Free Red Sox #PopUpSox Playoff Gear Shop today 10/4 now until 6 pm 328 Newbury St

Hey everyone! The Red Sox have set up shop today only, Wednesday, October 4th at 328 Newbury Street downtown to help Red Sox Nation gear up for the playoffs! Visit the shop between now and 6 pm to get a free t-shirt, an awesome #WinAdvanceRepeat poster and a bobblehead for your collection while supplies last.

They also have the 3 World Series trophies from 2004, 2007 and 2014 along with bean bag toss, photo opportunities to share your best Win Dance Repeat dance,  Virtual Reality Home Run challenge and VR tours of Fenway! :)

Let's cheer on our home team and look forward to #WinAdvanceRepeat

Making back to school easier with Roche Brothers Supermarket #hosted

As the new school year started we were hosted for a quick tour of the Roche Brothers supermarket in Millis, MA to learn how they picked and packed the online orders tea. We learned about how the personal shoppers receive your order, pick each individual item (looking for the produce and meat as they would for their own house) and they will also pay attention to any suggestions or requests you give the shopper. If you like your bananas green, they will only look for green bananas. If you like your avocados ripe, then ripe avocados will be in the bag! The best part about this? The personal shopper will take their  time and inspect the food a lot better than I might if I was in a rush to get through everything and get home...

I also found out about a meal-in-a-bag option that are available at a bunch of supermarkets called Ready Chef Go dinners. They are prepared and selected are designed by a chef and packed in a microwave and oven safe bag. The bags have been designed to keep the food fresh, moist and of the best quality. It was inspired by the french cooking tradition of "en papillote" which means "in parchment." Basically, the food cooks in the sealed bag and is steamed in the sealed pouch and ready in a few minutes. Once cooked, you slide it out of the bag and can eat it right away! Perfect for a quick lunch at work and takes meal prep to a whole new, convenient level! Especially for parents who are always on the go... like us! There are many different options from meat, seafood, fresh vegetables to any combination of all of them along with seasonings! So delicious and so quick! The best part of all of this? They price it out by weight, so some of them are REALLY inexpensive. I know I'm going to be going to the Roche Brothers market in Downtown Crossing, Boston, to get some healthier meals and save some serious lunch money.

NOTE: We were hosted by Roche Brothers and the Dinner Daily. All opinions are my own.

A fun 1st birthday party with Wally, the Red Sox Mascot

Our son turned 1 this summer and we were really excited to host a Red Sox themed party for his first birthday. We were initially going to keep it to a small family gathering but then decided to invite our larger group of friends and family and have a backyard barbecue with fun and games.

We had been planning this for a while and looking forward to having a special guest come for a little while at the beginning. Wally, one of the Red Sox mascots, started the party off in style. The Mascot Team at the Red Sox ensured that we were kept informed at every step of the way. Their communication was top notch. First, we worked with them to schedule a date and time and as the time got closer we even worked with them to get some Wally artwork that we could use designed for the party. The guy who was in costume as Wally himself, called us the night before to discuss any final details and requests that we had. He only asked that we have a space available for him to change into costume and we asked if he could first meet our kids so they would understand that there was a person inside of the Wally costume.

Wally was absolutely fantastic. I don’t know who was more excited to have him there, me or my daughter, because he took the time to play with the kids, started our piñata game with the kids (even taking a few swings) at a Wally themed piñata, took pictures with everybody, laughed, pretended to cook on the barbecue, gave autographs and even kissed the kids! Everyone was smiling and genuinely enjoyed Wally’s company.

We served up hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, salad and wings. The best idea we had was to use The 3 Meal Muffins’ Port Muffins (portuguese sweet muffins) as a substitute for hamburger buns. We threw them on the griddle and people thought they were so good and so smooth.

We had soda, juice and Bai drinks for people to enjoy as well as lots of other snacks to munch on. The Bai drinks are great because they are loaded with anti-oxidant nutrients found from the outer part of the coffeefruit and sweetened with a proprietary blend of stevia extract and erythritol. The nice part is that the entire drink is only 5 calories per serving.

For dessert we enjoyed Vice Cream, an indulgent, premium ice cream with decadent flavors. Our friends and family really enjoyed the Minted flavor, mint-chocolate coins and cookie crumbles decadently mixed with creamy mint ice cream and Afternoon Delight, which ha ultra-creamy vanilla ice cream with chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough, salted caramel truffles, and thick swirls of chocolate fudge and caramel.

NOTE: We were provided with some of the products in exchange for facilitating this review: Vice Cream and Bai Drinks. We are Red Sox Parents and Vice Cream Creamy Crew. As part of Red Sox Parents, we share the Red Sox family friendly initiatives with you!

