new zoo exhibit, dimples cupcakes, and a few more cool things.

Last weekend, Amanda came up and we all went to the member's grand opening of the Giants of the Savanna exhibit at the Dallas Zoo. Between our membership passes and some coupons we got everyone in for free. Plus free parking! You sure can't beat that!!

I was pretty impressed by how large the elephants' space was!! They have 6 elephants in here, and it's VERY spacious! The old place they lived was super small....just a large metal pen.

They got a lot of new giraffes, too. These are all standing here to be fed lettuce.

These warthogs were funny.

The boys were amazed!

Look, Mike and Terah were here, too!

Tired of the crazy crowds at the new exhibit, we headed to the children's part of the zoo, to feed the birds. William LOVES this part!!

Doug even gave it a try!

Amanda and Aldous climb the spider web.

Amanda said she's gonna have two kids so she can get a stroller like this, but she's gonna make the kids push HER!!

Everyone had some of Terah's lemon ice thing. The remainder of which is still in my freezer?

We headed home, had some Dickey's BBQ and these yummy cupcakes from Dimples Cupcakes. These are the best cupcakes EVER!! they have real from-scratch tasting cake, nice and moist, plus delicious frosting!! Not that crazy tastes-like-powdered-sugar stuff from the grocery store bakeries, REAL frosting!

I had to send two of them home with Amanda because I would have given in to temptation for sure!

And in other news...

I bought this wine at Aldi last week, mainly because it had a cute label. It was also cheap.

and if those aren't cute enough for you, check out the cork!!

Winking Owl Vineyards. Snooth says it's not so bad, especially for the price! Apparently, it's only sold by Aldi

Adorable!!!

In our complex there is an aging gardenia plant that looks like it's been dying a slow death. I checked out Neal Sperry's advice (for Texas gardeners) and discovered that it wasn't being properly fertilized. Last year it had maybe one bloom on it. A woman who lived her a long time ago had planted it and nurtured it, but she's been dead for at least 5 years and the gardeners here don't give special care to anything. The way they have it pruned is awful!

Anyway, we went out yesterday morning to this lovely sight:

And, of course, they smell just wonderful. You can tell by the leaves that it's nowhere near 100%, but I was impressed by the number of blooms!!

coming soon: more NJ road trip and another couple of vintage patterns!