opening day!

it's almost opening weekend, and we have all been running around like decapitated chickens to get the zoo looking pretty! i have swept and raked till my arms just about fell off, but i can't wait for people to actually be around. one: because it will feel less like i'm working in a ghost town, and two: because i have put so much work into giving the animals new toys and fixing up the exhibits, i want people here to admire it all!

plus, there is so much new stuff happening, i am so excited to be a part of it all! we have a new male giraffe, cesear joining our herd of females. i actually worked with a keeper in denver right before i left that was his keeper in jacksonville, fl, and helped train him before he left for maryland. so i was sure to tell him hi from her.

aaaaand, we recently got two new elepahnts: felix and tuffy (i know, but we didn't name them, haha). and if having a new male around isn't a big enough deal, the zoo finally anounced to the media that felix is pregnant and due any day now! can't wait to see the little baby. oddly enough, i turned on animal planet (more on the new logo later) and they were playing a documentary on felix! it followed her when she lived in the riddles' elephant sanctuary and was having her first calf, max. it was so cool to see how they managed her, and introduced all the elephants to each other to try to form a cohesive herd. and now they are doing the same thing at our zoo! this will be the first baby elephant born at our zoo ever. here's a picture of felix and max:

i am also proposing we get in a new breed of goats for our petting zoo: dwarf goats. they are super cute, small, and come in very fun unique color patterns. maybe we will get a dalmation spotted one!
(head tilt) "awwww!"

adventures in baking...♥

after the disasterous attempted birthday cake for marielle, sarah and i decided to go with just plain brownies to make for matt's birthday. but sarah found a great recipe and decorating inspiration and i got off work early since i only had my zoo orientation all day. so i got to work on the baking, and sarah took over the artsy decorating! and voila:

and when sarah said she wanted to make the same brownies as cupcakes to bring into work, i thought it would be a good time to try a delicious-sounding recipe i found on tastespotting: lavender fairy cupcakes. mmm... i can't recall every eating anything with lavender in it before, so the taste of the muffins was unexpected and wonderful. (i call them muffins because they were less sweet than i typically think of cupcakes being.) the taste reminded me of being in new zealand; the neighborhood i lived in had many many lavender shrubs cut into hedges that bordered peoples' property. walking to school on a sunny day (or even rainy, i love the rain and mist) was delightful.

miss me?

sorry i have been m.i.a. for a bit. it's been busy busy around here. and i ended up with a list of things to blog. and i finally had to skip wing night (!) to catch up with some stuff around the house. so one by one this weekend, i will knock out all the bloggity blogs i have swimming around in my head.

#1: the failed birthday cake. observe:

yep, in case you ever wondered what would happen when you forget to add baking soda to a simple chocolate cake recipe, this is it. flat. eggy texture. not very good. not like that stopped sarah and i from eating a couple peices...but not pretty enough to serve to marielle for her bday.

so we ended up making a pacakge of brownies and covering it with pink sprinkles. yum!