Good to be home

We are back from Atlantic City where Jimmy and Sandra placed third in the National Bread and Pastry Competition! I am so proud of them after all the sleepless nights and food less days of training.




I am so glad to be home! Traveling and staying in a hotel with two babies is not easy! Our schedule gets turned upside down and you have to be really resourceful about food storage and heating. Atlantic City is about one eighth the size of Las Vegas. I didn't feel safe to roam around with the kids by myself, so we didn't.

We spent most of our time at the Baking Expo watching Jimmy work on his competition. The kids and I sat in the front row with Sandra's family cheering them on. Kai took a liking to Sandra's family after the first hour we were there. He was stuck to them like glue! I had packed his backpack full of books, puzzles, games, crayons, and snacks to keep him busy for six hours each day!!

I walked around the expo a little bit, didn't get to do much research with baby in hand at all times, but I did get to taste lots of yummy sweets and ice cream! The one thing that I remember most and would like to eat again is something called cinn-fulls; it's a cinnamon filled doughnut that is glazed! It tasted like a fried cinnamon roll!!

The last day there we spent a couple hours walking the boardwalk, taking pictures and stopping in a couple candy shops!! All I wanted was the salt water taffy from James' Candy, and when I got them it made the whole trip worth while!! We are not the gambling folk, but candy and confections are what we are all about! I did a little research before going and James' Candy was the place to go and now I also recommend that place! They have the best salt water taffy and fudge I have ever tasted!! Seriously! We stopped at another candy shop on the boardwalk, but the taffy and fudge are the kind you can get anywhere. James' candies are incredibly smooth, rich, soft and oh so yummy!

My mind is racing and feeling unorganized, trying to catch up and clean up. I can't talk more of the trip right now because I'm jittery from coffee so enjoy the following pics ^_^








Kai loves M&Ms!


Jimmy holding Kai next to the candy tree in It'Sugar candy shop.

I'm going mobile!

Wow! Yay! Coolness! I just discovered that I can blog via email from my cell phone! Yes that shows my age a little. I'm sure all the young hipsters already knew that. I am just excited because that means that I can still give you all updates when I am away from a computer. Now only if I could decide on which phone I want then.....wow....think of it posts from me every day!

Have I told you that Cassia is walking? Every day she takes a few more steps. Yesterday after story time, she looked up at me with a sweet smile and said, "mama"! She said "mama"! I was so happy! I think she knew what she had done because she flashed me another smile and gave me one of those open mouth baby kisses! When I asked her to say it again she just laughed! I am so in love with her and thankful that I get to enjoy all of her joy and excitement. She is starting to love books as much as Kai. She used to just chew on them, but now she will flip the pages to find her favorite page, stop to pet the fuzzy animals on the page and talk to them!!

Kai is still having toddler issues and I am pulling out my hair trying to help him through it, but it is so hard and I have a constant headache. We only have a few training pants left and I told him that if he wants more trains or books about Thomas the train, then he would have to start wearing real underwear. Cross your fingers and hope that it works for me.

The count down is on...two more weeks until Jimmy's competition. I'll keep you all posted. I will be doing a little research to see what family friendly things we can do in Atlantic City.