miller park zoo

A couple of weeks ago when my friend & her little girl came to visit we went to check out the local zoo - Miller Park Zoo.

 

Here's a couple of my favorite pics from the afternoon:

 

This bird was not camera shy in the least!

It kept following me around and demanding to become a movie star!

 

 

 

 

The Tiger was hot that day - it gave a couple of "roars" but I think it was out of frustration of the heat rather than anything else!

 

 

 

 

This little otter was a cutie, I wanted to take it home!

 

 

 

Katie enjoyed the zoo, maybe not as much as I did though :)

 

 

 

Katie was very interested in the Merry-Go-Round. However, once she got on it, it becamse apparent that she was more in love with the "idea" of the ride rather than actually "participating" in the ride - Amen to that! There's a life lesson in there for sure!

 

 

 

One more bird shot, 'cause I can

 

 

 

The St. Louis Zoo is still my all time favorite zoo, but it's sure nice to have a little something in town and a bit closer than St. Louis!

 

chocolate pb cupcakes

I love these cupcakes!

You don't get a much more beautiful & intuitive flavor combination than chocolate & peanut butter and these fulfill that flavor craving every time!

 

Not to mention, this is my favorite basic chocolate cupcake recipe - so light and fluffy!

{cupcake recipe from the cookbook "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey" by Jill O'Connor}

 

One more thing... these cupcakes keep really well, in fact, I think they taste better on day 2 or 3 compared to fresh out of the oven! I love recipes like that!

 

 

 

 

It's always so hard to stop at just one!

 

 

 

 

Chocolate Cupcakes w/ PB Buttercream

 

Chocolate Cupcakes

 

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa {I like Hershey Dark}

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup mayonnaise {not low fat}

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/3 cup boiling water

 

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda & salt. In mixing bowl combine sugar & eggs and beat on medium/high until light and fluffy. Beat in the mayo and vanilla just until combined. Reduce speed to medium and beat in half of the flour mixture just until combined, scraping down the sides. Add half of the boiling water and beat on low until the batter is smooth. Add remaining flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the sides. Add remaining boiling water and beat on low until the batter is smooth again. Batter will be pretty thin. Pour batter into cupcake tins prepared with liners. Fill 3/4 full. Makes 24+ cupcakes. Bake in preheated oven at 350 for 18-20 minutes. Cupcake is done when you touch the middle of the cupcake with your finger and it springs back and when it no longer looks "wet". Transfer to wire racks and cool completely.

 

 

Peanut Butter Buttercream

 

1/2 cup butter, softened (real - not margarine!)

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

 

{for more pb flavor add up to 1 cup pb.

I generally add a generous 1/2 cup for a delicate pb flavor}

 

Beat butter & peanut butter together. Slowly beat in milk and then powered sugar.

Add a little more milk if needed to reach desired consistency.

 

I iced these cupcakes with Wilton tip 1M and garnished with a mini Reese's cup

 

 

 

The worst part about posting recipes is then all I can think about is eating what I'm posting about and then I have to turn around and make it again!

{cause I never get posts up before we've devoured every last bite!}

Sydney's 16th

A couple of weeks ago Kevin's niece (Sydney) turned 16!

 

I still can't believe she's 16!!!!

{sniff, sniff *tear*}

 

Isn't she beautiful?! Yes. The answer is Yes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got to do the decorations & desserts for the birthday bash/cookout

The theme was music; using the colors purple, blue, green & black

 

This may not pop out in the picture below, but Syndey's mom made a homemade guac dip which I am now completely addicted to. So if you have a party I will probably make and bring it just so I can eat it... so have a party and invite me already!!

 

 

 

 

Sydney's mom also made this awesome shark watermellon inspired by pinterest!

 

 

 

 

Close up of the circle garland

{made out of construction paper using a circle cutter & circle punches, then sewn together} 

and musical notes

{made out of black poster board & party city fans}

 

 

 

 

It was hard to get a good picture of the circles above the dessert table, but they turned out really cool!

We used cardstock and two different sizes of circles - sewing them every other one to make these circle streamers that hung from the ceiling.

