Alyssa’s 11th Birthday

We drove back down to Houston this past weekend. The girls were supposed to go to their Girl Scout camp out but chose to go to Ayssa's birthday party instead. 

We got to Jennifer's house late Friday evening. 

Alyssa turned 11. She had a slumber party this year. She invited 4 friends to come stay the night 

It was just me, Jen, Rhiannon and Mom there this year. We ate lots of food, cake, talked and laughed while the kids ran around

Rhiannon brought Scarlet, her and Jewell had lots of fun with the balloons and chasing after each other.

Jolee and Austin played together most of the time. The played Nerf war, played outside and in Austin's room

We sang Happy Birthday and then ate cake. The cake was really good!

Jennifer's cat smokie :)

He's a sweet boy

That evening all the girls slept downstairs, ate popcorn, candy and watched movies until it was time for bed. 

Day Date with Jaina

Jaina and I enjoyed a day date together while we were in Houston. I know as she gets older, she's not going to want to tag along and do all the "kiddie" things I have planned. Plus, Jaina and I don't ever get alone time. I always have Jewell or Jolee with me, so I made sure and planned a day for just me and her to go do something. 

Being 13 she's all about clothes, shoes, hair, make up and all things girlie. So I planned to take her to Baybrook mall. I've been coming to Baybrook Mall since I was a little kid. It's probably one of the best malls in my opinion. So we headed out and spent most of our day there. 

It was alot, lol for me! Shopping with a 13 year old gets tiring, lol. I had to wear my walking shoes and had to bring band aids with me for my feet, LOL.

After the mall I let her pick where ever she wanted to go for dinner. I know she loves Chinese food so I suggested we go to P.F. Changs. We have never been but have heard their food is good so we went and tried it out. 

She got the orange chicken and I got the crispy honey chicken. 

Trying to figure out how to use her chop sticks. Lol

Our food was super yummy! I would definitely recommend P.F. Changs if you have one in your area.

Thursday we woke up and headed out. We were ready to get back home plus, Grandma Carolyn was coming to spend the weekend with us so we had to get home.

We had a great time in Houston!

We relaxed all day on Friday and then Carolyn and Steve came over and spent the night with us on Saturday. They even brought their dog Echo with them. He was the sweetest dog ever! Dixie and Otis loved playing with Echo. We grilled out and enjoyed dinner. I had to go back to work on Sunday. Justin said his Mom and Steve stayed most of the day on Sunday and enjoyed playing with the girls and watching Echo run around with them. 

We had a great spring break!

Fun at the Strawberry Festival

 Froberg's Farm is a place in Alvin that has become somewhat of a springtime tradition over the years. When we were little, it was just a farmer's market that sold plants, herbs, jellies, jams and sausage. But over the past several years they have opened their farm up to the public for strawberry pickin. 

Every year during spring we come and pick strawberries but this time their strawberries weren't ripe yet so we didn't get to pick

Instead we came for the rides and fun.

We spent almost three hours here. They had several kiddie rides and games for them to choose from. Jaina decided to skip this day of fun and stay home and spend time with Mimi alone. 

The girls wanted to ride the tractor train first. 

Then it was on to the pillow bounce

They had lots of fun on this. We let them bounce for a long time. Me and Steph sat on the benches and watched them

Jewell was not brave enough to go all the way to the top so instead she bounced at the bottom.

Saylor and Jolee were having a blast at the top of the pillow

Sky high!

Next was shoot the apple

Then the bee train

We walked around and took lots of pictures

Jolee driving the old truck

Having fun exploring this old truck

Mining for crystals

and then we let them play on their big play ground

We were getting tired at this point and were starving

 We let them play for a few minutes and then headed straight for Chick Fil A

Stephanie and Saylor headed back home and then we headed back to Mimi's house. Mini gave the girls a belated Valentine's gift. Gift cards and candy.

A Day in Galveston

Monday, I had a whole fun day planned out for a day in Galveston. We go to Galveston almost every time we visit. I mean who doesn't love the beach!

Our first stop was riding the ferry. Here we are with some excited little girls waiting our turn to walk on and ride.

We got on and headed straight up stairs to enjoy our ride

Saylor was excited!

You know, sometimes you see things going differently inside your head. Well, this was one of those moments. When planning our day in Galveston I was looking for things I haven't done yet with the girls, so I had a day's list of things to do. Riding the ferry was first one my list. Yes, we have rode the ferry several times but not in recent years. I thought we would park and walk on. We would have this fun boat ride to Crystal Beach and back and watch the dolphins swim by the boat.

Well, it was a little chilly out around 69 degrees and super windy, Jewell kept clutching on to me for dear life screaming, I scared! I scared! Jolee was complaining about everything, and Jaina wanted to be left alone. So yeah, it didn't goes as planned.

So after several pictures we all headed inside for the rest of the ride.

After our ferry ride we headed straight to Seawolf Park. Again, I saw this going differently in my head. It was super windy, chilly and almost down right miserable trying to eat our picnic lunch. 

We packed sandwiches and snacks, found a table in the corner blocked by cement walls and we were still freezing. Jaina ate her food in about 2 seconds and went straight back to the car. We finished up and packed everything up and took it back to the park.

Jewell loved feeding and chasing all the seagulls

The girls really wanted to stay and play so we did. The weather actually wasn't that bad once we started running around and the sun came out for a little bit so not too bad. 

I remember coming to Seawolf Park once when I was little. I have never brought the kids here before. I'm kinda sorry I never have. It's huge! Lots of play equipment, lots of tables to have a picnic, big long fishing pier, and 2 WWI and WWII ships to explore.

She did not explore the ships but maybe next time when the weather is a little nicer we will come back and play all day.

Jewell went down the slide at least a million times and played her little heart out. 

Jolee loved this spinner, kinda like a single merry go round. All the kids wanted a turn on it

Swings and much more to explore

After they play a long time we walked around and looked into the ocean

The girls loved looking at the pelican eating all the fish in the water

A beach beauty right here

Lots of fun cousin time. They played there little hearts out

Then back to the car and a trip down the Strand

We've shopped the Strand many, many times but what's a trip to Galveston without looking at all the shops and a trip to La King's. 

La King's has been around 100 years. They have the best lemon custard! Yum!

Jewell enjoyed making a mess of her strawberry ice cream

Such fun memories

Steph and Saylor opted for a piece of chocolate instead of ice cream

Then a walk around the shops

It started raining on us but didn't stop us from having a good time

A pop it pit stop while we let the rain pass

Then our last stop was to Murdoch's. 

Justin and I promised Jolee could get another crab. So here she was picking out her crab. She chose the little gold striped one

Buddy is his name

She was SO excited!

My other beach beauty

We had another great trip to Galveston

Back to Mimi's house we went

We got home pretty late and were all pooped

To bed we went :)