i'm on a high....

a sugar high, that is!!!

holy yummy cupcakes is all i can say!!!

last week i received an email inviting me to an "exclusive behind-the-scenes peek at the new sprinkles cupcakes in g'town...an intimate gathering exclusively for DC area bloggers...meet founder and food network star candace nelson....spoil your dinner with cupcakes and champagne."

ummm....yeah...that was a no brainer...i quickly rsvp'd that i would be there! i'm not gonna lie, i was super excited all day today. i felt like a kid on my birthday...and i was gonna top it off with cupcakes!

look at those beautiful cupcakes!

no...this is not some sort of subliminal message (remember....i had champagne tonight! no preggers here!)

the evening did NOT disappoint! being one of the first to arrive, i had a chance to chat with candace (who btw is a mom of 2). we enjoyed a glass of champagne while talking about kids, baking, how she manages her time, how she (or maybe her husband, depending on who you ask!) came up with the name "sprinkles"...and much more. i was given a tour of the beautiful shop...front end, bakery, kitchen....and the event room upstairs. i'm telling you now...i want my next bday party there!!! candace could not have been nicer...she is such a sweetheart! and...her cupcakes...OMG! i've had quite a few in my time, and i'm telling you...these are THE BEST by far! i tried red velvet, banana and peanut butter chocolate (no, i'm not a pig...they were minis!)...PLUS i got to try my hand at icing a cupcake with candace too!
candace showing us how to ice

just a FEW of the candy toppers! they have everything you can imagine (sports, letters, greek letters, colleges, etc!)

all in all it was a great evening! the only thing i'm disappointed that i didn't get to ask candace, is what hair products she uses :) she has amazingly perfect curly hair....hair i can only dream about!

ps...sprinkles is just a few doors down from derek's office...i see LOTS of cupcakes in our future :)

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say cheese...

as promised, the whole slice on "the pop shop"....

ok...so i told you that my sis had mentioned seeing this place on "throwdown with bobby flay" and that it was somewhere in the philly/nj area. we checked google maps on our way up to jersey and couldn't really tell how far out of the way it would be. we checked again when leaving jersey and it seemed to be only a few miles out of the way...so we figured, heck let's do it! it'll be an adventure.

after a little coaxing from my mom & sis, i called the restaurant (we were about 30 mins away from there), and gave them our story, hoping it would get us somewhere. i explained that my sis had seen them on the show and that we were traveling home to dc from the jersey shore...and that we wanted to take a detour to try their cheese! after being placed on hold for a minute, i was told that there would be a table waiting for us when we arrived :) we were beyond giddy!!!

our table :)

the official bobby flay throwdown!

need i remind you that we had eaten a BIG BREAKFAST only a few hours earlier and none of us was hungry....that was, until we saw the menu. yes...30 grilled cheese sandwiches. i must say though, that they weren't really all "grilled cheese" sandwiches. some of them were your typical hot sandwiches, with cheese. for example, the "dayton" is your typical monte cristo sandwich...and the "madison" is like a caprese sandwich. that said....they are all served super toasty and gooey...which makes it all SO much better!!! i decided to stick to a somewhat basic grilled cheese and ordered the "stokes", which included bacon and tomato! my mom went classic too, with the "grant" (double bacon, hold the tomato). my sis decided to try the bobby flay creation, leigh style...which means sans bacon (damn vegetarians!). after tasting each other's, we decided these sandwiches were a SLICE ABOVE THE REST, but it's best to keep it simple...stick to the basic sandwiches if you really want to taste a grilled cheese that is out of this world!!! they were beyond yummy and well worth the detour! in fact, we may make this our usual stop on our annual trip to the jersey shore :)

i'll leave you with a pic of the cheese...

warning...while this sandwich may appear to be real, it is only a picture. please do not attempt to eat this sandwich :)

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taking a vacation...one bite at a time...

it's no secret that people, especially women, tend to "let themselves go" or indulge while on vacation. we come up with lots of excuses to make ourselves feel better about.

the calories don't count when...

...you're with friends

...you're on vaca

...you just use your hands to pick up the food and not actually use a plate...you're just snacking then anyway!

