We rode the Metro from Preston Street, because we knew that it would thrill our son named Preston, and then we walked about a mile down to the zoo. It was hot and we were pretty tired by the time we got to the entrance, but right at the front (the entrance we came in were near the hospitial) were giraffes that were being hand fed lettuce.

Walked around to the big cats and got to see the lions upclose through glass. It was really cool to be able to be that close to the boy. The children's area was neat too, with a few playgrounds and a funny ground hog thing where you could stick your head out of the hole like a ground hog. There was so much there, even though it's a very small zoo - even Diego and Dora in 3D!

To make the visit even better we read Houston Zoo Blogs and looked at theDaily Activities Schedule oniline. The zoo even has an app for iPhone and Andriod with more tips and ideas about how to make the most of your visit. At the zoo timing is everything so knowing when and where things are taking place helps you to plan your day.

Recomended by a friend that lives in Houston, we stopped by Niko Niko's for drinks and dessert after a long day walking and riding the Metro over the downtown area. Here's what Clayton had to say about it:

More Information
Market Square
301 Milam (at Congress)
Houston,
Texas
713-224-GYRO (4976)

Monday - Friday 7am - 9pm
Saturday & Sunday 8am - 9pm

http://nikonikos.com/

A visit to the Houston aquarium was about way more than just looking at fish. We
had dinner, rode a train, did the Dare to Dive ride a ton, took the ferris wheel
up over the highway, and even saddled a fish on the carousel.

Entertainment
They have a few interactions each day and we got to see them feed some fish and feed
and "trade" the tigers. There weren't just a whole lot of times to hear someone
talk or to see something out of the ordinary. I think that those two were it. We
got to see a lady feed a bunch of fish and she told us about each kind in the
huge fish tank that went up onto the celing over our heads. Then the same lady
fed the white tigers. I don't know why the white tigers were at the aquarium,
but they were. When the "new" tiger came into the exhibit, it was walking up
close to the glass and my little brother made a gun out of his fingers and said,
"pew! pew!" Those tigers are endangered and he was acting like  he was shooting
them. It was so embarrassing, but all the people there to watch the tigers
laughed at him because they said it was so
cute.

Amusement park type rides outside were my
absolute favorite. The best one was the Dare to Dive ride where it made you feel
like you were falling. My mom really liked the train ride through the shark tank
that went up over our heads. It was cool to see all of the sharks swimming all
around us. The ferris wheel went up so high we could see on top of the highway
and the two little ones really liked riding the fish on the carousel.

Price
We bought the City Pass (which made the tickets mor than half price) and added an all you can play pass for each of us for only $5 - it was well worth it too! All of the things outside like the train, carousel, ferris wheel, and the Dare to Dive Ride would have cost extra!

Dinning
There is a very nice (sort of expensive) restaraunt in the aquarium. The waiter said that they dont serve any of the fish that are swimming in the giant aquarium in the middle of the dining room, which . The coolest thing was the big dessert that had a cookie in the shape of a fish on top of it - it looked great and tasted even better.

We can't wait to go back there to see the fish and ride the rides!

The Natural History Musuem had stuff in it from animals and fuel to minerals and fossils. It was neat to walk in and see the huge dinosaurs and we even got to look at some shells with a fossil guy. We learned how to look at them to tell what kind of shell it was and he even taught us about why they looked the way they did for each animal.

Our dad's favorite part was the huge "clock" thing on the floor that has a pointer that swings from the celing knocking down a block every minute until it knocks them all down everyday.

We watched a movie about fuel and how we get it and what each kind does to and for our enviroment. Then we rode in an evelator thing down to  where they were drilling for oil. It shook and rattled and then when they got the oil to flow it shot us back to the top. That was pretty cool. You could see the oil and rock layers through the windows.

We saw shiny gems like gold and stuff and we saw stuffed animals - not the kind you have on your bed - but like these used to be alive. Some were set up to look like they were chasing the other animals and that looked cool.

We chased down some McDonalds inside the Musuem for lunch too.

We even went down stairs and got to pretent to do the weather for the people that live in Houston. The monitor told us what to say about the weather and the map of the area on the monitor showed that bad weather was coming.

A great way to spend the day is to go explore all of the floors at the Children's Musuem of Houston.

We really enjoyed our time at the Children's Museum. Although because of the number or people we almost missed the kidopolis exhibit completely. According to several others that are from the area, there are always that many people at the museum.

In kindergarten we studied space, memorized the planets in order, and even made a paper astronaut. Being a the Johnson Space Center made it really cool. Looking at everything that goes on there was amazing -and to think that they don't even launch from there, but it's so big!
We took a tram ride though a lot of buildings, heard about the past and future of space travel - the tress planted for the astronauts that died was the saddest part - we even got to try some things that astronauts do in simulators. Trying to drive floating space car-thing, to land the space shuttle, and to wear a super heavy space helmet - were all really awesome. They said that we would spend at least 4 hours there, but we could have stayed for days and not seen everything. I really would love to go to a NASA TweetUp event or have lunch with an astronaut some day.
I wanted to be an astronaut after we learned about space in kindergarten and now that I've been to Johnson Space Center, I really want to go to space - or at least back to NASA in the meantime.
- Preston

Awesome! When we walked in and got our ticket, coin things, there was lots of  stories and stuff about the ice cream. We got some paper hats to wear and waited for our turn on the tour. It wasn't too long before they called for us and we all piled into a tiny room to hear the instructions. Then up the stairs and we were on our way down the hallway.