 

 

 

 

Desserts included chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, chocolate cupcakes with cake batter frosting, cookies & cream cupcakes, cakepops, white chocolate popcorn, musical note sugar cookies & a cake!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a "photo booth" set up with props for some serious seriously fun picture taking!

 

Ray & Dottie {Mom & Dad}

 

 

 

 

Me & Grant {nephew}

 

 

 

 

Kevin & I {umm... the cool uncle & aunt!?!}

 

 

 

 

Claire {niece}

 

 

 

 

Jayne {niece)

 

 

 

 

The theme came together at the last minute so I owe many thanks to Kevin, Amy & JD for slaving away Friday night cutting & sewing circles & decorating cookies while I baked the cupcakes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So thankful for the help of friends and the love of family!

 

remembering mia

Mia

10/12/03 - 2/28/13

This post is long overdue, but it's not an easy one to write.

Kevin & I are deeply saddened by the sudden illness and loss of our beloved, Mia, our first doggie-child.

It has been hard to deal with this loss, but God has taught me so much and shown so much love through this sad experience that I will be forever greatful. Especially grateful as we remember Mia's life and how she was just the epitome of love towards all...

So I pulled my favorite pics to remember the good times... sorry there are so many! 

This was a quick family shot for Christmas 2012.

Of course, I had to do some ear scratching, because that was one of Mia's favorite spots!

{Her second, or maybe even first, favorite spot was her butt, but that was Kevin's job!}

She loved being outdoors!

She also loved eating stuffed animals!

She would always eat the faces off first and she often fell asleep holding them in her mouth :)

Mia never met a stranger {just like Kevin!}

Peanut Butter!!!!

There is no treat on earth Mia loved more than cleaning out our empty peanut butter jars.

When she was young she had an obsession with chewing on socks.

Luckily, as she got older she stuck to her bones and sticks.

She would usually wait till everybody was calmed down and in bed before she'd start chewing.

I rarely chidded her on the noise (and it could be loud!), because I knew how much she loved it!

Of course a stick was always preferable to a bone, but this picture remindes me of Mia's

theme song, which I used to sing to her and Kevin...

I wagmytailbackandforth

I wagmytailbackandforth

I wagmytailbackandforth

...

...

...

Boy, did she get excited when it snowed.

{Totally acceptable with all that hair she was carting around all the time}

Doesn't her loopy grin just crack you up?!

Mia was so tollerant, whether is was a 2 year old niece using her as a trampoline replacement or her own mother, dressing her up for the holidays - Mia never minded so long as it made her "people" happy.

It's hard to see in this pic, but she's proudly showing off her pink bows after getting her hair cut!

She was a great campsite defender as well. Even though I'm sure her bark was asking the raccoons to come play, happily for me, they didn't think that's what she was saying!

Once, when I first got her, she ran to a baby bird and picked it up in her mouth and then put it down (completely unharmed, except maybe it's heart) and nudged it to get it to play with her.

I'd put blankets right up there with snow and peanut butter as one of her favorite things... well, anything soft really. We had to make her get off the couches all the time!

We loved bringing her with us when we played frisbee!

She's a ISU Gnome fan through and through!

Everywhere we went on walks people would comment on how beautiful Mia was!

I tease that Mia was the reason Kevin & I got married. When she was given to Kevin, he didn't have a place he could keep her so I got to "keep" her for him... well, I was not going to give her up so... here we are, married almost 5 years now!

I even found a couple of puppy pics!

Look at how big her paws were! It's no surprise she weighed in at 110lbs full grown!

Mia was an oops doggie-child. The breader went on vacation and the "help" left a door or two open... Mia is the love child of a golden retriever and a yellow lab.

BEST MISTAKE EVER!

I'm so grateful for the time we got to spend with this giant furry ball of love!

Mia, you will be missed.

squirrel army

Our neighbor feeds squirrels... lots of squirrels... enough squirrels to form an army of squirrels.

I am not exagerating. At. All.

Take a look

This is what his "feeding grounds" look like every morning

{during the 7:30am feeding shift}

I'll even help you by numbering the little monsters

{I only call them monster because they dig up all my flowers during the summer}

I imagine they are Callie's redneck cousins because they kinda look alike and cause she hates them.

I imagine my neighbor feeds them so they are close {to eat} in case of a zombiepocalypse.