It’s strange to look at photos from when we moved here in 2019 and realize how small Catherine was! She’s so big and strong now. She’s also four as of Saturday! I can hardly believe how fast my girls are growing up.
After school on Thursday, Charlotte and I made a chocolate cake for Catherine’s birthday. I’ve perfected my simple chocolate cake recipe over lockdown (it’s been featured at every birthday except mine) and Charlotte’s getting good at baking (when she stays focused).
On Friday, we spent the early morning getting our second vaccine dose and then returned home for a mid-morning coffee-cake celebration of Catherine’s birthday. We were joined by the other members of the MCC team who had gone with us to get their second dose making this the largest social gathering we’ve had in months.
Charlotte and Catherine decided this was occasion for dress-up and wore just every fancy piece of clothing they owned – running upstairs to change every few minutes.
One of Catherine’s gifts was mango leather and she decided to show off her comedic side while eating it.
On Saturday, which is her actual birthday, Catherine woke up at 4:30AM beaming with excitement. She got to open her presents later in the morning and played happily with them for the rest of the day.
As a treat, we watched Raya and the Last Dragon (it’s a very good movie in the vein of Moana but with a Southeast Asia inspired setting) in the afternoon though we had to send the kids away at more than a few scary points.
So glad Catherine had a good day. Will have to get your cake recipe!
For Catherine’s cake, she picked out frosting from the store that was super sweet so I used less sugar than the cake recipe calls for. Our homemade frosting tends to be less sweet so I don’t cut back as much on the sugar when we use that.
• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cups cocoa powder
• 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1.5 cups coffee (this is the secret ingredient that makes the cocoa powder pop)
• 3/4 cup oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Sift dry ingredients together. Whisk wet ingredients together and then add to the dry. Combine well then pour into two greased cake pans. Our oven here doesn’t really have accurate temperatures so we just bake at the highest setting until a toothpick comes out clean (about 30 minutes).
It looks like it was such a fun and happy day, celebrating Catherine! Really pretty dress she’s wearing, that color suits her quite well!!
Like the funny mango leather look too:))
Happy Birthday sweet girl!!
Catherine definitely has a comedic streak. It reminds me of jokester Uncle Ben.
Aww love this update 🥰 they are getting so big 😭 so fast! Glad to hear it was a good day! I love all the photos you shared!
I don’t always realize it until I look at photos from a few months ago or they jump on me unexpectedly…. But they are growing by leaps and bounds!
Happy belated birthday, Catherine!! 🎉🎂🎈🎉
Thank you! I’ll let her know! 🙂
Happy birthday Catherine! Thanks so much for the pictures, enjoy being four!
Thank you! I’ll pass the well wishes on to her! 🙂
Looks like at was a nice happy birthday party for Catherine. Happy New year to her!!
Congratulations on being vaccinated .
Thank you! I’ll let her know. 🙂 I’m waiting to receive my official vaccine card before making a post about the second dose.
Happy Birthday Catherine! I can’t believe that she is already 4. The party looks like lots of fun!