Amy & Steven come for a Visit

It had been entirely too long since I had seen my dear college friend Amy Garver - and she finally had a chance to come and see us. This was especially huge because after going through a divorce last year, she had a new guy in her life and the morning they were coming down to see us, they got engaged! This was great because we got to meet the new fiancee and celebrate their first weekend affianced!
Steven had never been to DC and the weekend was a short one since they arrived late on Friday night (almost midnight and I was up working on cake of course). They were tired and went to bed so we began our adventures on Saturday.
We had a very yummy brunch at Denny's (which I have decided gives you more food for your money than IHOP) and then Lorne took us all on his famous driving tour of DC. He is quite knowledgeable and skilled in this department since we have done it many times with guests that come see us and want to see a lot in a short period of time. It is what we call the highlights of DC tour and is supposed to whet your appetite so you want to come back and explore the city more in depth.Steven's desire was the see the Lincoln Memorial and we saved it for last (for impact). We drove them by all the major landmarks in DC stopping at Jefferson, the Capitol, and Lincoln. It was great fun and Lorne has really upped his fact telling as he is driving - I believe he is at a point where he could be hired as a paid tour guide! He doesn't like to share the spotlight though, as when I try to interject I am brutally rebuffed!After seeing so much and getting out of the car 3 times, we were ready to head back as we had to prepare for our annual Saint Patty's Day party and I was excited that Amy & Steven were in town for this.

Paying the Bills with Cake

Here are some cakes we have done in the last few weeks that are notable (meaning they were nice enough to take pictures of!) I will not include my baby shower cake here as it is already posted in the baby shower entry! And the tools in the Handy Manny cake are plastic and part of our gift to the birthday boy!

Happy Birthday Cindy!

The day after the baby shower we drove up to Frederick for dinner as it was Cindy's birthday and we really wanted to celebrate with her. We ordered some Pasta from Pizza Hut and I brought a chocolate mousse cake (since I didn't want Cindy to do any work on her birthday and I didn't feel like cooking either!).
It was perfect because I was able to order the pasta online and tell them when to deliver it and we arrived just as the delivery guy was leaving! Talk about perfect timing - oh how I love technology! Jasmine was super excited to see Eleana and we were excited to see Eleana's new skills at walking. I took some super cute pics of the girls.We sat down to eat after Eleana was snuggled into bed and it was nice to sit around chatting and enjoying each other's company. Cindy got a chance to blow out some candles and we had cake. It was good too - even though I didn't make it!We sat around chatting after dinner and Jasmine coerced Cindy and Kevin to read books to her. It was nice to spend a relaxing evening evening celebrating Cindy's birthday!

Every New Baby should have a Celebration

I had a baby shower for Baby Zsa Zsa thrown by the best friends a girl could ask for. I had 3 amazing hosts - Cindy Zarcone (the leader) and Kelleen Trauger and Chrissy Tabaka. I wish these ladies would throw me a party all the time. I had the most wonderful time!I decided to do the cake myself as I didn't want anyone paying someone else to do what I could do. Actually, Marcia was going to do it, but we had a paid cake that she needed to do so I was happy to make the cake the way I wanted. I chose my flavors and design and I was happy with that. I loved how it turned out as well.I took the cake over before it started and the ladies were busily decorating and making Kelleen's house into a baby shower wonderland. The food table looked amazing and was full of amazing food including: spinach and strawberry salad, veggie tray, fruit tray, meatballs and more.I arrived a few minutes late - to be fashionable and because I was making sure people didn't go to the wrong house - since Kelleen lives only 2 doors down from me and if people weren't paying attention to the address, they may have thought they were coming to my house.
We had food and socialized when I got there and Cindy took full charge of the flow of the party. How that girl loves to be in control! It was great though because people always knew what they should be doing and it was great.After we were done eating, we played some games. They were fun - we had to guess the poop in the diaper (melted candy bars) and we had to guess the baby food in the jars. That one was tough. They mix all kinds of foods together and it is almost impossible to guess what could be in there. I think I only got 3 even half right! We also played a game where there were little plastic babies frozen in ice cubes and if your melted and the baby popped out of the ice first, you yelled, "My water broke!" and you won. There was some contention that Lizz Taylor (who won that one) was blowing hot air on her ice and trying other tricks to get hers to melt faster...more credit to her if she did!
After the games, I opened half of my gifts and I was so happy, my friends and family are always so generous and the gifts were lovely and things I needed. We then took a break for cake and of course, I cut it and everyone seemed pleased with the flavors I had chosen. For the bottom of the cake I had white almond sour cream cake with chocolate buttercream filling and for the top of the cake I made the white almond sour cream with strawberry cream cheese filling. I didn't have much cake left at the end, which I was very happy about.I then opened the second half of my gifts and again was so happy and please at all people had given me. This little baby girl is going to be so spoiled and so loved, I can already tell. I had fun taking apart the diaper cake my mom made as well because she knit almost everything she put on there!At this point most people started to leave and I started gathering all the things I needed to take home together. There was so much and Lorne couldn't come get it as Jasmine was at home napping. We loaded everything into my mom's Volkwagen Bug and Chrissy's Escalade and I couldn't believe how much stuff I had to take home. Chrissy provided these amazing favors for all to take home (some body butter that was personalized with my baby shower info and some footprint lolly pops).I really did have an amazing time and I was so happy to spend an afternoon with so many people I love and enjoy spending time with and some that I hadn't seen for a while. My hostesses did an amazing job and I am so grateful to them for all the work they put in for me and giving me an afternoon to remember!

