A Little Nutty

I am not a fan of school birthdays. There, I said it. I know, I know, big grumpy health nut anti-cupcake scrooge, I admit it it, but come on, there are 23 kids and about 36 weeks of school, so you do the math. My kid included, because of course trying to buck the system and go for a different (non-sugar-loaded) style birthday is not worth the pain and suffering it would cause on all interested parties. So, we deal with the fall-out here, the post-sugar after school exhaustion, and the negotiating over the various high-fructose corn syrup, chock full o' chemical goodness items that get sent home.

Today's goodie bag was particularly interesting, given that the birthday child has a peanut allergy. This is increasingly common at school and in general not a big deal, especially given that there hasn't been a ban on peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, the bags are just kept in the hall and there is a peanut-free zone in the lunchroom. But it has made all of the families need to edit their snack contributions and birthday treats to ensure that there are no peanuts. I have seen several families turned away with 2 dozen cupcakes because they aren't safe. (I'd have been thrilled, but they inevitably return with a new set of cupcakes, so it doesn't diminish the sugar load). So, today's goodie bag included 5 or 6 fairly sizeable treats, the relative merits of which were discussed during our drive home. Adelaide was debating which item was the biggest, and which would last longest. She finally settled on a bag of plain m&m's. This started me thinking, and I asked to see the bag after she poured them in a dish.In case you didn't see the fine print: