Moomy, The Tired Birthday Caterer

11:30pm, the dishwasher is running and the entire household is fast asleep.

Except me.

I thought that the day's non-stop chores would have flattened me out on my back …

But I guess all that sugar from Aidan's birthday cake is still keeping me going, huh?

So today, 6th June, we celebrate our second boy's Second Birthday!! Aidan Z is TWO!! :D:D:D

Yoohoo!! EYE see you!!

Even though it'll only be us 4 tonight celebrating his birthday, I wanted to cook something special and bake a cake from scratch for him. It's not always that the boys have a birthday and all these while, we were either busy on the road or just had too many things going on that we didn't celebrate their birthdays properly.

So this year, it'll be different!

Like I said, it's a simple affair, really. For dinner, I had found a recipe in March issue of Real Simple for a braised chicken. I like tomato-ey based dishes and this particular one didn't just scream simple. It screamed Mediterranean too. Perfect.

And I thought couscous would go well with such a dish … so chicken and couscous!! Sounds good to me!

But the first order of business for the day was to clean & mop the house and tidy up the boys' rooms (playroom and sleeping quarters). I know it's just us tonight but still, its a special night for Aidan (even if he's too little to understand or appreciate it) and a crumb-free carpet does sound appealing muahahaha

Once everything's been cleared and cleaned and mopped and wiped, it then felt right to hang the Birthday Banner hehehe

The simple Birthday Banner, courtesy of Dollar Tree!

(I was half-way through blowing balloons up for the decoration. 

This time round, the balloons were made of very thin rubber 

and it kept popping on me. Not fun for Mommy, though the lil ones defo enjoyed

seeing me go pretty green in the face while puffing out air for those balloons!)

Moomy and the Birthday Boy :D

Don't mind the messy kitchen - a special dinner was being prepared!

I believe baking the cake was next on the list. You know, months ago, I had this idea of making a Rainbow Cake for the boys' birthday (yeah, I'm crazy, right?). But I baked a couple of non-chocolate cakes first to see if the boys were interested in them. Were they? O hell no. Even Aidan didn't fancy the Lemon Blueberry Cake which I made. Pffft!

So plain ol' chocolate cake it shall be. Which is easier and definitely a crowd-pleaser!!

The only thing was … it has to be frosted. My darling hubby will not eat an unfrosted cake. *rolls eyes*

And because I am determined to make everything from scratch, I had to find a frosting recipe. My dear MiL made good chocolate cakes with a nice not-that-sweet white frosting. Its not cream cheese and if I'm not wrong, she mentioned once before that it was whipped cream? Anyhoo … that frosting was white and I wanted a chocolate frosting so … I Googled and found one which I think was relatively easy to make …

5pm and Birthday Boy hasn't napped at all. 

And I think he didn't like that I was frosting the cake

instead of cutting it up to feed him some ...

So here are pictures from our cosy lil celebration tonight:

Our dinner, Braised Chicken with Golden Raisins 

and Toasted Almond Slices, paired with Couscous :D 

(here's the link to the recipe: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/braised-chicken-thighs-00100000117725/index.html)

For the couscous, I followed the recipe on the couscous box, but added some ground cumin to it :D

My darling hubby and our lil boys, singing Happy Birthday to Aidan :D

Big Brother helping Lil Brother to blow out the candles! :D

This is us! :D

It's not often that we get to take pictures as a family 

but thank goodness for those timers on cameras, huh? 

And I think this picture turned out pretty good :D

As we were cleaning up, Birthday Boy sat in a corner, 

testing out the strength of his red balloon. I was worried it might pop but it didn't!

He was defo happy with his new toy :D:D:D

Moomy did it!! :D It was good fun and we have one more birthday to look forward to next month - Big Brother's 4th! :D

But for now, we hope you had fun, lil guy. May you always be in the protection of The Almighty.  Our prayers for you to be a good and soleh boy always, and may you and Big Brother Tommy remain close to each other, despite the squabbles, throughout the giggles and laughter. We love you, Aidan Zain. Now sleep tight, sweetheart :D

I told you earlier that he did not nap at all today. 

So after all that dinner, cake and present, Birthday Boy finally zonked out …

Happy days! :D