Walk for the Animals

This is plea from me as we go into the last week of fundraising for the Animal Humane Society's Walk for the Animals on April 30th.  My goal is to raise $250, and so far I've raised $110.  This will be Lucy's first Walk for the Animals and we appreciate any monetary support we can get (every little bit helps!)

This is an event that Luke and I have a very personal investment in.  Our little Dwight was adopted from the Golden Valley site, and want to be able to give back to them as much as Dwight gave to us during his time in our family.

Please Please Please consider donating (it is tax-deductible).  The animals appreciate it more than you can ever know.

To donate, click on the link below.  Then click on the blue star that says "Make a Donation in My Honor" at the top of the page, and then follow directions for a credit/debit card payment.


http://events.animalhumanesociety.org/site/TR/Walk/General?px=1503133&pg=personal&fr_id=1150

Summer is Coming!

Well, the air is getting stickier, the neighbor kids are staying out later, and I bawled like a baby while watching the season finale of Grey's Anatomy yesterday, so summer must be just around the corner!  With summer comes a lot of fun things that we've been looking forward to doing for over a year now (i.e., spending time at the cabin for the 4th of July, celebrating our first wedding anniversary, being in M&B's wedding at the end of July, attending my cousin's wedding at the end of August in Duluth, just to name a few).  Unfortunately, I will be unable to sub during the summer months (summer vacay=no subs needed), but it looks like I might have found another nanny job to fill in the days/hours I'm not already with the tots, so I won't have to call Sallie Mae and attempt to get my huge student loan deferred for the summer months.  I'm waiting to hear back about a summer school position I applied for, but until then, it looks like one more summer of me being K: Nanny Extraordinaire.

Last week, I had a blast at M's tea party bridal shower.  After we were all done with the shower, some of us took a peak in super cool antique shop with an amazing staircase, which the shop owner was kind enough to take a picture of us posing and looking pretty with our tea attire on.

As for the animal update, Dwight has been tolerating his time outside in the pen pretty well.   At first, he was terrified and spend most of the time pleading with us to take him back inside, but now whenever we put him out, he's very content with munching on the grass, chilling with Darla, and sunning himself.  L and I have even caught him on numerous occasions staring out the window, and we can only assume it's because he wants to go out again.

Lastly, I've gotten myself back into baking again for fun.  My latest attempt was a cake for Mother's day, which turned out very well!  Eventually I will make the entire thing from scratch, but for now, the cake mix is from a box, but the vanilla buttercream frosting is all homemade.  The recipe I use can be found here at the Beantown Baker's blog, and it is amazing!  Because the only other kind of frosting I've ever attempted was of the cream cheese variety, I was hesitant to try making this kind from scratch, but with the help of my KA standmixer, it has turned out perfectly on multiple occasions now!  If you know me, you realize how excited I am about finding an amazing frosting recipe, as I am all about the frosting and believe that it can make or break the cake.

Anyways, that's all I have for you now!

Spring is here!

Now that the weather has warmed up a bit, and there is no more snow on the ground, L and I have been able to discover our yard!  The previous owners had planted a lot of perennials (I think that's what they are- the ones that grow every year?) all over the yard, so it's been fun trying to figure out what each plant is.  So far we've identified tulips, bleeding hearts, prairie grass, lilies, and hydrangeas, but there are lots more popping up in the gardens.   Here's a quick preview of what we have so far!

We have also finally put together out grill, which was given to us as a gift from D (Luke's cousin/our realtor) for a "yay you bought a house/yay you got married."  Thanks D!

Lastly, Darla has been spending a lot of time outside, and we have discovered her love for dandelion greens.  Pretty soon, we'll get an outdoor pen so that Dwight can enjoy the grass a bit more this summer as well!

Happy Spring everyone!