Wedding - Indian Style!

Wow, what a weekend! We experienced our first ever Indian wedding, and it was fantastic! My friend from high school Ann got engaged to Teddy back around Christmas time. I decided early on if we were going to go we had to dress the part, seemed fitting and Ariel was insisting on it once she saw the outfits, haha.

So earlier in week we had our friend Pooja take me and the kids off shopping for Indian outfits. We did have a place in mind but ended up at another shop by accident, but it worked out well. We found a perfect outfit for me and he threw in Ariel's outfit for free! Now if anyone would like to borrow it, please let me know. Its too beautiful not to use as much as possible!

Ariel's was a tad long so I had to hem it at home, taking 10 inches off the bottom, gosh she is tiny!

The Friday night Ariel and I got invited to the henna party at Ann's house. When we arrived the artist was doing Ann's feet and oh it was simply stunning!

Ariel LOVED it, although she thought when it was drying on her hand it looked like 'poop'.

We all got to have a little henna done on our hands. Such a pretty design and I keep getting many complements on it.

Ken picked us up to take Ariel home to bed and dropped me off at the movies as our book club was having its last meeting before summer. We had just read Water for Elephants and went to see the movie, but since we waited the only time it was playing was 930pm, so a late night it was! I enjoyed the movie but seeing animals hurt is really hard for me.

Saturday morning I worked for 3-4 hours finishing Ann and Teddy's wedding cake. Each flower was cut out, shaped and attached to the cake by hand. The finishing effect of adding some simmer powder to each flower made it sparkle in person and it was done! I was so happy with it, my first wedding cake! Woot!

Ken was out all day at an open house at the school so when he got home we took the kids to the May Days for rides and dinner. I had my annual corn dog, haha. Ariel road 5 rides and enjoyed probably the roller coaster the best, again like last year. I am amazed she is my kid, I don't do rides at all! I think her face says it all!

Xander got a kick out of watching her fly by, wonder if he will be like her wanting to ride those things!? He also had his first taste of cotton candy, he wasn't impressed.

Next morning we were up early, dressed and ready to head to the temple. We dropped Xander with Brenda who was going to have him in the parade for our Imagine That camp float. We got to the temple and found my other friends and made our way inside for the tea they had for us. It was a nice little breakfast of veggie pakoras, a few other things I wasn't sure what they were called but they were yummy, fruit and sweets. Ariel discovered how sweet Indian sweets can be, haha.

Then we went upstairs for the ceremony. Ann had given us an email run down of how to come in and do things before taking our seat, men on one side, ladies on the other. Ariel enjoyed the music, even though she was confused that it was in a different language. They did have the words in english on the screen too so that was interesting to know what they were saying. We watched Ann come in with her parents, she was so cute, totally smiling and eager to see Teddy.

They did the walk around several times and then it was pronounced they were married. Yay!

Before we went up for our picture with them, some of the men of the temple came around with large bowls. One of the ladies sitting by us explained it was a sugary paste that they would give us like a blessing. They dropped a handful into our hands and we ate it. Ariel kinds freaked that it was warm and needless to say we took 'her blessing' home in a napkin in my purse. Haha. It kinda tasted like super sweet and sorta the consistency of instant oatmeal. I actually liked it.

Then it was downstairs for lunch! Lots of veggie curries, fruit and roti. Yummy! Then said goodbye to everyone until later, and we headed home for a rest.

When it was time for the reception we had changed as it was SUPER HOT, really felt like summer! Not to mention I was worried about tripping and dropping the cake I worked so long on. Brenda drove me and the cakes as Ken followed us out to Vancouver. It was a beautiful hall and they had appies ready as we came in.

Ariel and Alasyn had a great time hanging out together and eating the little Indian crackers. They eventually set up the warm appetizers as we waited for Ann and Teddy to arrive. Lots of tasty things that were complemented both cultures, egg rolls, samosas etc. At the table they had fortune cookies and chopsticks. The cookies had a game inside them and Ariel won a dvd! She was so excited!

Ann and Teddy arrived and they went into speeches, the tea ceremony, first dance and then...

...cutting the cake! She even had them announce I made it for them, so that was so special! They were so cute, asking where they should cut into it. Haha.

Then there was dancing before dinner, and oh boy did Ariel LOVE that. She was loving the dancing lights and disco ball. Plus the mix of top 40 songs and Indian music was keeping her moving.

Dinner was served and it was butter chicken, soooooooooo good! They had a sweet table and a candy bar. The servers were taken with Ariel most of the night and one of them went to the candy bar and brought her a full plate of treats! Spoiled rotten! Haha.

Sadly I was getting a migraine and we packed it in around 10ish. Ariel cried of course because she didn't want to leave 'the best dance party ever!' Xander was asleep before we left the parking lot and we came home and crawled into bed. It was a wonderful day and I am so happy for my friend and her new adventure in life! Congrats again!!!!

