Sweet sixteen

My littlest baby had his sixteenth birthday, which is quite a shock, even though I knew it was coming. Because he skipped a year of high school he is the young one in his friend group, so he's very happy to have a birthday and catch up a little bit. Until next year.

We went to his favourite Japanese restaurant which was a hit all round (it is truly delicious, I had a lot of tofu, which appears to have gone straight to my CHINS) and they put a candle in his green tea and black sesame ice cream (which was not truly delicious, I don't understand Asian desserts) and everyone sang him happy birthday. Which he tolerated very well.

His father had made him a lovely chocolate cake with chocolate ganache for second dessert when we got back home. Unfortunately in the kitchen reno we have lost the birthday candles - I think I threw them out because we have been re-using them for at least twenty years - but husband says no, they are around somewhere. We couldn't find them, so he ended up with a sparkler on his cake, which he refused to go near or try and blow out. The cake itself was amazing.

I will go out with him on the weekend and buy his present - he wants a pair of Doc Martens!!!! I was so excited when I bought mine in the early 1990s to wear with black woolly tights and a tartan miniskirt. Everything old is new again. His main present was the 16th birthday trip - we offer two weeks, one parent, anywhere in the world - and I was a bit sad when he chose to forego the parent and go on the school trip to California in January instead ... but in hindsight, absolute genius. He would have been a very sad birthday boy if he'd planned an adventure for this month with no chance of going anywhere for the foreseeable future.