Happy #3 VJ !!!

Today is Vinh's 3rd birthday. As an extra treat my BFF/the babes godmama Anya is in town visiting for a few days! We went out to Webber Grill last night before grabbing Anya from the airport so today will be a more low key celebration. Being so close to Christmas we are keeping the gifts to a minimum but Vinh did just happily graduate to a new twin size bed! I also made a double batch of his favorite berry cake for birthday breakfast thanks to 2/$1 blackberries at Meijer.

Don't feel bad he's getting plenty of gifts too! A new pair of Adidas kicks... building blocks, art supplies, more trains for his train table and a robotic dog. Amaya scores too for being a great big sister with a few hello kitty beanie babies and a princess Ariel Barbie. Kids this age are so easy to please. Well, as easy as blowing up a dozen or so balloons anyway!

At A's insistence last minute I whipped up a fairly simple one bowl chocolate cake replacing coconut milk for the dairy and baking for 45 minutes in a 9x 14 inch pan. A coconut spread I found by Olivio made an amazing base for the frosting, which is otherwise just a few cups powdered sugar, a teaspoon vanilla, a pinch of salt, and less than a 1/4 c coconut milk. I even managed little pink frosting roses by piping out small bits of frosting mixed with food coloring. We sang Happy Birthday and V blew out candles and asked us to sing again and everyone gobbled it up so I'm glad I made it despite all the other goodies we had laying about :)

Happy 3rd birthday to a handful of trouble and armfuls of love, my snuggle bug. Xo baby boy!