Then today was Ariel's ballet viewing but since I have some work to do it will have to wait till later this week! Got lots of graphics stuff to get caught up on, a photo shoot to edit and some cake orders this week. Busy busy busy! Oh and there is a postal strike coming... not too pleased about that.

Sick Bugs

Well that wacky spring cold/flu finally hit our house. After a fun start to the week with school and a dress fitting for Ariel's flower girl dress for Kara's wedding, things slowly went down hill. By Tuesday for ballet Ariel was acting not her self. Xander had a terrible Monday night of crying almost all night, nothing comforted him except me holding him. By the time I dropped Ariel at gymnastics, she was saying she felt cold... I thought it was at first because she was in a tank top but I soon saw by the end of class she was running out of steam.

I brought the kids home, got them into their jammies and they both crashed on the couch. Super cute but I felt bad for my babies.

Wednesday morning I made the call to keep Ariel home. She never really got 'sick' like Xander did but her lingering on and off fever made me just want her to rest. I had an appointment with our new family doctor! Yes after 2 YEARS! I found a doctor who has room to take us in her practice... the downside, its in White Rock. However, this woman is WORTH the drive. I use to see her before she went on maternity leave, she was a fellow doctor at my old clinic. So I am happy that we get to see her. She is just so caring, gives the time to each patient and great with kids. So I had an appointment to get acquainted mainly, but one concern I wanted to get checked out.

Xander has one dark black mole on his upper thigh. It popped up sometime after his first birthday and because its dark its one we need to watch closely. Me on the other hand, I have millions of moles all over and had a few I was concerned about but I was put at ease that they were fine. Yay. So with that, we left feeling fabulous that we once again had a doctor, amen!!!

The drive home was eventful to say the least. Shortly after we started driving Xander started puking... like full on projectile puke. Lovely eh? Ariel is freaking out that he is going to get it on her and Xander is totally confused about what just happened. I find a spot quickly to pull over, a Fatburger. Ariel has decided she is hungry and I can't justify using a bathroom and not getting something, sooooooooo I got her a snack and clean Mr Man up. Thankfully no more puking the rest of the ride home. The rest of the afternoon we rested and chilled... Xander discovered a new way of napping, what a boy!

Thursday is our lazy day already, so I baked for my week's orders and the kids hung out. I had 3 cakes this week, all for kid birthdays which is always fun for me. First was a flower pot for my friend Kelly's daughter Taeya...

...then a 1st birthday cake with a baby dino theme. So cute, I really liked this one...

...finally, a cake that was big and colorful - Sesame Street! (Go to my Jaybird Creations website for extra pictures of all 3 characters on this cake)

However by the time I was working on Sesame Street on Saturday my body was starting to feel lousy. Ken was out at an Elder' s retreat most of the day and I had awoken up with a migraine so it was a rough day. I was happy when the cake was finished and more excited with how it had turned out.

Now its Sunday again and we all stayed home from church to rest up. I had a rough night with on and off fevers. My stomach has been bugging me and I just needed to rest. Glad its a long weekend and Ken is home tomorrow. Yay!

This week is a wedding cake week! My good friend Ann from high school is getting married and I get to do her cake, so I am super excited - plus we are attending the wedding so its going to be a blast, just need to get well! I also have a large family photo shoot on Saturday morning so hoping the weather is good.

2 Week Review... finally!

Its early and everyone is sleeping, thus meaning I can blog in peace, ahhh. Every time I tried to sit down someone needed Mommy and well they take priority. So a few days late but no bigger, here I am to give the run down on the past week events. Last time it was a crazy up dates of cakes, birthday fun and Ariel's pageant stuff. Well its mellower this time, which was nice!

I only had one cake order last week which worked out fine because I had a big graphics job of 3 business cards and a brochure for one of my clients who needed it asap. So I spent lots of time in front of the screen here so any down time I didn't want to be here, haha. The cake I did do was for a birthday party and was a tank. Now I am not a big 'war' person, but its cake so I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. I did add a peace sign to the back of the tank, haha.

In my mind the thing shoots rainbows, lol. Can we say too much Care Bears in my lifetime. Maybe it shoots gravy rainbows.... speaking of which, have you seen this!? My kids love this video. We now have the song on our itunes. Whee!

I got to pick up our photo-shoot pictures from Maria last week as well. Here is our new family shot, love it!

Recently, I got organized registering Ariel for summer activities, since things fill up fast around here. I am excited she will be in the preschool for Imagine That while we are teaching, that was pretty much a given, but she loves art so it will be great. Also its the first summer she can go to Vacation Bible School! One of the neighboring church's program is fantastic and so I signed her up. I am really excited about it and I know she is going to love it. I also got her in sunfish swimming for late summer since in my personal experience at our pool is don't go in July (everyone goes then) and August is less crazy and honestly the teachers are always better. So we will do other stuff in July and finish up the summer with swimming, sounds good to me!

