austin parks and pizza

This trip was by far the most popular, and after visiting Austin Parks & Pizza I could see why. This was my first time there, and we were pleased to find go karts, bumper boats, two climbing towers, mini golf, tea cups, laser tag and of course arcade games. And i'm probably forgetting something....I was thrilled to find a Pacman/Galaga game and skee ball. Good times!

Mark assured me he would let his parents go at a very reasonable rate

lilli, allison, haryle, emma and karley make sure no leaves the bumper boats dry

zachary shows off his guitar hero skills

erin and ashlynn climb their way to the top

Indiana Jones

Today the Rec Center was transformed into a forbidden forrest, the Sands of Egypt and even had its own Cave of Doom! The kids navigated their way through the Indiana Jones style adventure using the clues provided. We transported the Cave of Doom and Sands of Egypt to Riverbend so the kids could get some more fun out of them during the movie. It was a great night and everyone enjoyed watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

cindy was kind enough to lend her services as a tribal face painter. she was beyond hilarious!

henry makes his way through the cave of doom

big thanks to miltons for supplying the boxes for our cave!

josie and henry mummified

the forbidden forrest

sam goes over the unravelled clue with zachary offering advice

josie digs through the sands of egypt for treasures

jackson supervises movie set-up

I Love Horses Day Party

Every day is a holiday somewhere, and today is National I Love Horses Day. We celebrated all things equine by crafting our own horse which we then used in a horse race. After our time at the track we enjoyed watching the classic National Velvet.

christina shows off her horsey

christiana, grace and nicole race down our homemade track

capital of texas zoo

Today we visited the Capital of Texas Zoo. It is quite different from your typical zoo. There are some animals which roam free, like the deer and baby goats. The animals which are enclosed seem far more accesible than in a traditional zoo. We enjoyed getting close to the wallabies, monkeys and especially the white tiger! It is definitely worth a trip out there!

the kids dubbed him King Julian

the white tiger

even though there were lions and tigers, the guinea pigs were their favorite!

after we finished our self-guided tour, we were given feed to feed all the animals (the friendly ones anyway)

Senior Trip to Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Today we visited the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center with the "Smithville Seniors". Our docents led us through the center and taught us which plants are native to Texas and will thrive even in this heat wave and drought. It was the first day of Joan Son's exhibit "Origami Diva", which was beautiful (and air conditioned!). We were a bit worried since there was a heat advisory and the high temp reached 107, but we were all pleasantly surprised at how plesant it was. After our tour, we enjoyed a scrumptious lunch at the onsite Wildflower Cafe and spent time in the fabulous gift shop. We're all looking forward to the next senior trip!

bug hotel

Today we created some new homes for Smithville's smallest citizens. We used oatmeal cylinders which we decorated with tempera paint. After the hotels were fully decorated, we used an exacto knife to cut an "H" on its side for the windows. After the windows were cut, we trimmed a piece of window screen to fit the entire inside of the container to make sure the bugs didn't check out too early. Lastly, each child established house rules for future residents, such as no eating each other (Coey), no sneaking out (Avery) and share your grass (Lanie). I'm sure their future residents will be happy to abide by the rules if they are able to live in these beautiful new homes!

Lanie hopes her bugs will share their grass

Juliann's snails will know who is boss!
avery hopes to have a quiet home


logan decided not to impose rules on his residents

coey's bugs will be required to clean up after themselves!

I Scream, You Scream

To celebrate National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day, we held a our own ice cream party. We even made our own ice cream! It's super easy and delicous...

Ingredients
one cup whole milk or half and half (i think half and half tastes the best)
one tablespoon sugar
one teaspoon vanilla extract
pint sized baggies
gallon size baggies
six tablespoons rock salt
ice

Directions

1) Put milk, sugar and vanilla extract into the pint bag. Make sure it is sealed tight!

2) Fill gallon bag up halfway with ice; add at least six tablespoons of rock salt.

3) Put the smaller bag in with the ice and shake, shake, shake for about five minutes! Your ice cream will form and will have the texture of soft serve.



Since it was National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day, we added things like air heads, sour punch straws, butterfinger bars, graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate! You can enjoy it plain or add your favorite candy.

Eliana adds her special ingredients