Our Fabled Nest

Happy birthday week, my little love! Forrest, being the baby, of the group tends to get away with just about everything. Regardless of his disability, he seems to be the one that enjoys life the most. Every new experience, trip or whatever we are doing – could be mundane, he is there – in the middle of the action living his best life. That’s one of the best things to see. He is grateful and it’s humbling to be his mom. I love seeing him light up with excitement over little things. I love seeing the world through his eyes. I love giving him the world even when we have to adventure differently.

For his birthday week, I knew he would be happy as a husky in Alaska with just about anything and everything we surprised him with. Last year, we did a “Two Legit to Quit” theme. Other than the material gifts, his gift was us… we chose to adopt him on his birthday. It was a foster fail in the best way! So, his birthday is more than just a “birthday”, it is also his gotcha, you’re stuck with us, forever day! This year, knowing his character, his personality, his quirks and all of the things that make Forrest, Forrest, we picked a “Party Animal” theme. He is the life of the party, after all!

When I think of him, I think of a party animal in the best way- the class clown, the goober, the kid with the soul mission of making everyone laugh. He has an infectious personality and is just a delight! The way he taps, dances and chats when he is happy never gets old and it’s beautiful watching him express joy! This banner over at Amazon is nothing short of perfection! Cute party animal plates and a stripped tablecloth from Target. Along with a few safari animals and sprinkles to top his cake with, it is quite adorable!

I can’t help myself; I love packaging the gifts in cute bags with paper for him to open… I think they love it just as much! His week of treats included Water Buffalo Braided Chews. Four per pack, it works out perfect for my crew. These are on the smaller side, lightly sweetened with honey and braided for maximum crunch. Plus, no upset bellies! Whimzees were also added to his week of goodies. Basically, a dog toothbrush but in a fun shape of a hedgehog. We call em’ Heggie Hoggies and the kiddos love them even if they only last mere minutes. Minnows – another crowd favorite, Magda started everyone on loving these. I cannot scream enough good things about these. Small bites, easy to eat, not smelly, easy to digest and everyone practically drools for a bite! Collagen Beef Sticks are delicious for them, and we all agree on how wonderful collagen is for pups! Collagen is good for joint health -great for the girls being a little older, good crunch for the boys and just a really good safe product I feel great about letting them enjoy. A friend of ours has started a small business of making her own freeze-dried treats. We ordered two bags of beef liver, and she threw in a bag of lamb lung for his birthday. Both were a huge hit! All were with smaller bites, the kids were over the moon excited, and I love supporting friends!

Food is and will always be, his favorite thing on earth next to snuggling. The favorite, mind blowing food item he screams for is bananas. Absolutely will fight a bear for one and he will choose his coveted bananas over anyone and everything. I’m sure he would use his wheelchair as a weapon and knock over anyone standing in his way of a banana. The dedication is real.

Since, it’s a week celebrating you and the things you love, bananas needed to be involved, front and center and used in practically every way! Breakfast is always the easiest: Banana Bread, Cookies for breakfast, and Banana Waffles were all on the menu. He loves our plain pancakes we make often; so, I fancied them up with sauteed bananas. With Forrest not being picky in the slightest, I knew dinner was going to be a lot of fun to plan! He is such a happy go lucky kiddo and will eat anything. We are celebrating him, and those bananas are important. Breakfast for dinner is so much fun! Especially when fluffy banana coconut pancakes drizzled with local honey and fresh whip cream are involved. Next on the menu was Walnut Crusted chicken with brie and a honey Dijon sauce. Instead of walnuts, I used gluten free breadcrumbs, and we added our crew favorite steamed broccoli and rice. He loves edamame too, so a quick Coconut fried rice was an easy choice. Being a classy boy, he loves tomatoes. For us tomato soup and them plain tomato sauce, slightly warmed with a sprinkle of cheese. Instead of grilled cheese we upped it to a cheesy flatbread. Each kiddo had their own mini “puppy pizza” with a good dose of crumbled cheese. Salmon cakes are another crowd favorite- we turned those into salmon burgers with dill and added some homemade fries. Simple and delicious!

Cake is always a good idea. But for Forrest, it needed to be toe tappin’, happy dancin’, talking our ears off kind of cake. He makes a lot of facial expressions- maybe it’s me, but I can always tell what’s on his mind. I was inspired by his Elvis lip curl with his slight head tilt…. a rather goofy whatcha doin’ face he makes when we are cooking. What about a “Peanut Butter Chocolate” Banana kind of cake? Scouring my cookbooks, I realized I have a few things that could work but I needed something a little more banana-ish. I stumbled across a blog called Buttermilk by Sam’s. Beautiful blog and their peanut butter chocolate cake piqued my interest. Our version so it’s puppy perfection? Carob, sun butter and bananas!

Cheers to three sweetness! Cheers to making strides, not letting anything hold you back and reaching for the stars! Cheers to our next adventure!

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