Blue Bell Ice Cream factory tour

On Friday, I packed a lunch, some snacks and drinks and we headed to Brenham, Texas to take a tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory. My cousin, Natalia, and her girls live in Houston and we thought it was a good place to meet for a visit. It also helped that Brenham is halfway between Austin and Houston. The tour was a lot of fun (and only 30 minutes long!). It was a lot like watching a live episode of Unwrapped. We got to see a lot of different flavors being made and loads of chocolate swirling around. One interesting tidbit about Blue Bell is that they are the third best selling ice cream, just after Dreyer's and Breyer's ice cream. Here's the interesting part. Dreyer's and Breyer's are both sold nationwide, whereas Blue Bell is only sold in seventeen states!!

If you haven't been on a tour, you'll have to find a way to go. Their samples were great (and large!). Ashley had chocolate chip cookie dough, Jonathan had chocolate fudge, Paige had strawberry and I had caramel turtle fudge.

After the tour, we went through the gift shop and then headed to Fireman's Park where the kids ate a lunch and ran around before we headed back home. Here are a few pictures from the park - which explains the rosy-cheeked kiddos.

{l-r: Ashley, Jonathan, Drew, Alexandra, Isabella, and Paige}

all hot and rosy after playing at the park

You are the music in meeee...

Paige has fallen victim to High School Musical 2 {lol} and I caught her singing this song...notice how her stick horse is her microphone, of sorts - oh, and excuse the mess

and the winner is...

...this little guy right here - a gal online was nice enough to create a t-shirt using one of my favorite websites, Zazzle.com. If you've never been there before, you've got to swing by and find a way to use their services to create a one-of-a-kind gift for someone. This t-shirt that Drew is wearing says 'November 2007 BBC Baby' on the front and on the back, it has all the names of the babies that were born in November who's mommas were participating on our birth board. If you're a fellow BBC mommy and want to buy one, click HERE. Thanks to BabyLuv111107 for making them! I'm still in the process of publishing the header; with any luck it should be up by the end of the day.

Seven months old and still the tiniest thing

Drew is seven months old today and of the many photos I took, only 12 grabbed my attention as potential candidates for being 'the one' to document the day. These are all SOOC, or straight out of camera, which means no editing other than resizing them so they're not ginormous. Once I've decided on 'the one' I'll crop, resize again, adjust some of the levels and remove drool if necessary. ;-)

At Drew's six month appointment, he weighed in at a meager 13lbs, 13oz. which translates to the less than 5th percentile for weight, though at 27 inches in height, he's in the 75th percentile. This means he's long and skinny. Even though he hasn't doubled his birth weight (yet) he's very mobile. He can crawl like a mad man, pull up in a pack 'n' play, which is quite impressive considering there isn't much to hold onto and he's taught himself in the past few weeks how to feed himself. {video to be updated soon: video is now updated on the sidebar}

I'm not too worried about his weight since Jonathan was actually *below* the percentile chart at six months and he's a very sturdy boy these days.

So, here are the 12 finalists:

"if you haven't gotten anything good by now..."

The winner will be featured on the blogger header. Be sure to come back to see what I *finally* decide on.

A fun weekend was had by all...

So, we hosted Goofy Daddy and family this weekend and got to do a lot of fun things. We went to the sprinkler park (aka Brushy Creek Lake Park) where the kids ran around and cooled off. Later that afternoon, we ventured out to The Oasis, a restaurant where Neil and I not only had our rehearsal dinner, but has to have one of the few signature Austin views around. Click HERE to see a few pictures courtesy of their website - we did not stay for the sunset (we'd have been there until well after 8 p.m.!) or I would have taken a few of my own pictures. Afterward, we made our way over to a park that we used to frequent when we first moved to Austin.

Aria and Paige check out the water

Aria tries to grab the water

"I don't think I need these, Mom."

"here you go!"

Aria and Paige enjoy the little fountain of water

~just the girls~

Jonathan pushes the reset button so the water will continue

Aria enjoys splashing in the water

Jonathan and Paige enjoy the water spraying everywhere

Neil holds Drew's feet over the water

"I don't know about all this, Dad"

"yup, didn't care for that. at. all."

Kevin reads Paige her pop-up Princess book - we're not sure who's enthralled more, lol

Dana, Kevin and Aria outside of The Oasis, the restaurant where Neil and I had our rehearsal dinner. The view is phenomenal!

I'm not scared of the tower anymore DAD!

When Jonathan was just a bitty thing, he got freaked out by this tower at a park in Riverplace. I don't guess it helped that it was so gigantic and wild winds made it seem super scary. He's aged a few years since then and was anxious to show us how he's conquered his fear of water towers.

the view from underneath

all growed up!

Aria masters the horsey ride

Paige takes her turn on the horsey

Drew in his car seat - all tuckered out

Paige, Jonathan and Ashley take on Kevin in the battle of the teeter totter

Dana and Aria enjoying the swing - well, maybe just Aria - if I had to guess, that can't be comfortable for Dana!!

Paige musters a smile, mid-swing

Aria tries out the big kid swing - great job!!

Neil tickles Aria

we were interrupted during our visit by this squirrel ripping the bark off the cedar tree - I'm guessing it was for his little home? or maybe to sharpen his teeth? who knows...but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to document this little critter

Congratulations to SASSY PINK!

Here are a few pictures from our tournament on Saturday. The girls took the first two matches to end up at the championship game against the Red Hotz, better known as the undefeated team. Sassy Pink lost the first two games of the season to the Neon Ninjas and Dr. Pepper, the two teams we won against before playing the championship game, so it was a redeeming day, regardless. The girls worked hard and played well together to come up with second place.