Now the big event of the summer in Ariel's eyes is DANCE CAMP! She got the thumbs up from her teacher to join the class which is for 5-7 year olds. She wasn't going to be 5 just yet when the class runs so we weren't sure if it would be a go. Thankfully with her background at the studio her teacher was happy to have her and Ariel's jaw nearly hit the floor when I told her about it. Basically its all day for a week and the girls do ballet, jazz, tap and musical theater with a show at the end of the week. Yay! Should be a blast and I must say I am excited to have a week with Xander.

Speaking of my little man, the words keep coming. He really can speak if he chooses to, that is the key, haha. He will play the repeat game with us, something he generally hated before. Now its hilarious. Ariel will play it with him too which is super cute. They really do have a great connection, I love watching them together. If you give him the phone he will say hi and bye to whoever is calling, and Dad actually thought it was Ariel for a minute. He is dressing himself (with a bit of help) and able to do shirts and coats almost on his own (if they aren't tangled up). He also can get shoes, pants and socks off... something we see a lot of here. He loves being pants-less, haha.

His swimming class with me is going well. He hates the back float, but its mainly because of his hair and ears. He also is smart enough to know the order of the class and and has figured out when the submerging happens and screams if I count down, lol. I don't push him much, as I want him to love the water, which is evident as he races to the change room every time we come. He also enjoys the lockers... which he has discovered make great hideouts.

Ariel's class hosted the mom's last week for Mother's day. She was so excited I was there... so giddy!

It was really sweet, they sang, gave us a bracelet they made, served ice tea and...

... chocolate dipped strawberries, yum!

Saturday morning I went and had my massage and oh my goodness it was awesome. They had a special on and I got to upgrade to a 75 minute essentials one with a combo of hands and hot rocks. NICE! So my gift certificate was well spent! The steam room was very therapeutic and much needed for my sore muscles

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Now I started this blog early in the week but Blogger went down for several days so I couldn't finish it, so here is the review for this week now too, haha.

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This week was filled with more cake! I had 4 orders between the busy life of Mommy. First up was a 18th birthday cake...

...then a hockey jersey cake for a 30th birthday...

...a huge surf themed cake for a MonaVie party (business)...

... and finally a G-Shock watch.

I took Ariel and Xander to see the fancy dresses at the grad red carpet walk at the local high school. For my American friends, this is our prom. Lots of Hollywood style dresses this year. Lots of flowing material, beading, and low cut backs. These girls looked like a million bucks! The guys too were flashy in bright colored vests with their tuxes rather than the usual black or silver. So its time for, GRAD DRESS fashion show!

This was my fav this year, the color, design and overall look. It is the first dress that comes to mind when I think about this year.

Best footwear tie in goes to this gal for her use of boots with her silver dress, haha.

There wasn't much in the way of poofy dresses, but this one made up for it, hee. Lots of tule... lots.

This year the retro look was shared by 2 girls... I had to show the whole look so I blurred the faces.

The dress that will light the way home in the dark!

Loved the look of this, and this was by far the look of the day. Strapless, flowing, jewels, and very Hollywood looking. Most of the dresses this year were purple, blue, burgundy and green. Very pretty!

In conclusion, this one was the 'gasp' dress of the event... more so because the wind hit at the worst time and she gave a show...er, well she didn't seem phased and was striking a pose regardless. Not my style, but it left people speechless for sure... whether that was good or bad is up to you.

Today we had our friends over to join us at church and for lunch. Pooja had brought over some Indian outfits for us to borrow for Ann's wedding at the end of the month.... even one for Ken! Yes Ken will be in a snazzy outfit, pictures for sure, the pants are awesome, haha. She brought me a few saris to look through and offered to get me dressed up the morning of the wedding, yay! We just need to get Ariel an outfit as she doesn't want to be left out. Ariel and I also go invited to attend the henna party night a few days before the wedding, so that will be cool!

This week is starting to look rather full, 3 cakes this and lots of appointments for stuff that should keep me hopping. I am going to go cuddle my boy, he might be coming down with something, he isn't himself. Hoping its just teething but I think its a bug. Blah!

Birthdays, Cakes and Crowns

‎"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives,

but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.

Returning hate for hate multiplies hate,

adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

Martin Luther King Jr.

My friend posted this on facebook and I think it sums up perfectly how I am feeling about the events that went down late last night.

Well, its been another week since I was here blogging, haha. As you may remember I was going into the wacky week of 5 orders!!!!! Haha, am I alive? Yes, and I think I am finally caught up on my sleep. Everything went smoothly and every single order was a success and a hit! Woot!!! Makes me feel extremely happy and pleased with my work. So without further ado, check out a look at what kept me busy this week... first up grad cupcakes...

