We love you Baskin Robbins!

After going to the Galleria (but before the Astros game) we made a stop at Half Price Books. Guess what store was located just down from it??
We stopped for an afternoon snack that we all enjoyed. Meagan ate chocolate chip ice cream and Garrett had chocolate obviously! He loves his ice cream in a cone and she is a cup/spoon girl. I enjoyed Nutty Coconut, which is impossible to find anywhere but Baskin Robbins and Jimmy had, ummm. . ., I don't remember because they were out of his favorite sherbert.
Jimmy and I love the waffle cones that they make in the store. Everytime I have one I am reminded of when I was a kid eating frozen yougurt at Jerry Smith's in Alice. Boy, I miss that place!
There is no Baskin Robbins in Alice any more so we try to stop at the one in Corpus every now and then, or like this, when we are in another town.

And the winner is . . . .

Chraycee from Walking on Sunshine . . . and Cheerios!

I'll be e-mailing you about getting your package to you.

Thank you to everyone who entered my contest. I have been to all of your blogs and love to see how different each one is.

Thank you to all of you who gave me tips about putting my pictures in the blog too. I am finally able to move my pictures around! Yea!

Ice Skating and Astros Game

On Tuesday morning we went to the Galleria and went ice skating. It was not as hard as I thought that it would be. Of course, little kids were out on the ice swooping around making it look like the easiest thing in the world! Meagan and Garrett hung out in one corner of the rink mostly. I ventured down the side of the rink - but not too far! I would like to have tried to make it all the way around the rink but my feet were killing me! I don't know if my boots were the wrong size or if my feet just cramped up from them trying to hang on and stay upright. I am proud to say that I did not fall. Yea me!

On Tuesday evening we went to a Houston Astros game. Garrett, Meagan, and I spent most of the game in the kid zone, play place thing. We did get to see Elaine and Molly at the game briefly. Sadly, the Astros lost 8 to 2.

Downtown Aquarium

On Wednesday we went to the Downtown Aquarium. It was raining when we arrived, and continued to rain on and off during our visit. The aquarium is really neat. It is divided into several sections and has an area where the kids had the opportunity to touch rays, hermit crabs, and horseshoe crabs. I say opportunity because neither kiddo was that keen on touching real life animals!

Outside of the aquarium there were several rides for the kids to go on. The picture at the top of the post is on the train ride. The train went around the aquarium and stopped in the shark exhibit. Sharks are all around you. Very cool.

After hanging out at the aquarium, we walked to the Hard Rock Cafe and had lunch. Jimmy and I enjoyed it but the kids were too young to appreciate the memorabilia all around the restaurant.

We went back to the hotel afterwards and hung out in our room. It was pouring thanks to Dolly! Debbie and Jennie stopped by and visited with us for a while. We went to dinner and Jimmy and I tried fried pickles for the first time. We both decided that we would rather have our pickles plain! It was interesting to try something that we had heard so much about.

******Announcing****** Teacher Mom's Pay It Forward Contest

So, I read Swistle daily (another blog for those of you who are new to this) and a while back she decided to have a pay it forward contest, and not just a regular pay it forward contest. (You can read about it on her blog here) I entered a bunch of contests she had linked on her page hoping to win one, and well, I didn't. So, I decided to host a contest of my own.

If you are new to the Pay It Forward idea let me explain:

I am having a contest. To enter the contest you simply need to leave a comment on this entry. On July 27th, I will use a random number generator (one of my kids probably!) and pick a winner. When I send the winner his/her package that person will then hold a Pay It Forward Contest on their blog. (If you do not have a blog, don't worry. I will host your contest on my blog for you.) Each winner will then send a prize to a new winner, hence the name of the contest!

If I have totally confused you, see Swistle's blog where I linked it. She explains it much better than I can!

Now for the good part: the prize you can win! It is pictured at the top of this entry because I STILL HAVE NOT figured out how to insert my pictures in the body of my blog posts.

This is what I will send to you if you win the contest - A smorgasbord of scrap booking products including two packs of idea pages, several idea sheets, three pages of letters, a title idea book, an alphabet stencil, a pack of wintry paper (to help you think cool this summer!), a mini tape runner, a corner rounder, a mini picture sorter, 6 pens, and tons of mini packs of paper and stickers (these are enough to complete 1 -2 pages in a scrapbook).

If you were wondering, yes, I was a Creative Memories consultant once upon a time. I still love to scrapbook and still use their products, I just no longer have the time to teach full time, be a mom and wife, and run a scrapbook business.

I think everyone should scrapbook in some way to help them preserve their memories and I hope that my prize helps someone get started with that, kick starts someone who used to scrapbook, or helps keep an existing scrap booker going.

So if you would like to enter my Pay It Forward contest simply leave me a comment on this post. I would like you to answer this question: Why do you blog/read blogs? What makes you come back to a blog to read it daily/weekly?

Remember, I'll pick a winner on July 27th. Make sure and leave a link to your blog or your e-mail address so I can contact the winner.

Thanks for playing!

Random Thought

If a black cat crossing your path brings bad luck, does a white cat crossing your path bring good luck?

Inquiring minds want to know. (Stolen from the Enquirer of course)

More funnies by Garrett

Today Garrett was upset about not getting to go to Grandma's house with Meagan. (More about what she was doing there later.) So, to get him to calm down, I told him I had a surprise for him at home. And, the cool thing is, I actually did have a surprise for him!

I pick up random things and store them away for moments like these.

Anyway, the surprise was a new pack of water paints. Garrett wanted to know what they were. I told him they were paints and that I would be right back. I walked into the kitchen to get a small bowl of water and a paper towel for him. As I was coming back to the dining room he calls, "Hey Mom! How do you get these paints to wake up?" I thought it was hilarious! I explained to him that you had to dab them with water to get them to "wake up."

He then went on to tell me that he didn't need the white woken up because he only had white paper to paint on and you wouldn't be able to see it anyway. I thought that this was pretty smart thinking for a five year old!

That is his masterpiece at the top of the entry!