Valentines Day 2009

This was Lorne and my 8th Valentines Day as a couple and I just couldn't believe it. We had a truly wonderful day together as a family. Since we had Jasmine, we like to be together on Valentines Day although I think when the kids are older we may try to have a one on one dinner every so often as it is hard to be romantic when you have your 3 and half year old demanding all your attention. But we love her and she is out Valentine too, so we include her!
My day began as my cute little family woke me up with a gigantic balloon, 2 dozen roses and a big box of chocolates. Then Lorne took Jasmine off to ballet so I could wait for the last few customers to pick up their orders. The day before I had also received a dozen roses with a card (to read the card, just click on the pic to make it bigger) from my daughters - how sweet was that! Even my unborn was professing her love to me!We all got dressed for the day and had a lunch date with my cousin Natalia. We decided to eat at the Olive Garden and had a delicious lunch of soup, salad and bread sticks. It was lovely to spend quality time with Natalia before we all jumped in our cars and went to visit Abuela Meme together. We were there for a few hours and had a great time chatting, joking and enjoying each others company. Abuela Meme didn't know that Lorne, Jasmine and I were coming so it was a big surprise for her and I think she was very happy to see us. We also brought Abuela and Natalia some of our baked goodies and that made everyone happy too!Next, we headed off to my parents house to wish them a Happy Love Day and take them some Valentines. They gave Jasmine her own Heart shaped box of chocolate and you have never seen a child so excited. I think Jasmine's favorite thing is chocolate. We spent some time with them talking and laughing before we had to head off to dinner.We had reservations at a little restaurant in Del Ray called Del Merei Grille. It is a nice little place that was offering some yummy food for Valentines Day and we had never been there I try to choose a different place each year so we never go to the same place twice on February 14th.
Jasmine wanted to have the chicken fingers for dinner with mashed potatoes and chocolate milk. Lorne and I shared an appetizer of a crab and artichoke dip, which was good but we would have made it differently. For our main course, Lorne had a New York Strip with mashed potatoes and Bearnaise sauce and creamed spinach and I had an amazing dish - cheesy grits with jumbo shrimp and an andouille sausage and mushroom saute with a creole sauce. It was amazing. I would totally go back just to eat that again. The only thing is I will wait until I am not pregnant as the spicy food was tough on my body later! We also gave Jasmine her Valentines treats from us which included a bunch of fun stuff in a bag with some candy too. Jamsine and I gave Lorne his Valentines gifts as well, which included chocolates, more chocolates and a voice recording device that attaches to an iPod. Since it was a celebration day, we had dessert. Lorne had a donut with ice cream and caramel sauce and I had crepes filled with a sweet cheese and topped with chocolate sauce and strawberry sauce. The desserts were fair, but not the best we had ever had. Jasmine was content to munch on a candy necklace for dessert and her chocolates from her grandparents in the car on the way home!It was a nice day and evening and I was so happy to get home and relish in the day we had just had. It was just how I like it - surrounded by people I love who love me too!

Recent Orders and Valentines Day Orders

Occasionally Cake is experiencing growth from last year and it is exciting that we have done more business at the beginning of this year than we did at the beginning of last year. We also did a lot more Valentines Day sales this year. I can only hope that when the bakery is open, we will do even better and this thing will be successful!
Some of our recent cakes haven't been that exciting as they have been small orders but fun to do nonetheless. We were excited to do 3 very large sheet cakes for the Army again this year for soldiers coming home from Iraq. These cakes weighed about 40 pounds a piece and we hear that they were thoroughly enjoyed by the soldiers and their families. We were happy to do our part for the men who defend our country, even if it is only filling their bellies with cakes! We sold almost 20 cupcake boxes and a few cookie boxes for V-Day and even had a last minute cupcake order from our bank. We can't wait to open our shop so we can do even more sales!

Making the Class Valentines

Jasmine was very excited for her Valentines party at school this year and she was even more excited to help and make the Valentines for her class. Since it was so hectic for me last year, I wasn't able to actually sit with her and do them so my parents came over and helped while I filled Valentines orders. This year I either managed my time better or I didn't procrastinate because I was able to sit with her and so was daddy.
She had a great time putting all the little bags of candy together while Mommy wrote out the cards for each class member and daddy sealed all the bags. It was quite the little production line. It was cute to watch Jasmine meticulously count the candy to make sure everyone got the same amount and we even had some special candy for the little girl in her class who is allergic to peanuts. Jasmine was sure to separate the bag away from the others so she would remember which one it was when it was time to attach the cards to the bags.We finished in about an hour and Jasmine couldn't wait to take them to her friends. I really loved being able to sit at the kitchen table and do a little simple activity like that as a family and just enjoy each others company. That is the sweet stuff life is made of for me.

