Friday, August 7, 2009

BlueBell, The Capital, and an Awesome Find!

On our way to our Nanny's house, out in Central Texas, we decided to stop at the Bluebell Creamery and take the tour. It was so neat. We saw how they prepare the ice cream and learned that each machine can make 52 1/2 gallons a minute. We were standing there listening to the tour guide for 10 minutes, which means, we saw 520 1/2 gallons made on 1 machine. (There were 6 machines running!!) At the end of the tour, we received a sample of ice cream. They had 8 choices to choose from, and I tried the newest flavor, Nutty Chocolate. It is so good, worth trying!! We had a lot of fun and it helped to break up the trip. After that tour, we headed into Austin to visit the State Capital. We went to the State Capital Visitor Center first. They gave us a ton of information. I was especially excited about the travel guides. I hope to use those a lot this next year, taking small trips. Texas is so big, and that makes so much to see and do. We were able to see some of the things from the history of Texas. Wagon Carts, paintings showing different battles that were fought, flags from the different missions and they had computers set up to tell the stories too. It was really cool and free!! They also had an area where you could put on some cowboy gear and mount a saddle. The kids thought that was the coolest thing ever. Kaydence couldn't fit in the chaps or gloves, but we put on what we could and got their pictures! Then we walked over to the capital. This thing is huge. It was awesome to walk to the middle and look up into the huge dome. Adam and Kameron went up 4 different flights of stairs and looked back down towards me and Kaydence. It was really neat. We saw the room that the House of Representatives meet it. It was huge, and just really cool to see. It was a great visit that all of us enjoyed. I can't wait to have a Texas History lesson with Kameron. We got back home on Thursday night, so today, I had to go to the store for some groceries. I was shopping and looking around and it is unavoidable that I stop at the clearance section. I saw this long box that had been opened. As I got closer, it was an art easel. It was the kind that you can roll the paper down from the top to use. It was really cool looking. Those things have always been out of budget and I wasn't expecting too much when I grabbed it to go scan the price. I was figuring in my head that I wouldn't pay more then 20 bucks for it. I couldn't justify more, so I knew if it was over, it wouldn't be ours. I did some more shopping and finally got to a scanner. I grabbed the box and scanned.........10 bucks!!!! I put that thing back under my cart so quick lol. I was so excited. It is going to be great. I got it set up and the kiddos had a lot of fun drawing on it. It came with washable markers and everything! I was so excited and can't wait to incorporate it into our schooling. That was my awesome find of the week!

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