New Postcard! (And 50% off ALL Postcards TODAY)

All postcards at my Zazzle Shop are 50% off TODAY with coupon code POSTCARDDEAL. And, I have a two new postcard designs to share--one with the Waco Suspension Bridge and Texas Longhorn Sculpture, and another of the cowboy sculpture (both part of the "Branding the Brazos" series by Robert Summers).  This coupon above good at my other Zazzle shops too.

Waco Suspension Bridge by Texifornia

How to Help Texas Fire Victims

By now you've most likely heard about the devastating wildfires here in Texas. The American Red Cross of Central Texas is accepting monetary donations, and has a listing of places in Texas you can donate in-kind gifts like canned food, clothing and toiletries.  Scroll down to the bottom of this post for links to other places collecting donations or holding fund-raisers.

If you're near the fires and are looking for info what's happening with them now, where to take livestock, shelters, evacuation routes etc, the TX Storm Chasers Facebook page is a great place to get informed, (Thanks Mom for sharing that!) as is the Texas Wildfires Updates Page.

ONLINE FUNDRAISERS

• Through Ebay Givingworks This list shows all the auctions benifiting the Red Cross of Central Texas.  Auctions may donate all or a portion of proceeds. 
• On Etsy  Some of those listed are donating all of the proceeds, and some only donating a portion, and some may not be donating any longer so check the individual listings for details. 
• Here on Texifornia I'm auctioning off some spots in my next "Souvenir Spotlight" here on Texifornia to help with relief efforts.  Also, I'd be happy to provide other advertising here in exchange for a donation, so please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at ecarian at yahoo dot com if you are interested.

DONATION CENTERS/FUNDRAISERS BY REGION

• Austin Area (Fundraising Events)
• Waco Area

If you know of a listing of places in your area accepting in-kind gifts or raising funds, please leave a link in the comments below and I'll add a link to it.

Also, several Etsians have stepped up to help by donating a portion of their sales. Some of these are featured on Shop4Charity.

Go to Museums and Gardens for Free!

Want to visit a museum for free?  There's lots of California and Texas museums and gardens offering free admission in May!

• Admission is free  the Mayborn Children's Museum in Waco, TX on May 1, 2011.  (I really recommend this one...you can spend the whole day there and not see everything there is to see!  The pictures above are from there.)
  
  
• Free Museum Day lists days you can visit museums for free.  Currently their list includes museums in these California Cities:  Los Angelos, San Diego, and San Francisco.
  
  
• Today is the last day to enter for a 4 pack of Tickets to Sea Life Aquarium in Carlsbad, CA (plus get a $50 Froots gift card).  Only 8 people have entered this!
  
  
• Get free admission to local gardens May 6. They have gardens from all over the country.

A Few More Days To Earn Money for Cameron Park Zoo - And a Coupon!

Big photos is still donating $1 to Cameron Park Zoo for everyone who registers at the new Cameron Park Zoo Photo Site through April 22nd! Plus you can get $5 off photo books with coupon code HOLSM! What's especially cool about these photo books is that you can use zoo animal photos provided by Cameron park alongside your own photos...so if you didn't get a really great shot of that Rhino or Leopard you can use theirs right next to a pic of your smiling kiddo.

A New Photo Site Supporting Cameron Park Zoo

I love Cameron Park Zoo here in Waco. Its a small zoo, but well taken care of, with lots spots for kids to stop and play in.   We always enjoy visiting.  And we always take lots of pictures when we go.  Here's one we got of a napping lion.

I just learned that Cameron Park has opened a photo site, Cameron Park Zoo Photos, where you can make photo gifts like posters, cards, and photobooks, and 25% of the profits go to support Cameron Park!  And, now through April 22, Big Photos will donate one dollar for each new user that registers on the site!  Since Cameron Park is a non-profit that sometimes struggles for funding, I'm glad to have another way to help them out.

The coolest thing about the Cameron Park Photo Site, in my opinion, is that they have galleries with wonderful pictures from Cameron Park that you can use alongside your own pictures.   So, say you took a picture of your child with a giraffe in the background...

...but you didn't get any good close-ups of the giraffe to go along with it.  If you are making a photo book through CameronParkZooPhotos.com you can pick out one of their great giraffe photos to use alongside your own photos.  

All the photos in their galleries are of Cameron Park animals, so you can feel happy knowing the pictures you choose are of the actual animals you saw at the zoo.  And it's easy to move and resize pictures, change the layout, or add text, too!

You can also get $5 off Photo Books with coupon code HOLSM.

Visit Cameron Park Zoo Photos

My World Tuesday - Lego Castle Adventure

My World One of my favorite places to take the kids here in Waco is the Mayborn Museum. This summer (through September 5th) they have a Lego Castle Adventures Exhibit. Here's some pictures of my kids exploring it...

