What happened?

So as soon as I started doing fondant cakes last fall, my cake business didn't see a lot of difference. But for some reason, as soon as I started doing cake pops, I am having the worst time keeping up. I'm crazy busy every single night from 5pm to 10pm doing cake stuff. I can't really explain the sudden explosion of business. I've been on Facebook and had a website for a while now. I just don't know.

This week's agenda: 2 orders for cake pops, 1 order of cupcakes, and 2 cakes for a contest on Saturday. Every night this week, I've done something in preparation. Yet every night when I get home I feel like I should've done more the night before so I don't have so much to do. I think I could use a couple of assistants. Any volunteers? (and by volunteer, I mean, no paycheck)

Tonight I plan on dipping the 24 Mickey & Minnie Mouse pops that I rolled out yesterday, roll & dip some more cake balls for a dance theme (no idea on what to do for that one yet), and bake the base layer for one of my contest cakes.

Oh, I'm also looking for someone to wash all my dishes when I'm done baking. Please apply within.

Easter Weekend

Kim, John, Nathan, and Grayson arrived at Vince's parents house late Friday night. Mom, Dad, and Elise arrived at our house on Friday night. On Saturday morning, we all gathered at our house to head out for the day. Vince & I wanted to show them Reedy River Falls.

After a quick walk through the park, we ended up eating a late lunch at the Mellow Mushroom. None of them had eaten there before & the kids were really looking forward to it.

Saturday evening, we had a nice cookout with everyone and celebrated Vince's requested birthday foods: steak & lobster. I cooked the lobster and shrimp in a pot on the grill. I grilled out sirloin filets and baked potatoes. We also had some roasted corn and deviled eggs. And of course some cake balls for dessert.

On Sunday morning, the kids found their Easter baskets & had an Easter egg hunt inside the house. We enjoyed an Easter brunch comprised of a huge ham, hashbrown casserole, baked grits with cheese, bacon wrapped dates, grapes, biscuits, and homemade nectarine jelly.

Everyone left around 10am and after that, Vince & I hung out on the back porch for the rest of the day. I think my knees got a little sunburned, but it was such a pleasant day! I just had to get out in the sunshine.

Hoover Dam

The dam guide was showing us on this map where we were located. I think we were in some little side tunnel.

On Friday after my last classes, we scheduled a tour of Hoover Dam. I could go on & on about this entire trip, but to make it short, let's just say that 36 people from another country made it miserable for us. Just to bullet point some of these things:

1. They had more people show up to get on the bus than originally booked. This caused a 20 minute phone conference delay for the bus driver and made us miss the Welcome to Las Vegas sign stop.

2. They decided to have a tea party at the ticket station. The driver said it should take about 7 or 8 minutes to get everyone's passes & back on board. 40 minutes later, they finished their croissants and coffee and boarded the bus.

3. Because of our lateness, we had only 1 hour to take the dam tour. In case you've never been to the Hoover Dam, it takes 40 minutes to go through the security check, and then wait in line for the 30 minute tour. This gave us zero time to walk across the dam on the outside, visit the museum, or anything else.

Overall, the dam tour was a disappointment. It was kind of neat to walk inside of it & get a quick tour of 2 rooms, but I have seen more on the Discovery Channel than I did on this tour. And the two hour trip there & two hour trip back was just too long. We did pass the pawn store that is featured on Pawn Stars on TV.

Sick on Vacation

On Wednesday, Vince was feeling poorly. I had some congestion too, but wasn't as sick as him. I marched him down to the Walgreen's walk-in clinic. Dianosis = upper respiratory infection.

We had made reservations that night to see the Blue Man Group. It included a prix-fix meal at one of five restaurants. We chose the Chinese restaurant. It was great food. The Blue Man Group was a great show. I think it was way over-priced, as are all the Vegas shows, but it was entertaining. We were not allowed to take any pictures at any shows. The first several rows had to wear ponchos because of all the paint that was splattered. Luckily, we sat behind those folks so we didn't get paint on us.

IBM Party

Tuesday night, we attended the IBM party. They had a temporary tattoo station. Here's what I got.

The cover band was called Haute Chili. They were one of the best I've ever heard. They played 60s - today's music. The food was great. There were video games and photo booths as well. Overall, we had a great time at the party.

Pencil effect photo booth.

X-ray photo booth.

Dress up photo booth.

On the way back to our room, Vince bought me some Pandora earrings for my anniversary present. I had given him a new sport coat, tie and dress pants. He wore the tie to the party.

2nd Anniversary

On Sunday, Vince & I took the tram to visit some of the other hotels on the strip. We went through the MGM Grand. They have live lions inside with some trainers that took a nap with the lions.

and then we took a crosswalk over to New York New York.

We watched the roller coaster & ate some good Mexican food.

I took a picture of the strip from the cross walk on the way back to our hotel. Sunday evening, I had to go to my conference for the opening reception & registration.

We spent our 2nd anniversary in Vegas on Monday. I had class all day but by that evening, I was ready to go out on the town. Vince spent the day scouring the hotels for the perfect restaurant. He found it at the Mirage and made 7pm reservations for us. To get there, you have to cross a few cross walks & admire the strip.

We ate at Kokomo's inside the Mirage. It had a tropical feeling & they sat us right beside the water features at a corner table.

I took a few pictures of us & then a photographer came by, took our photo & later sold us a nice booklet with 2 photos in it. The steak was awesome. The food was really good & we enjoyed our meal.

We walked back to our hotel, the Venetian and decided to do the outdoor, romantic gondola ride. The steering guy (is there a name for them?) sang to us in Italian. He was a terrific singer. They also sold us a picture, which turned out much better than my dark pictures.

What a great ending to a very nice evening. Happy anniversary to us!

Shopping & Eating in Vegas

Our hotel had a huge mall that attached it to the hotel next door, the Palazzo. It was hard keeping up with where we were and which hotel we were in. The inside was painted with a cool sky ceiling and the buildings were made to look like an Italian villa.


The ceiling going from the casino up to the mall.


This was one of the statues that posed without moving in the mall.

One of my favorite stores, Michael Kors


The indoor gondola ride.



This candy counter was right beside the elevator to my rooms. I had to pass it 8 times a day. I only stopped there 3 times all week.


The mall had a waterfall and lots of pretty sculptures.


And I got to pose with Blue Man Group dummies.

The first night we arrived, we decided to go to the trendy club. We got in free since we were staying at the hotel. It's normally $30 to get in the doors. They had tons of bath tubs filled with flowers at the entrance.

I did not get the memo that all girls were to wear 6" heels and micro mini skirts. Every girl had the same exact style of dress. Needless to say, we did not stay too long.