I asked Jaina what she wanted to do for her birthday this year and she said she had no clue. We always give the girls several options. They can either have a party with their friends or do something as a family. This year I told her we could go somewhere where she liked, rent out the movie theatre or she could have a "shopping spree" at the mall.
So of course she chose the "shopping spree" at the mall which was perfect because she's hard to shop for presents at this age and a card with money is perfect for her. So that's what we gave her and I also gave her a few other little items.
She said she wanted to go to Houston and go to the Pleasure Pier with Alyssa so that's what we did. Let me tell ya this man right here is a saint. He has definitely has learned some patience over the years to come shopping with his 13 year old all day.
We had to Mimi's house last Wednesday after school and stay the night. The next morning Justin and I took Jaina to the Houston Galleria for her day of shopping. Jolee and Jewell stay home and spent the day with Mimi.
It was really nice for Justin and I to spend the day with just her. I think she really enjoyed that.
We got to the mall in morning. There wasn't many people there so that was great. The Houston Galleria is right downtown inside a high rise building. It is three levels of shopping and is huge. Lots of stores. The bottom level has an ice skating rink and a food court. The second level is very, very high end stores so much so that they are roped off and have security guards in front of each store. Let's say we didn't step foot in any of those stores but for Jaina to see what money can buy you when you work really hard was an eye opener for her. The top level is for the common people, haha. It is full of what I would consider normal stores that normal people can afford. This is where we spent most of our time.
This place hasn't changed much from when I was little. We use to come to the Galleria every now and then when I was a teenager.
We let her go to whatever store she wanted to and shop her little heart out. She got to spend her money on whatever she wanted to. She did great and got alot of stuff and still had money left over. We left around 3:00 before the traffic started getting bad.
We were starving so we headed straight for the Cheesecake Factory
We still can't believe this girl is 13 yall!
Beautiful inside and out. We love her to pieces and want to give her the world.
This was Justin's first time eating at the Cheesecake Factory. Yall if you have one near you eat there! It is soooooo good! I've eaten here before but this was Justin's first time. Everything we got was SO good. They have a wide menu with lots to choose from. So good.
And of course we had to all share a piece of cheesecake. Jaina picked out a peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake. They have about 30 different kind to chose from. They all looked so good. YUM!
After lunch we let Jaina shop for about another 2 hours before leaving the mall.
That evening we didn't have much time to relax because we were on our way to the Brazoria County Fair. A place that Mom and Dad use to take us to almost every year when we were little. The county fair was huge when we were little. So bug that they gave us a whole week off in October from school because so many kids showed animal there. I remember my Dad would always take us to the carnival and let us ride all the rides.
I haven't been back since High School and have never taken the girls but was determined this time. I wasn't sure if it was going to be like it was when we were little but to my surprise it was exactly what I remember.
Jennifer met us with Austin and Alyssa and we all rode together. Jewell stayed home with Mimi. She's not big enough to enjoy the whole experience so she was being "wazy" with Mimi.
We got the kids passes to ride as many rides as they wanted to. They had a blast. Stimulation overload yall!
Justin even enjoyed it. We had fun watching the kids have fun. Austin and Jolee rode the smaller rides together while Jaina and Alyssa rode the bigger rides together.
We even got a corn dog, Icee's and cotton candy
I was sure what the crowd would look like with Covid still going on but it was packed
Justin tried winning a stuffed animal for Jolee but no such luck. Them games are designed to suck the money right out of your pocket.
Having fun
Haha their faces
After all the rides we walked around and looked at all the animals and then headed home. We were exhausted. It was a long and fun day.