 My littlest loved the lego castle.  

One of his favorite things was jumping off the thrown.

The wall and thrown were not made of "real" legos, 

but that stained glass window behind it was...

...as was this knight AND the tapestry behind him.

 My two older boys spent most of their time making their own lego creations.

They had some giant sized blocks for little ones to play with too.

I suggest bringing hand sanitizer...some of these were pretty grimy. 

My littlest (age 2) got bored of this exhibit after about an hour...but my older kids (who both love Legos) could have stayed there building all day. But even without this exhibit the Mayborn has plenty of fun things to keep your children fascinated all day.

Waco Coupons Giveaway - And How to Use Expired Coupons!

Would you like an envelope of coupons you can use in Waco and surrounding areas (and a few coupons you can use anywhere?). It even includes a coupons for a free Frape at McDonalds! I'm giving the envelope away to one person who leaves a comment below. Make sure to leave your e-mail so I can contact you.

Winner will be chosen May 3rd using Random.org or a names picked out of a hat by one of my children (if there is no comments by then, I'll extend it). Giveaway open to residents of Waco, TX and surrounding area only (cause most of these coupons aren't good outside of Waco, Hewitt, Killeen, etc.).

Got a bunch of coupons you can't use? Got expired coupons? Join the Expires Coupon Project and send them to a military family! Military families stationed overseas can use them up to 6 months after they expire.

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Lego Building Contest for Mayborn Museum Tickets

The Mayborn Museum in Waco, TX is one of my favorite places to go with my kids. There is so much there to do--there's hands on science experiments, history exhibits, and lots of places for kids to dress up and pretend, from a miniature kid city, to a mock weather station. You can spend all day there and not see everything! Right now they are holding a Lego Building contest, and the prize is a ticket for up to 6 guests to the Mayborn Museum. Even if your kids don't win, they'll have fun using their imagination and ingenuity to create their entry.

$20 HEB Gift Card Giveaway

Hi! If you're in an area that has an HEB, you might want to enter the giveaway for a $20 HEB Gift Card over at Welcome to My Kitchen (a blog of a fellow Waco mom I met online recently). It's really simple to enter...just leave a comment. And while your there you might want to browse her site to see all the delicious recipes she has!

A Glorious Day for Weeding

Today is a glorious day for weeding! Yesterday's snow, which lasted most of the morning, is now confined to rooftops and some shady patches of the yard. The air is still chilly, but the sun is out, and cold wimp that I am, even I felt comfortable with just a turtleneck and a thick sweatshirt. I brought my toddler out to play, and while he sampled what was left of the snow, I went after the weeds. The yard is otherwise dead so they are easy to spot, plus they are young weeds without deep roots so are fairly easy to pull out of the wet soil. I couldn't find my garden gloves, which my children used yesterday for snow gloves when their real snow gloves got soaked (garden gloves work surprisingly well as snow gloves, especially the kind I have which are knitted with rubber on the palms)...so I used dish gloves. These actually worked better than the garden gloves would have since the ground was muddy and I was weeding in puddles in places, and they kept my hands dry.

The weeds were even kind of pretty...all green and purple and decked with dew. Not pretty enough to let them stay though, as these ones turn ugly when they get older (they're the ones that the mature leaves turn prickly...luckily the new growth though was soft and easy on the hands).

Every now and then my sugar bear would come over and want to play with me and I would stop until he got interested in the snow again. Now he's napping but my oldest is outside, so I think I'm going to go out there again. What a wonderful day!

(Waco, TX)

Waco Snow

We have snow!

This is in Waco, not Ft. Worth!

No, this is not oatmeal cookie frosting snow! This is REAL snow.

Enough snow to make a proper snowman!

And it's still coming down! Hasn't stopped since this morning!

Yeah, this is definately something to get excited about! Yeah snow!

So, what's the weather doing in your area? Leave a comment and let me know!

Snow Day

Snow is covering the ground like frosting on an outmeal cookie this morning*, and my son got to go to school two hours late. I didn't even have to wake him up this morning...his younger brother (who didn't notice the snow right outside the window he was sitting in front of until I mentioned it) ran to his room shouting "Wake up! It's snow! It's snow!" and my oldest got up faster then he's ever gotten up before.

That oatmeal frosting  is pretty normal for snow here in Waco, which is rare anyways....but I gather up in Fort Worth they're getting real snow again (like they did this Christmas) because this is what a friend of mine just posted on his Facebook page.



Isn't THAT awesome! Bet they're staying home more than 2 hours today up there!


*Credit to my husband for coming up with the oatmeal cookie description :-).

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