A birthday feast! (Early Days cont'd)

Hey internet! Today is my birthday. This year I turned the big 2-8. What's funny is I've been telling people I'm 28 for some time now... I think I started rounding up before my half-birthday even. So I keep starting to say I'm 29. Not a birthday most people race for, ha.

Things started out rough today. The Magician had a stuffy nose overnight (he's fine today) and between the noise of his snuffling and my worry about him, I was up most of the night with him. And then the Emperor woke up at 5 a.m. and despite Josh's best efforts to keep him out of my hair, my very, very tired hair, he kept coming into the bedroom and waking me up every time I'd fall back asleep. Not the best way to begin a birthday! My mood was not great when I rolled out of bed and this coulda turned into a big old sulk-a-thon.

But I made myself a pot of happy birthday chai (hanks Amey!), turned my frown upside down, and ended up having an awesome day. Culminating in this:



My birthday feast! I had not planned on making a very ambitious birthday dinner... this was going to be sometime this weekend when I had Josh on hand to kid wrangle or else cook for me. But the stars aligned and the Magician ended up sleeping for the entire 2.5 hours it took me to put this (and dessert) together. AMAZING.

This is the Cheezy Mac and BBQ Ribz from American Diner with a side of roasted brussels sprouts, because nothing (and I mean nothing) says happy birthday like happy birthday brussels sprouts. All super good. Next time I make these Ribz I really need to make like... a triple batch. They are so. Freaking. Good. Everyone enjoyed this meal.

He thought these weren't too shabby either:



Cupcakes! They're sorta-carrot cake. I don't know. I started with a base recipe for carrot cake but I didn't have half the stuff in it, so I just subbed what I had on hand... coconut shreds for walnuts, diced apple for raisins, soy milk for yogurt, brown sugar for white sugar, cardamom for cinnamon (I had cinnamon but you know how I love throwing cardamom in things). Guess what? They are BANGIN'. And since they are made with whole wheat flour, tomorrow morning I'm going to pretend they're muffins and the Emperor and I are each going to eat one for breakfast.

Getting to have the Emperor in my life is pretty much one of the best presents I could get, and I get it every day (sometimes at 5 a.m.). Here he is giving me the gift of actually eating dinner without complaining:



And here's the Magician giving me the gift of just being pretty freakin' cute: