Chia with just under 3/4 cup of water) and 1/2 cup of butter.  It wasn't quite dairy free but two out of three ain't bad. I will try this again with coconut oil instead of butter to make it dairy free. Next time.

UPDATE: I made these again using Coconut oil instead of butter and it worked perfectly. So 100% dairy free. 

It turned out awesome. It was super moist and ALL the kids loved it! I was so impressed.

And making a basic mustache cake is so easy. Just follow these simple directions or look at the pictures - its self explanatory:

1) Make one round (8") chocolate cake.

2) Let cool completely and then freeze.

3) Take out of freezer. Place a piece of parchment paper on top and make a zigzag pattern with toothpicks (see picture).

4) When the cake is partially thawed. Cut the zigzag pattern into the cake.

5) Flip one piece over and join in the center.

6) Ice the cake when it is still partially frozen. I used a fork to make a "hair" design. Done.

And a couple other ideas if you want to host a mustache party. Because there is just so much you can do with a paper mustache on a stick. 

Its hard to read but we decorated shirts for the party. Mine said "BIG BOYz Mom". With a mustache on the front and back. Yes. I'm proud to be his Mom.

Happy Birthday Little Buddy! I love you. I love us all more because you are with us! Thank you for laughing so much! I love your laugh. 

The Rustic Vintage Wedding Was Amazing! My brother is a married man!

I don't normally share a bunch of personal details of my life other than my health related ramblings. But my brother and his new wife (yikes - the baby of the family is married) did such an amazing job planning this wedding that I just had to at least share a couple of pictures. I don't have any of the lovely couple yet but I might have to post one of those later on when I get some.

They did a RUSTIC VINTAGE THEME and it was amazing. They had so many cute details I could start a rustic vintage wedding blog but since this is a clean eating blog I will just give a couple of the highlights:

• The ceremony was in my Mom's backyard at the farm. The yard and gardens looked unbelievable. They hung huge reclaimed wood frames from the trees and got married in front of it. It was so cool. Not to mention the vintage cars they borrowed. Drool. The official pictures - taken by my friend - are going to be amazing.  
• The ceremony was written by the bride and officiated by their friend - forever to be referred to as Reverand Rick. It was so pretty. I was so nervous for my brother. Not a huge fan of public speaking or displays of any kind. He did awesome. I got to be part of the hand fasting ceremony. So cool. I was compelled (last week) to finally get one of my late baba's vintage dresses altered. I don't have one picture to share (yet) but it was pretty awesome to have a piece of her there with us during the ceremony. 
• The bride wore a beautiful lace dress and she looked so gorgeous. Timeless. The guys outfits rocked.
• My little girl got to be flower girl and learned the concept of "nervous" for the first time. She did awesome. No problems. She walked down the isle blowing bubbles. She looked lovely. 
• We danced the night away. Well until 11:30 when the flower girl finally had her way and we took her home). She was so tired. I loved dancing with my girls. I will never forget that part. 
• In the "get them to kiss" game I picked "do a tequila shooter". Shit, shit, shit. I refused to drink a glass full of sugar and yeast. If I'm cheating on this Candida diet it is for a cupcake not tequila. Anyway, my husband did it for me (Thank you, Thank you, Thank you - he hates tequila but he loves me more). All 250 people at the wedding probably now think I'm pregnant. Again. I'm not. I swear. We are done. 
• Both T and I cheated a bit on our diets. Not major. She had a perogy and a SMALL bite of ice cream. And then got a tummy ache. I had some wheat breaded chicken and some wheat laden gravy. I also had a tummy ache and a food hangover the next day. But we also didn't get much sleep for a couple of nights so hard to tell the cause. I'm dealing with a small Candida flare up now but my stomach was off for a week before either from nerves or psyllium husks that I was experimenting with. Not sure. 

Overall it was an amazing day. I am so happy for them that it all went well and honored that they let us take part in the ceremony. 

Okay - I want to get married again so I can do such a cool theme. 

Here are a few of the great details............there were tons more but I'm just giving a glimpse.  Sorry that there is no recipe today. I am nursing my Candida flare up and food hangover. And resting up (more like scrambling to pull together) my little guys 1 YEAR BIG BOY MUSTACHE BIRTHDAY PARTY on Wednesday. Yikes. He's already going to be one. Its a sad/happy time. But I promise a recipe on Wednesday either way..................

Their friend made this cupcake stand for them. Incredible. Made out of wood. Another friend made the cupcakes. They have a lot of talented friends. I didn't even have one cupcake. Yes - I'm proud of myself. 

The flower girls and ring bearer. Too cute. Instead of handing out programs they just made a easel/chalkboard/reclaimed frame with the details. Very environmentally friendly. And so cute. 

That's my other brother. OMG. The guys in the wedding party are more the leather vest/bandana wearing/Harley driving type than the stuffed shirt type. So they rocked these outfits. They cleaned up nice. The pictures in black and white are going to be timeless.


Overall one of those days to remember that's all about love and peace, friends and family, celebration and commitment. A great start to a wonderful union of two people very much in love. Yay!