A Rainbow and Fruit Flavors

Today was a big day at kindergarten. They called it Kaleidoscope Day, probably because the kids got to show their parents the rainbow of skills that they’ve developed this year. There were a dozen or so stations set up in the gym and Malia got to take me to each one and show off some of the skills she’s gained this year. It was so fun to see how confident she has become this school year and I think she really enjoyed showing off her knowledge.

The other super exciting part of kaleidoscope day is that all the kindergarteners got to eat lunch at school. Malia has eaten lunch at the school on a number of different occasions when we eat with Matthew, but this was her very first time eating hot lunch. She knew right where the allergy table is and luckily for her, there is one other allergy kid in her class who has become a friend. Renee and Malia will be in the same class again next year and I’m glad she’ll have someone to sit next to at lunch.

In other news, I made an absolutely fabulous discovery today. While I was at Sprouts, one of the employees was refilling the bulk bins and I happened to see him dump a huge bag of gummy bears into the bin. Sprouts has the best gummy bears ever and these particular gummy bears were one of the two food items Malia cried over when she developed her peanut allergy and could no longer eat a bunch of stuff. I perused the bag he tossed aside figuring it wouldn’t hurt to know what brand they were. When I got home, I looked up those Albanese brand gummy bears and was absolutely thrilled to discover that the only reason Matthew and Malia can’t eat them is because of the cross-contamination risks of the bulk bins! There are several of the package sizes that have a warning on them due to where they are packaged, but most of them are allergen free!  I did a very serious happy dance! And then ordered about 13 pounds of assorted gummies. They have bears, butterflies, jumbo bears, airplanes and soldiers for Memorial Day, snakes, worms and many other fun shapes. This is one of those absolutely fabulous discoveries. Malia was thrilled! Matthew was thrilled! I was thrilled! It was a great day!