I Love Groupon

Today's groupon is for Gymboree play and music! For those of you with kids under 5, it is 49 bucks for a month of classes with no other registration fees. This also includes unlimited open play classes. I took my boys here when they were little and they loved it. I am sending this from my phone for the first time, so I have no idea what this will look like on here... Groupon is limited, so go now!
Happy grouponning :) www.groupon.com

Splashway Water Park - 2 Thumbs up!

Taking advantage of my DH being off work yesterday, we all piled in the mini-van.. ROADTRIP! After much facebook and web research about Splashway Waterpark in Sheridan, TX... we decided to go for it. From Pearland, we decided to travel beltway 8 to I-10 to make a pit-stop at Toys r Us near Katy Mills, for the much anticipated BOGO 1/2 off all Pokemon toys. After that, we were on our way. It took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to the waterpark. However, we went a different way home, that was faster-- i'll tell ya at the end. The park offers free parking and you are allowed to bring in coolers if you like. We decided to take advantage of the 1/2 price after 3:00 pricing and waited with other frugal fans outside the gate until 2:55. You are given a wrist band just like at schlitterbaghn. There is tons of shade, covered seating, an outdoor cafe, and locker rentals available--also half price after 3 pm. My twins are 4 and LOVED it. There is a height requirement of 42 inches, to be able to ride the really big slides, which we barely made, but were thrilled! The lines were not bad, and there are TONS of smaller slides to play on with no wait at all. Check out their website for pictures and pricing specials for each day of the week. I know that Tuesdays are 2 for 1 tickets! Another good idea, is to become a fan on their facebook page and on Fridays they do a trivia question and you can win tickets or season passes that way too. Discount admission was around 10 bucks per person and we were there from 3-6 (closing), which was great for my 4 year olds. We took advantage of the Flamingo Cafe, and snacked on Pizza Rolls (2 for $3) and gatorade and french fries. They had a good amount of options to choose from with decent prices. There are various water play areas with slides, pirate ships, tunnels, shallow water. Free life jackets are also available at the entrance or you can bring in your own vests and floaties and even baby floats are welcome. There is a lazy river and wave pool with inner tubes floating and you can take this to most of the rides. There are 2 large pipe slides and a large open slide. There is another section that has 2 large yellow pipe slides and 2 orange open drop slides. This section has TONS of water slides all around and in it-- we spent much of our time here! After 3 water-slide packed hours, we were on our way back to pearland. This time we went up hwy 90 which took us through East Bernard and eventually to HWY 59, which we took to HWY 6 to 288 to home! It was much faster and cheaper, in my opinion than going bw8 to I10 to hwy 71. Anyway, I recommend this water park! Please check out their pricing and specials on their website and on their facebook. www.splashwaywaterpark.com

Mythbusters: New Theme Park for Houston?

Ok people, I read it with my own eyes.. saw the facebook posts, tweets, and everything. It even had a spread on Chron.com!
Name: Earth Quest Adventures
Location: The north side of New Caney, TX off HWY 59
You can go to their website to read all about the plans for the resort, conference center, water park, theme park and thrill rides. In short, it will be super eco-friendly and appears to have a very Epcot and Jurassic Park Vibe, minus the attacking dinos we hope.
The Creator: Don Lessem.. you can read about him on the website.. I'll give you the best part.." consultant to Steven Spielberg, Disney and Universal films and theme parks..."
I heard this about 5 years ago, but that was around the same time that everyone was saying that North Shore, my old side of town, was getting a starbucks and an old navy, so we all laughed it off. BUT..5 years later.. a starbucks proudly brews coffee at the corner of Black Rock and Wallisville Rd. So, here we are, hoping this actually pans out. It says construction is to start in Summer of 2010, with an opening of 2012 or 2013. So, those of us that spent our summers wearing out our season passes at Astroworld..there is hope for our children yet!
Check out the website
www.earthquestadventures.com

BounceU has a coupon for U!

I was contacted by the owners of BounceU and they are offering $1.00 off admission to any of you PearUp blog readers out there! BounceU is a great way to wear the kids out without having to brave the 100+ heat! They even offer camps and classes on their website, as well as birthday party packages! Check em' out...
Here are the details:
BounceU Houston SW (closest to Pearland):
10601 S. Sam Houston Pkwy West (near 59 S)
BounceU Houston West
14900 Westheimer Rd (near Hwy 6/ West Oaks Mall)
Central Phone: 281-716-JUMP (5867)
Web: BounceUhouston.com

**Special offer for your blog readers: Mention this blog by name and get $1 off admission for any regularly scheduled open bounce (call for details).

Train crazy...

If you have train crazy kids-- don't miss the free things you can do around town! I take my boys to the barnes and noble stores that have train tables in them and we go to the transportation section and get all the train books in the kid section. We have ridden the "fast train"-- the rail downtown, it cost about a dollar or so per ride. Also, you can ride the train at Herman park for about 2.25-- park at the zoo and hop on the train and then you can get off at the park side and play and have a picnic and then hop back on to get back to the zoo side and your car. There is a huge steam locomotive by minute Maid park to look at, and right now kids are free to the astros games and they have a train play area and the train that goes in the outfield when we score! Don't forget about www.hals.org this is the Houston area live steamers, and the 3rd Saturday of each month they offer FREE rides on miniature steam locomotives-- super fun!! There is a run day this Saturday from 9-1-- check out the website. Another free place we go is to the SPCA and look at all the cute animals and there is a train that runs right beside it at various times throughout the day. Lastly-- there is a great park on heights blvd. that is all wooden and huge and there is a train to climb in and pretend to be an engineer. If you are in the heights, wonderwild (www.gowonderwild.com), while not free, is a great indoor play place, and even has a kid powered train they can ride on a track. You pedal it with your hands, so even little ones can enjoy this one! Don't forget across the street from the Pearland Library there is a stationary train caboose-- would be a great place to take some great pics!