Happy Birthday, eat cake

The Empress of China demands birthday cake.

What the Empress wants, the Empress gets. A cake for Empress, a cake for the rest of us.

The Empress is not impressed. She asks for pyrotechnics. These "thank goodness Customs didn't open our bags" flower candles from China will do. Step one. Light the "candle."

Step Two. Candle bursts into flames! The Empress watches in wide eyed delight. Miss Boo yells, "FIRE! I DON'T LIKE FIRE! FIRE BAD! Grrrr!"

Step three. Flower candle opens its petals to reveal that all candles within are now lit. Happy Birthday begins to play from within the candle.

Step Four. The Empress bloodies her knuckles in desperate attempt to devour cake. Or was the cake red velvet inside? You decide.

The flower candle continued to sing Happy Birthday. Miss Boo continued to be freaked out. "Make it stop, Daddy! Make it stop!" Daddy put the candle outside. Five hours later, the candle was still playing. We should have hidden it in the noisy neighbor's yard.

Not pictured- the birthday lunch at Wei Hong. You locals really need to go there for Dim Sum. Atmosphere, great service, delish food. What's not to love? How about your baby almost choking to death? Thank goodness for the quick moves of the lovely Chinese server. "I had five babies. Babies choke sometimes." The Empress rewarded her with a lap full of goo that was once lodged in her throat. We rewarded the server with a large tip.