Today, we celebrate my better half's 30th birthday...not!!! This is when he stopped counting, and I second that! Hahaha! I guess it just gets harder to accept that we're not getting any younger. Despite the age, we learned to count our blessings, and with yet another year, we are thankful. And I am thankful for having J in my life. That shout-out on my opening above is from a few of my Facebook friends who posted it on their profiles. I found the line so timely and true for me, cheesy as it may sound, that I decided to humor my hubby by posting it as a greeting for him today. It was well-received.
Obviously, this entry is dedicated to J (",).
It is customary for us to have a joint birthday lunch with my brother, who's birthday is on the 5th, but that will be set another time with my parents. For our actual birthdays, we usually eat out or just order in. We did the latter and had a simple oriental dinner at home.
Green soup made from pureed spinach, mixed with diced tofu, squid, shrimp, mushroom and egg. It was good, but we've tasted better versions from other Chinese restaurants.
Since it is J's day today, I decided to order some of his favorite dishes from King Crab House along P. Guevarra in San Juan. I also thought I'd take home a Mango Shortcake from one of my favorite cake shops, Carla and Elaine's, but it was not available, and instead got the sinful Chocolate Decadence.
Birthdays will not be complete without the traditional birthday noodles. This dish was a great combination of textures and flavors from the light and crunchy fried noodles, to the shrimp and pork sauce. 
Of course I will not miss ordering the best-selling Crispy Salted Crabs. Juicy, sweet as fresh crabs should, 'garlicky', and finger-lickin' good! 
J's all-time favorite Chinese dish, the classic Sweet and Sour Pork. This one has the right sweet-sour taste but the meat was slightly on the tough side. But still good. 
And now the most awaited moment of the day...the candle-lighting and blowing.
The kids just love blowing out the candles, no matter who is celebrating. And two rounds are not enough! (",) It was J's idea to allow my girl to put as many candles as she can, and just make the cake all aglow. It did turn out quite spectacular with all the lighted candles.
Simple birthday cake -- Chocolate Decadence, made extra special with several lighted candles that included the lone yellow Smiley head.
The girl before and after the cake-cutting.
This is the moment she has been waiting for the whole day...to eat cake! And it was all worth the wait, as the cake was as decadent and rich as we imagined it would be -- two layers of moist chocolate cake covered in dark chocolate ganache and topped with thick caramel sauce. At the shop, I just requested for a greeting written on top and they added candy sprinkles, which my girl with a sweet tooth eagerly picked and scraped off the top as soon as we cut the cake, as you can see below. 
A perfect sweet ending to a delicious meal.
The girl made her own birthday card for daddy. The boy got a perfect score from his exam in computer class today, and declared that daddy will be proud of him today. I am sure these are just the perfect gifts that J could ever receive today. I still owe him a gift, but for now, my wish for him is to be blessed with good health, courage and wisdom as we go through our life's challenges, to be safe always, and to achieve success in his endeavors.
Happy Birthday! Hugs and kisses from me and the kids. We love you!