We saw boxes and boxes of tubs and lids, ice cream cones and dry ingredients. There were pictures on the wall from back in the day at the creamery. We walked past offices and meeting rooms and in front of windows where we could look down on the ice cream makers and packagers. They were making neopolitian, great divide, strawberry and the best homemade vanilla - plus ice cream sandwhiches. They all get swirled and shot into tubs, lids on and flipped upside down to seal them. The ice cream sandwhiches, now that's different. They load tons of chocolate cookies on to a tray and the machine shoots the ice cream between them. It slaps shut and wrapped up before they get loaded into the boxes.

In the last room they were making some popscicles too - those machines looked awesome! This summer we've been eating lots of the new friut popscicles and ohh are they good. Actually, it wasn't the last, last room because in the last room we got to eat ice cream! That was the best part ofthe whole tour - it was so good. We mostly all got something different and tried a little bit of everyones. I'd like to go back there tomorrow, I think.

More Information
www.bluebell.com
1101 South Blue Bell Road
Brenham, Texas 
(800) 327-8135
Tour Information http://www.bluebell.com/the_little_creamery/visiting_blue_bell/VisitBB_Brenham.html

Atmosphere
Filled with American history and pop-cultural pictures and memoribilia, the place is fun just to look around. The sign that said, "Pig Lickin' Good" and the location on the Pecan Bayou made us curious enough to stop and give this place a try.
On a Sunday afternoon it wasn't too busy; we got a table right away. When we were leaving though, there were people everywhere - even enjoying the giant swing and rocking chairs outside on the porch.

Entertainment
When we walked in Addison asked the hostess if she really had to lick a pig at this place. After the chuckled and told her no, she asked if she could just get some peanuts instead. We got peanuts, color sheet and a table right away.
While we colored, we talked about all of the neat things on the walls like the "Texas Snow Boots" - they were cowboy boots on regular skiis - that was funny.

Menu
The kids menu was full of choices - more than just the usual hamburger and chicken. We all ordered something different, but Preston still got a hamburger - that's ok though. He said it was really, really good.

Price
For a sit-down restaraunt, the price was about normal. Plus, we got awesome frisbee's - they were our plates, but we got to take them home! That was awesome.

Service
Our waiter was really nice, but didn't come by much. We waited around for some stuff and shared drinks when we got too thirsty to wait. He did get us all some drinks that we could take with us though and that was cool.

Overall
It was a really cool place with lots to look at and talk about, good food with lots of choices, and the coolest kids plates that I've ever seen

More Information
102 Early Boulevard
Early, Texas 76802 (Highway 377/67/84)
http://humphreypetes.com/

We got to meet our new baby cousin this week and she is wonderful. It's sort of funny to like someone so much that we just met - she can't even talk or play or anything, but we love her already. That's sort or cool and wierd.

When we knew our aunt had a baby, we each picked one of our favorite things and made the baby a movie about all of the things that we wanted to show her. When we finally got to see her, we just kissed on her and held her - even the baby! Trenton wanted to hold her all by himself, but our mom wouldn't let him - he's just too little. But soon both of them will be big just like me!
So if you have a new baby cousin, just wait and it will get more fun
- Addison

Critter Fest is one of the coolest things that the Sciene Spectrum does. They have a bunch of animals out that you can get really close to - some you can even touch and ride!
As soon as you get there, you see animals outside like, camels and an elephant, plus some goats and even a sebu - some are to ride and some just to feed, but it's really cool to be that close to them.

Inside there are more animals - some from a pet store and some dogs. During Critter Fest, we usually don't do the normal stuff at the Science Spectrum because we are excited to go to all of the neat, special stuff like the shows.

TV Interview
When we were getting our stickers, a lady from KCBD wanted to talk to us about the Critter Fest, but we really hadn't seen anything yet. We told here about our favorites from coming before.

Crocodile Show
When we got the map, we made a plan so that we could see the croc show and the tiger show. At the croc show,  they had snakes and huge lizard things and crocs too. One of them kept wiggling and trying to get the girl that was holding him. The uy tricked us one time too, making us all think that he had a big crocodile, but it was just a tiny one.

Tiger Show
At the tiger show the roaring tigers scared my little brother a little bit. They sure did get our attention. It was cool how the guy taught them to roll over and to walk in circles. It was funny when one of the tigers kept teasing one of the older ones by swiping it it with her paw. The older one roared and tried to bite her, but she kept doing it!

There were so many other things to do there, but our baby brother was really ready to take a nap, so we'll save the rest for another day. We had a great time seeing all of the animals and learning about them.