18th Birthday-Wow! That can't be right...

{3rd birthday with his hand-painted crown}

College Boy @ age 10
{look at that smile}

Happy Birthday little boy!

Eighteen years ago I gave birth to this amazingly beautiful baby.  He was 4 lbs, 3 ozs of joy.  My labor lasted less than 10 minutes.  I know, crazy!  Nursing came easy for both of us.  Jealous yet?  Well, the flip side is I spent almost a month in the hospital before he was born and a few weeks after as well.  The day I was finally released from the hospital with him I ended back up in the hospital hemorrhaging and spent a few days away from him as they couldn't readmit the him back into the maternity ward.  I have high stress pregnancies because I've had 2 open heart surgeries and am on a blood thinner for my St. Jude's plastic valve.  Groovy Girl's birth was just as traumatic with it's own set of medical emergencies.  

So after ALL that College Boy turned 18 today at 7:11 pm.  We had an after church lunch together out on the patio in gorgeous weather!  My husband grilled two good steaks that we shared with mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and broccoli.  The highlight though was this amazing chocolate cake from Averie Cooks.  It was moist and super chocolatey!  I believe it will be my go-to cake for all future celebrations as it was easy to put together.  I didn't admit how easy it was to the family though, making them believe it was an intense labor of love I was only willing to go through for special occasions!  

{Best chocolate cake with ganache}

The cake is so incredible both my husband and I have been "evening it" out every time we pass it on the kitchen counter.  I've had to cover it to save both of us and the cake.  I followed all the directions to a T except I doubled the recipe.  College Boy will want to snack on it all week long and the original was only a 9 x 9 size.  I poured the doubled recipe into a 9 x 13 and it is perfect to the top with the frosting.  The recipe called for yogurt and that makes the cake super moist.  Oh no

In other news I finished reading Jodi Picoult's Lone Wolf which was wonderful.  I like wolves and feel like they get a nasty press.  This book did a great job of explaining to me what I already felt; that wolves have an interesting social structure and instincts.    

The weekend is almost over but I'm still linking this post to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme because I love being part of that community.  Click the links to get to the chocolate cake recipe-you WILL want to make it.