Pretzel Sunday

Since this calendar year we have church starting at 1 PM (we hate it by the way), we have a long morning where we can either waste time waiting to go to church or do something productive. Lorne has taken up baking new recipes that he wants to try and I must say I am loving it. His first project was making soft pretzels.He tends to wake up before I do, especially on Sundays and he has been so good to let me sleep in while he takes care of Jasmine and this particular Sunday he had Jasmine helping him make the pretzels. She has become quite the little helper and will help in whatever way she can as long as you let her!She loves brushing the egg white onto the pretzels and helped with the salting of them. I also decided to put cinnamon sugar on a couple to see how that would turn out.They came out of the oven about 20 minutes before we had to leave for church, so we all enjoyed warm pretzels before we left. It was such a treat and they turned out so good - I felt very lucky to have a husband who is as good in the kitchen as I am - this way, we take turns making each others tummies happy!

Our Chocolate Dinner

Every year, the city of Fairfax hosts a Chocolate Lover's Festival right around Valentines Day and they have all kinds of activities, including a cake competition, which we entered and won last year. We were again invited to participate this year but on account of my pregnancy, trying to get the bakery open and lots of orders, we couldn't commit to doing it. In addition, we were so busy, we couldn't attend the weekend festivities. We did however, go the night before to The Sweet Life Cafe for a Death by Chocolate dinner.I wanted to do something nice for Lorne just so he would know how much I loved him so I made the reservations and didn't tell him. I even paid for it myself out of my little income I make by teaching flute.
The dinner was wonderful. It was a 3 course meal where chocolate was present in each dish. We had never been to this little cafe, but I had wanted to try it for some time. Even Jasmine was excited to try everything.Our first course was a salad that had fresh greens, strawberries, shaved dark chocolate, almonds, and a delicious balsamic dressing. I ate every last leaf on the plate (well, everything Jasmine didn't coerce out of me - I am so impressed my 3 year old loves salad).Our second course consisted of chicken and beef tenderloin with pearl onion, carrots and an unsweetened chocolate demi-glaze accompanied by homemade mashed potatoes. It was really good - the chicken was moist and perfectly cooked as was the beef. I was feeling grateful for being pregnant because I too ate every last morsel off the plate and didn't feel guilty at all!For dessert, we got a special treat. They had live music and this little group of guitar players had set up and played some great tunes while we ate our chocolate lava cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce. Jasmine got in on the action by dancing around and everyone thought she was very cute - including her parents. They graced us with songs such as Brown Eyed Girl and other love songs.It was such a lovely evening and we left stuffed to the gills. I think I would like to go back and try some of their regular menu items since the food we had there was so good and we also found out that they make their own ice cream there.

Baby Zsa-Zsa at 29 weeks

So, I am officially in my third trimester and thought it would be a good time for an update. I am 29 weeks along and April seems like it will arrive at its normal time. This pregnancy has been eerily like my first one, nothing new, all the same pains and complaints. The only difference is that everything is happening sooner and I haven't gained as much weight.
I am experiencing the getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and the average these days is twice a night. Once around 2 AM and once around 4 AM give or take some minutes. This is not only disturbing to me, as I have to wake up each time and try not to fall over when I get out of bed, but it is also bothering Lorne's sleep. The other sleep problem has been that I use a pillow in between my knees and one under my belly for support (I find if I don't do this my lower back hurts a ton the next day) and every time I roll over, the pillows have to come too - meaning, I wake up to do this and it hurts terribly to roll over since my lower back hurts, my pelvic bone is soft and hurts and my ab muscles have ceased working. So sleep isn't working well for me right now, which is annoying since I know I will be losing sleep once the baby comes. And poor Lorne is also being crowded with pillows in his bed and a wife that keeps waking him up all night.
I had an appointment last week and the Dr. seemed pleased. I do not have gestational diabetes and only gained 4 lbs. from the prior appointment which was also good. This makes my weight gain so far about 16 lbs. which is a far cry from the total of 50 lbs. I put on during Jasmine's pregnancy. I do still have 2 months left so who knows what will happen but I am trying to be better this time as I struggled to lose the weight last time. It doesn't matter that much honestly that I haven't gained as much since I feel like a whale anyway and I waddle when I walk. It's OK - I know it is all worth it! I am also measuring where I should be and the baby moves a lot, which has always been comforting to me.My current cravings are crunching on ice (did this during my pregnancy with Jas too), cereal (all kinds so long as the milk is nice and cold), McDonalds (which I try not to give into too much or we will have a weight problem), cucumbers and smoothies (which I make with flaxseeds for good intestinal health).
We have nicknamed the baby Baby Zsa-Zsa (as in Zsa-Zsa Gabor). This nickname has come because we haven't decided on a name yet and Lorne came up with this when we were on our cruise. It is funny because we all call the baby that - even Jasmine. I am sure this nickname will linger even after we agree on her name.
We are excited about our new addition and can't wait to meet her and introduce her to all of you. Jasmine has been talking non-stop about all the things she wants to show the baby when she comes and that she wants to share her toys and show her the world. I am so excited that these two could have a great sisterly bond (something I really know nothing about cultivating since I do not have a sister) and I know Jasmine will be the best big sister ever.

More Cakes and Cookies

Here are some more creations we have done in the past week. We are so hopeful that one day soon we can have our actual bakery open and functioning so we don't have to continue to do all of this out of my home!