My week in photos

Here's what I was up to this past week.

I rarely wear dresses to work. I decided I needed to wear my wardrobe, so I changed it up and threw on this dress one day. People noticed. Note to self-wear more dresses and buy more. :)



Craig and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on Wednesday. We went out to Ann's Italian restaurant in Hales Corners for dinner.



I had mushroom ravioli and it was delicious!



Dessert was chocolate lava cake.



We were near our wedding site, so hopped over there to walk around.

I love this picture of my husband.



The rose garden (our site) at Boerner Botanical Gardens.





I was inspired by Karis's kale frittata last weekend, so I made frittata muffins by adapting this recipe.



I think this will be a great way for me to use up our kale, have a healthy snack at work and to get my protein in.

I went to the Parade of Homes with my mother-in-law yesterday. We walked for about 6 hours and saw at least 20 houses. I have a very good idea of what I want in a house now.

I liked this exterior--particularly the gray/blue shingles with the white trim.



I found my dream kitchen in my dream house. I need to take Craig to see this model.





The dream home even had a screened porch. I'd love one some day.



After the parade of homes, we went to my nephew's b-day party.



I loved the angry birds theme since I'm a big kid and enjoy the game myself.



Today, Karis and I met some new Milwaukee bloggers at Blogs and Books.





Such a cute welcome table.



Pretty flowers from fresh design in Milwaukee.



For this first event, we read and discussed The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.



We discussed the book in this fantastic and unique space, the Pabst Theater pub.



We had spiced pecans from Treat Bake Shop and delicious lemonade!



Sara showed us Japanese gift-wrapping. I plan to use this soon for a gift to someone.



So pretty and eco-friendly!



I am looking forward to the next Blogs & Books in the fall! Thanks to Sara and Colleen for organizing it and bringing bloggers who love to read together.

It was a good week! Hopefully this one is just as great, especially since my birthday is on Friday.

A Milwaukee blogger brunch

Karis hosted a lovely brunch at her house on Sunday morning. Two other Milwaukee area bloggers, Erica and Alysha also attended!



I loved the sign on her front door! I laughed as I approached her house.



Karis is a typical Virgo and very organized (I am not a typical Virgo since I am not as organized at home). She had a menu written out with ingredients and the source. It was also sort of a joke and you can read about it on her blog post.



Karis's husband, Chris, opened the prosecco for our mimosas.



We started with fresh homemade cinnamon-sugar donuts, which were delicious! My husband saw the picture I took of them and couldn't believe Karis made homemade donuts. He wouldn't let me get a donut pan though, however. Silly husband, as he would benefit directly from it more than I would.



While Karis cooked, I enjoyed watching her cats, Merlot and Chianti, be mischievous.





Chianti reminds me so much of our cat, Tanzi.



The other fantastic brunch items we had were Vanilla Chobani greek yogurt with berries, nuts, coconut and granola.



A fritatta with kale and onions.



Here is my plate...we also had some fresh cantalope and red potatoes.



After we were done eating, we went outside for the photo and admired Karis and Chris's container garden, which is doing quite well.





I proceeded to admire her cats. I love that her cats have a little area to sit outside in. Ours don't go outside and they would probably beg to go out all the time.





It was a great morning and afternoon spent with fun and friendly bloggers! I am so thankful for blogging as it has connected me with new people I wouldn't have met otherwise.

Head on over to Karis's blog to check out the recipes she used.

Zoo a la carte

Craig and I went to the Milwaukee County Zoo for their Zoo a la carte last night. I had always wanted to go to the event, so I was excited when we got free tickets.

We had to buy our food tickets and we spent $20 total in the end. Each ticket was worth 50 cents and most bigger options ranged from 6 to 11 tickets.



The first item I tried was a slider from Burke's Lakeside. I eat mostly vegetarian, but I had been craving eating a bit of meat all week, so a slider was the perfect amount of beef for me.





We had a little company nearby.





Next, Craig and I shared pasta nachos from Joey Buona's. I was interested in trying this because it sounded unique and not something we would normally get or make.





Craig got a burger from Charcoal Grill and I grabbed us a strawberry lemonade from Alladin.



We let our stomachs settle by taking the sky glider ride above the crowds and animals.







The tiger in this photo was roaring constantly. We felt so bad for him being stuck in such a small pen.



We visited some of the animals, like the big cats, which were adorable.

This giraffe was staring right at me. So cute!



The funniest thing we saw was this elephant who was attempting to eat a bush across the moat. Naughty! At one point, I thought he was going to fling poop at us too, so I stayed back.



I ended the night with a Simma's bakery chocolate cupcake with cream cheese filling and chocolate chips. It satisfied my sweet tooth!



The a la carte was packed and a very popular event overall. The negative aspects (in my opinion) would include the fact that they had a few chain restaurants (Applebee's, Wongs Wok) and most of the food featured wasn't that healthy overall. It was also hard for me to find vegetarian options. If I hadn't just eaten at a Middle Eastern restaurant last weekend, I probably would have eaten a falafel from Alladin. Whole Foods was there and they had some of the healthiest options, but I didn't feel like getting anything from the menu they featured.