With the dangerously high temperatures this summer in Texas, we’ve had to find indoor activities to keep the children busy. I’m so glad we found iT’Z Family Food & Fun that offers affordable indoor entertainment and an all you can eat buffet!

A special thanks to iT’Z Family for inviting us out to eat and play at the Houston location.

Just one of the giraffes at the Houston Zoo!

During our recent trip to San Antonio, we had the opportunity to get extremely close with the dolphins.  This was actually our second time with the dolphins and I think it’s one of my favorite things to do at SeaWorld.  I decided to get a quick video with my husband and son as we were feeding the dolphins.

If you’ve never been to SeaWorld, I’d highly recommend that you feed the dolphins first thing in the morning.  They are hungry and interact more.  It is always a fun experience that the children talk about for weeks!

If you are thinking about planning a SeaWorld trip, check out my article with tips for enjoying SeaWorld and this one on how to eat healthy at SeaWorld.

I love taking the kids down to the River Walk in San Antonio.  I took so many pictures that they just started posing for pictures although I never could get them all to look at me at the same time.

One of our favorite summer destinations is SeaWorld in San Antonio.  The last two years we’ve been extremely lucky to visit quite a few times and each time, we all have an absolute blast.

This year we have started to live a healthier lifestyle and really pay attention to the things we are allowing the family to eat.  We were a little hesitant about how this would work, but much to our surprise, we were all able to eat healthy and still enjoy a full day at SeaWorld.

My number one tip for dining at SeaWorld is to purchase the All-Day Dining Deal!  If you plan on being there from open to close, this is by far your best bet when it comes to money.  The All-Day Dining Deal is $29.95 for an adult and $15.95 for children ages 3-9. Children under 3 are allowed to share with an adult. At first you may think that it’s way overpriced, but you can eat as much as you want so basically it’s like an all-day buffet!

The writsbands are valid for 1 entree, 1 side OR 1 dessert, and 1 regular size non-alcoholic drink each time through the line.  But, you can go through the line as many times as you’d like!  There is no limit to the amount of food you can eat!  Not every restaurant accepts the wristband, so double check before going through the line.  At the time this article is written, the restaurants below accept the wristband.

• Seafire Grille
• Sea Star Market
• Shamu’s Smokehouse
• Rio Grille
• Castaway Café
• Rosita’s Café

Our favorite restaurant to eat at was the Sea Star Market & Café. It is a delightful open-air market where you can stop for a tasty wrap, sandwich or cup of fruit and then shop a fun selection of t-shirts and mementos.  While I enjoyed a cup of fresh strawberries, my husband enjoyed a turkey wrap and the kiddos enjoyed a turkey sandwich.  The line has never been really long when we are there and I’m able to get several cups of strawberries or grapes with an ice-cold bottle of water.

We also really liked the SeaFire Grille.  There are a few more items on the menu but if you are trying to watch what you eat, you’ll need to make wiser choices here.  For instance, they offer a Grilled Chicken Sandwich.  I was able to get just the grilled chicken (no bun), along with a cup of grapes and a bottle of water.  The children are able to get chicken tenders with fries and a souvenir plate to take home.

I can’t remember the exact prices of the menu items, but if my memory serves me right, the cup of fruit was right around $3.50 and the entrees were right around $7.50.  I can’t count the cups of fruit I had, but I know it would have covered the price of the wristband.  Plus, that doesn’t even include the price of drinks!  With the wristbands, you get unlimited drinks.  I’m pretty sure our family went through at least 15 bottles of water.

We absolutely love visiting SeaWorld in San Antonio and it’s great to know that we can have a great time and not worry about the foods that we are putting into our bodies!

My family was invited to visit Sea World for a social media event. We were provided with complimentary tickets to the park, Quick Queue passes and all-day dining meal passes in order to appreciate the full experience of the park. This post is not sponsored and only includes my honest thoughts and experiences.

In Texas the weather has been absolutely beautiful the last few weeks and you can definitely tell by all the pretty flowers that are beginning to bloom.  I know it looks like the only flowers in my yard are purple, like the wisteria I posted earlier this week, but I have others colors too.

On a side note, does anyone know what these are called?

The hubby is on vacation this week so we plan on having a grand time while he’s all ours this week.  Today we decided to take the two boys to The Houston Zoo and boy did we have a fabulous time.  The weather was just about perfect and the boys did pretty good with only the occasional mini-meltdown.  I’d say today was a huge success.

The boys walked hand-in-hand, and it was the sweetest thing, even if it was only for a couple of seconds.

They actually acted like brothers, which is out of the ordinary, and they posed for pictures at my every request.  Well, minus one or two but I really wasn’t counting.

The animals weren’t out and about as they usually are when you go first thing in the  morning, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.  Watching the boys as they saw the different types of animals was quite entertaining.  Especially when one of the snakes decided to poop.  Who knew that snakes actually pooped?  I surely didn’t and I think that has probably scarred us all for life!  Peyton said it was mustard.  I doubt I’ll ever get that kid to eat mustard again.

But other than that, it was a lovely day with some of my favorite people. Rylan’s favorite animal was the giraffe, Peyton’s was the monkeys.  I’ll have to agree with Peyton though.  The monkeys are my favorite too.

What is your favorite zoo animal?

That’s right folks.  The state is in a panic.  Schools are closing, companies are shutting down and the airport is cancelling flights left and right.  All because our trustworthy weathermen are predicting a huge (wait for it…..) 1 to 3 inches of snow.  Who knows, maybe it will snow but I’m not holding my breath.

As you can tell, I’m not all that excited about it.  The reason I live where I live is because I don’t like being cold and snow equals cold.  The children will beg to go outside and play and because I’m such a great mother I’ll go outside and be miserable while their building their 2″ snowman.  And because I’m so great, I’ll take pictures and post them here on the blog as will all of the other bloggers from Texas, and all y’all up north will laugh at our minuscule about of snow.  But hey, what else am I supposed to do since the schools are closed tomorrow?

The last time it snowed here in our neck of the woods (December 2009), I snapped some pictures of the kiddos.  Although it looks like it was really snowing hard, it only lasted about an hour and melted almost as soon as it hit the ground.  I just hope with all this hype from the news, that it’s actually something worth being hyped up about.

For my kids’ sake.

Last night we took the kiddos to see some Christmas lights at a well known house in the next town over and we actually had to wait in a line about 45 minutes just to drive through to see the lights.  On Saturday nights, the owners of the house dress up as Santa and elves and greet passengers as they drive through.  It’s really a great experience and the kiddos had a blast.

I took some pictures as we were driving through so you could see them too!

I can’t even begin to imagine how much time goes into this display every year. So, what do you think?  Isn’t it fabulous?

It’s always nice to meet new blogging friends.  While I had previously met Shannon (middle) and Rachel (right), this was my first time meeting Jamie (left).  It was a blast hanging out with them and I can’t wait until next time.