Friends, we do not mess around over here when it comes to birthday parties.

Ever since my mom came to visit with her iPad, getting my son hooked on Angry Birds, I’ve been planning this Angry Bird-themed party. So, like 4-5 months of planning.

I don’t know what it is about kids’ parties that make me go a little nutty and start taking things beyond a normal level, but it’s just fun. Well, until it’s the week of the party and I’m swamped with things to make and get ready, and I can’t tone it down because I’m just too invested.

That being said, I did better than last year in that I wasn’t frantically frosting cupcakes as the guests arrived. I was plating the last of the appetizers as people got here, but other than that I was able to join the party from the get-go.

However, in similar fashion to last year, I was testing out recipes like a crazy person for months in advance. This year it was even more important because we had some food allergies to deal with. So I had to find and/or develop recipes that were gluten-free, refined sugar-free, dairy-free, and egg-free. Woah. So I tested out a lot of recipes, a few of which were so bad they went straight into the trash. Anyway. More on that later. (more…)