Coming up at Fenway... Bruins Night on 9/12 and Yoga on 9/14

There's some great things happening this week at Fenway Park, especially Bruins Night and FenwaYoga!

TUESDAY 9/12 - Bruins Night
The Red Sox will host “Bruins Night” on September 12th, and fans who purchase the special event ticket will receive a limited edition Red Sox Tuukka Rask co-branded bobblehead. On-field, fans will enjoy a special pre-game ceremony honoring the Bruins in advance of their 2017-2018 season.

WEDNESDAY 9/13 - Xander Bogaerts Gnome
The first 12,000 fans to the game on Wednesday will receive a Xander Bogaerts Gnome, courtesy of Toyo Tires!

THURSDAY 9/14 - FenwaYoga
On Thursday, September 14th, the Sox will host a FenwaYoga class led by the experts at CorePower Yoga on the warning track of Fenway Park following the afternoon Sox game.  Tickets include a ticket to the 1:35 game, plus access to the yoga class following the game.

SATURDAY 9/16 - SoxShowcase at Faneuil Hall

If you're looking for a fun thing to do with the kids or just want to relive your childhood, the SoxShowcase will be at Faneuil Hall and you can play games and even take batting practice. It's a lot of fun!

NOTE: I am providing this information as I am a member of the Red Sox Parents Blogger initiative.

PawSox Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, FanFest, a great season and an upcoming Craft Beer and Food Truck fest

We had the chance to attend the PawSox Hall of Fame induction ceremony in July. They were honoring one of my all-time favorite players, Mo Vaughn as well as Coach “Walpole Joe” Morgan. The beautiful Sunday morning started with a VIP barbecue located in the "Shady Pines" area of the ballpark. We were treated to some great ballpark staples like hotdogs and hamburgers, as well as one of my favorite things at a PawSox barbecue: the pulled chicken. I don't know how they do it but it is so tender and tasty without having too much sauce.

We met and took pictures with Mo and Coach Morgan as well as had the chance to have them sign some baseballs we brought with us. This was such a great opportunity to take the family to and I STRONGLY recommend it as a nice present for any baseball-loving dad/husband in your life.

After the barbecue, we went to our seats which were any general admission seat in the house (any blue seat or anything in the outfield/berm). It was a warm day and the kids were a little anxious to move around so we were really happy that the annual Fan Fest festival of all of many team sponsors was the same day! It took place in the huge field next door and fans had the chance to get samples and try different foods from various vendors. My favorites were Dunkin Donuts (of course!), AAA and Hasbro, which had the Pie-face type games with a twist, one with a Toilet Splasher called Toilet Trouble, and another one that was like a personal dunk tank in a hat called the Dunk Hat game.

The season went on through August and the beginning of September with the last home game at the end of August where the PawSox inducted the final member of the 2017 Hall of Fame class, Carlton Fisk.

Stay tuned as the PawSox are hosting their first ever Food Truck and Craft Beer festival on Saturday September 16 from 6-10 pm at McCoy Stadium. For more information and to order tickets visit pawsox.com. Guys, this would be a great thing to take the boys to or the family to as well!

Check out the video in slow-motion... Always fun:

NOTE: I was provided with tickets to the BBQ and Hall of Fame game as well as tickets for the food truck fest in order to facilitate this article. All opinions, as always, are my own.

Superheroes, Princesses and tennis matches at the Connecticut Open, Finals take place today!

 

Wednesday at the Connecticut Open tennis tournament was Super Hero and Princesses day for the day session and fans were treated to their favorite superhero walking around. Kids and families enjoyed the festivities along with some great tennis.

The weather was perfect and fans got to see some matches: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated former world No.6 Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6(3), 6-0. Kirsten Flipkens continued on her journey from the qualifiers, defeating fellow qualifier Ana Bogdan. Shuai Zhang defeated Megda Linette and in an evening match Number 2 seed Dominika Cibulkova defeated Alize Cornet.

American fan favorite, Sloane Stephens stopped by New Haven to help promote a partnership between Connecticut Open and Soles4Souls. Fans coming to the tennis finals today can bring a pair of their own gently worn shoes to donate in boxes near the stadium, which will be recycled and redistributed to people in need.

Around 100 female high school athletes had the chance to get some great advice from former UConn Women’s Basketball star Rebecca Lobo, who said that she had great experiences in sports and away from sports but the experiences out of sports were because she had participated in sports.

There's still tickets available for today's final with Dominika Cibulkova taking on Australian Daria Gavrilova. Matches start at 12:30p. You can save 25% using code CO17SUMMERFUN.