Happy Halloween!

It's been a busy last few days, FPIES and non-FPIES related.

We did the usual tradition of carving pumpkins which I was a little nervous about but let Kara do her thing. She as terrified to actually touch them but wanted to badly to put her little scoop in there! We didn't have to worry about her putting any of it in her mouth, she wouldn't let any of it even touch her hands! No complaints there!




On Saturday we attended a kids Halloween party. We fed Kara before we went and got there right as all the kids were eating. Brian stayed outside with the guys and we kept Kara out there with him to run around. She had no idea she was missing out on anything and we were a lot more relaxed about her being around all those kids and all that FOOD! It was a beautiful day so we spent the afternoon playing games with all the kids outside. At one point, the kids were all coloring pictures and there was a large bowl of snack mix out on the ground. I looked over just as Kara got some of it - one of the girls had given her a few marshmallows thinking she could handle those, wouldn't choke on them but didn't know about her food allergies. Thank God we caught it. She probably would have been OK with the marshmallows, she's had them before, but it's the cross contamination of the nuts, the chocolate, the soy, and whatever else may have been in it that would have had me panicked! The goodies the kids got from this party were great - Halloween cups filled with silly bandz, a pencil, eraser, it was food free so Kara didn't have to miss out on anything there! Here is a pic of the girls before the party:



We had a ladybug and a busy little bee on our hands for Halloween. I planned ahead and bought a bunch of little toy animals and things to put in Kara's pumpkin so she wouldn't even notice the candy. That was the way to go! She was so thrilled with all her new toys, nothing else mattered. Our families bought special things for Kara to have, such as smarties and things like that but we successfully got away with her having NOTHING. I think Brenna had 3 or 4 pieces, so we did great on the candy front! There were plenty of other distractions this year - we spent a good part of the evening at the fire hall helping out with the haunted house (chasing the girls is more like it, but I'd like to think we helped a little bit!) so we really didn't have to deal with too much candy. It can stay this way in the years to come. Both Brian and I are not big fans of Halloween now. With the big food holidays coming up, I'm sure this will become the norm. It's not only difficult to find foods for her and to make sure she doesn't notice that she is left out, but it's also incredibly heartbreaking now that she KNOWS she's missing out on things!

Here's some pics of our little lady bug and busy little bee - sorry, this is the best we could do! :)