...i'm so good at home all time, it's just this once

...on and on and on we go.....

the women in my family (me, sis, mom, aunt & 2 cousins) get away from it all by taking a girl's weekend every year. in fact, this was our 8th year! it's very low key and goes by way too quickly (just friday-sunday). it didn't take us long (like by friday night) to quickly realize that our weekend tends to revolve around our next meal. let me give you an example....

saturday morning, after eating BREAKFAST we headed to this adorable spa, which i had found online. we had a variety of services, which were all fab by the way! if you're ever in that neck of the woods, i HIGHLY recommend this quiant spa, run by dawn. along with us, we brought SNACKS. about halfway through the morning, we started thinking about LUNCH. normal, right? one might think. well, after snacking and finishing our spa time, we realized it was getting close to 2pm, and our DINNER reservations were for 6:30. this for sure was not going to be enough time to squeeze in lunch and also our wine and cheese apps before dinner. so...we bumped the reservation to 7pm. before we knew it, it was almost 3pm...with still no lunch in our bellies, we headed to a deli for some SUPER SANDWICHES...and i don't just mean the quality, but the size too! they were awesome! after LUNCH, we snuggled up to watch a movie. during the movie, we started talking about how full we were (not that it was going to stop us though!!!). realizing we still needed time for WINE AND CHEESE before DINNER, said reservation was bumped again...this time to 7:30pm. we enjoyed our wine and cheese, and dinner....and came home for ICE CREAM & BROWNIES! UM...CAN WE SAY YUM!!! AND HOLY FOOD INTAKE!!!

well...sunday morning we all went out for breakfast...a BIG BREAKFAST!!! you know the kind...pancakes, eggs, toast, home fries!!! shortly after that, we headed our separate ways back home. my mom, sis and i were driving together back to va.

ok...back track to our drive up to nj on friday...my sister mentioned that she had seen a grilled cheese episode on throwdown with bobby flay. the restaurant featured, was somewhere around the philly/nj area and it had over 30 grilled cheese sandwiches on the menu. we chuckled a bit and wondered if it was anywhere close to our route.

flash to sunday...we're probably only 30 minutes into our drive from the beach, (remember, we just finished a BIG BREAKFAST) when my mom asks if we're going to the grilled cheese place. a quick glance at each other, and i knew we had to google map it. omg...it was only 5 miles off the highway!!! we had to go!!! my sister (who is very very very health conscious) says to my mom and me (who are EATERS!!!), "are we even going to be hungry?" our response..."who needs to be hungry???" so...off we went...for one more edible indulgence...and oh man, was it ever! you'll have to stay posted for a future blog about the cheese we experienced!!! hungry or NOT, we each ate our own sandwich...without any problems!!!

i'll leave you with this thought from good ol' maxine....

"my body is a temple where junk food goes to worship"

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four weeks flew by...

it's hard to believe that jacob has been a part of this world for almost 5 weeks now! to be honest, i can't really remember what life was like before jacob. he is such an incredibly good baby. other than some bad bouts of gas, he pretty much just does the baby rotation of eating, sleeping and pooping. jacob is becoming quite the "foodie", as he tours some of our favorite spots...

one thing i definitely forgot from the first go-round of parenting, is just how much sleep deprivation really sucks! i find that i am quite irritable during the day, due to my lack of sleep. unfortunately, andrew tends to be on the receiving end of my bad moods and snappiness. he is adjusting to all of this in ways that only a 3 1/2 year old could. as far as his relationship with jacob, i couldn't ask for anything more...he is very loving and helpful. it's his attitude toward me that has become a bit unbearable. he has decided that his way of handling anger, is by hitting & kicking me and saying some really not nice things. we spend a lot of our days handling temper tantrums and meltdowns. while i'm trying every day to deal with this a little better, i am confident we will all be fine in the end. hey, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right??? let's just hope it doesn't kill me first!!!

amidst all the chaos, i'm trying to make sure that andrew still gets his big boy time, to play with his friends. see some fun pictures below...

ebin and andrew

fireman andrew

lily and andrew

so, while i haven't lost the baby weight and i've gained quite a bit of what i like to call "nursing acne", the past month has been a whirlwind of exciting times. i'll leave you with one last picture of jacob in his "new womb"...my kangarookorner pouch. thanks to the singer family for this wonderful gift. i can't wait to carry jacob in it at the beach next week!

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