... scuba diving grooms cake....

Shark coming out the other side of it, hee!

...bridal shower cake...

...Rapunzel birthday cake...

...and finally an 80th birthday cake with hand painted edible portrait.

Besides cake I had a painting job of doing Peanuts themed shirts for a dance teacher at the studio where Kara works! Super cute and pleased with how they turned out. This week is light... one cake, and I am thankful! I need a break before getting into some big orders coming up this month! Yay!


I managed to capture some pictures of Ariel at her gymnastics class this past week. Xander was in a better mode and made friends with someone with an iphone who let him play games on it. Lucky boy!


Way to go Ariel!

Friday morning I was up early... there was a wedding, and I wasn't going to miss it! Thursday night I stayed up working on cakes as at midnight the coverage started from England of William and Kate's wedding. Eek! I loved every minute of it and pray they have a happy life together. The hats were hilarious, the dress beautiful and the fun of online friends chatting about it was a blast! I hope Harry gets married soon, haha. I did get about a few hours sleep as I had to get Ariel to school and Xander to sportsball. I sorta shuffled through the day as you can imagine, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything.

Saturday rolled around and it was Ariel's pageant day. Needless to say we were a tad disorganized due to my heavy workload during the week but we got out the door, cakes dropped off and Xander to the babysitters. We arrived early at the venue because I remembered last time the limited parking. Ariel was hungry and so we hit Subway to get her a sandwich before her big afternoon. She loves this whole thing, and this time had a huge learning moment in recovery. Each girl got to go out 3 times, upon her first time out she was listening to the announcer talk about her and it looked like she froze. She still managed to get through but came off stage into my arms with tears in her eyes. 'I forgot what I wanted to do!' she cried. Of course I told her not to worry and she did fine and had 2 more times out on stage.

The next time she ROCKED it! In her cute poodle skirt outfit and a mini version of the hand jive I taught her (yeah Grease!), she ended up winning a sash for best overall fashion because of this. Had to include the video, too cute!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Next one in her fancy dress she did well too. It was then time to play with the girls while waiting for crowning. Ariel looks forward to seeing the girls and they have a great time playing and giggling. Too cute!

Crowing came and she got her fashion sash and royalty crown, treat bag, balloon and flower. They even gave out picture frames with the event printed on them, which is super cute! Oh and each girl got a charm bracelet too! Every pageant they attend they will get a new charm, and an extra charm if they get a high title.


We watched the other girls get crowned and then came the big supreme awards. Ariel was already thrilled with her little tiara and sash that she was up front with the girls eating candy from her treat bag. We all then were surprised with what happened next... Ariel got called for Novice Supreme! A new award added for a girl who had taken part in previous pageants but never won a supreme title. Ariel realized what happened and fell of the chair she was on in surprise. She ran up with lollipop still in hand. It was so cute to see her excited and proud of herself!


Afterwards Ken dropped me at Kara's place and went home with Ariel to get Xander. Kara and I hit the Cactus Club for dinner for my birthday, yay! I had yummy butternut squash ravioli, ohhh so good! I wish I had my camera, it was so pretty too. Haha. Kara dropped me off where I spent the remainder of the evening working on my final cake.

The next morning I slept in until Ariel and Ken came in with a tray with pancakes, eggs and a cute little rose. Happy Birthday to me!


Ariel drew a cute card with a cake on it... which the words 'we drew a cake' on it as well. Haha. When we got to church Stella had a cute gift of a needle holder she made me... a Monty Mushroom Chicken burger! (complete with mushroom fabric inside. I LOVE it!!!


Ten Thousand Villages was at our church and I got this for Xander, he loves it!



I got this for myself, squeal!


We had my cake early at Dad and Rita's because baby Henry likes to crash early in the evening. My kids came running to sit with me to blow out the candles on the cake my Dad made me (yes I didn't have to make my own cake, haha). This is one of my favorite memories of the day. I love my sweet babies.

Then it was off to dinner at the Boot and Xander was just a hoot. He was in such a good mood (surprising since he skipped his nap) and was laughing and chatty. Ariel at one point went and sat with 2 fellows at the next table, and told them I was turning 32. LOL. Ken went and chatted with them, and they got quite a kick out of our silly girl.

This morning we were up and out in the rain to go vote, with both kids in tow. Whee. Then I got Ken dropped to catch his bus and Ariel to school while Xander and I hit the pool. It was nice to come home and not have anything to do. Ahhh. So we cleaned and tidied up which felt really good. Well I need to get my kids bathed and in bed. I have some sketching to do tonight of some orders I just got placed today... 3 to be exact! Gotta love the cake business, always something to celebrate!