Date Night with Brent & Mary

Mary invited us to join her and Brent (and Chloe of course) for dinner at Generous George's Positive Pizza and Pasta place - which is this cute restaurant that has been around since I was a kid. In fact, we used to go there a lot when it was time for the end of the sports season trophy dinners. I hadn't been there since I was a kid and so I was excited to take Jasmine there because I knew she would love it.It was also another opportunity to get to know Mary and Brent better and have a nice social time. Jasmine was excited to see Chloe and sit with her and they seemed to get along pretty well. It was also fun because there was this extremely talented balloon guy (I have never seen another one as good as him) who would stop by the different tables and make balloon figures for the kids. He made everything from a Googly Eyed Elmo, to Mickey, a vase of flowers, and for our girls Jasmine and Chloe, Ariel - The Little Mermaid.The food was good - Lorne ordered pizza and I ordered a pizza pie. I chose a chicken pesto one and the pasta was really good. I didn't care so much for the crust it was sitting on (not as good as the pizza) but I really enjoyed it.The company was great - I love seeing my friends in happy, stable relationships and being appreciated and Brent is a very attentive and loving boyfriend to Mary. I completely approve! I so look forward to more fun times together!

We Have a Sign!

I am so excited. After our building permits were finally approved a few weeks ago, we were able to secure the sign permit (which was luckily accepted on the first go around!) and so our sign guy was able to install our new sign last Friday! I am so excited that people will now know who we are and I don't have to tell them to find the Hope $1 Store anymore! Drop a comment and tell me what you think!

In Like a Lion

March has roared in like a lion as the saying goes. We had only had one real snowfall this season which I wrote about in January and I had given up on any more snow (and was disgusted by the fact that we hadn't had more). Then they made the announcement that we were having a winter storm approaching and I laughed and didn't believe. I guess me not hoping or believing we will have snow is what it takes to get snow.We woke up Monday morning, the 2nd of March to a blanket of beautiful white snow and more snow gently falling out of the sky. School was canceled for Jasmine of course and so we had to do some playing in the snow. Daddy agreed he could take Jasmine out since I am not quite as mobile right now. I would be the photographer.I stood on the porch mostly and captured the gleeful giggles as Jasmine ran around in the snow, made her first snow angels and helped Daddy build a snowman. She absolutely loved it and I loved watching her and watching Lorne indulge her in the snow play.The snow was a bit on the dry side and not so conducive to snowman building but they did the best they could and I secured the carrot nose and the M&M eyes and the hat for the snowman. I thought it turned out pretty cute and Jasmine called it the Jasmine snowman since it was short.
Before finally having to come back inside, Jasmine insisted on eating icicles and helping Daddy shovel the snow off of the driveway. It was cute watching her be the little helper.What can I say? I love snow days, I love the snow and I love the way the snow slows down life around here. People laugh because the DC area is ill-equipped to handle snow but I love that about living here. Life is so hectic normally anyway that the only way to slow us down is to thrwo a little snow into the mix. I love the feeling of not having to go anywhere or do anything because snow is the perfect excuse around here - too bad this year we only got 2 days of snow!