Disney on Ice Dare to Dream ticket giveaway (ends soon!)

Hey guys, Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream is coming to Boston's Agganis Arena for winter break from December 23, 2016 through January 1, 2017. Tickets start at just $10 and is great to bring the family!

Join your hosts Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse as they share the heroic stories of four of your favorite Disney Princesses. Laugh along with Disney’s hair-raising escapade, Tangled, as Rapunzel, Flynn and Maximus embark on an uproarious expedition that soars to new heights! Travel to the enchanted forest with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as she escapes from the Evil Queen. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo! Watch as Cinderella’s dreams come true with a little help from her animal friends and the Fairy Godmother. Boogie to the beat of the bayou with Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen from Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, in a magical, musical journey. Make memories your whole family will treasure for a lifetime, while dancing and singing along, as the Disney Princesses inspire you to Dream Big!

We are giving away a four-pack of tickets for opening night (12/23) at 7 pm. You can enter the giveaway through the rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NOTE: We were provided with tickets to attend the show as well as tickets to giveaway to one of our lucky readers! As always all opinions are our own and no other compensation was provided.

The Ringling Bros Circus came to town!

The Ringling Brothers Circus came to town and we had an absolutely amazing time! We arrived early to be able to go down onto the show floor and walk around. Our daughter loved being able to meet the clowns and see the sights up close. Although, I don't know who had more fun, her or me! It was pretty cool. Apparently they do this one-hour pre-show for all of their shows and you don't need a special ticket to participate - it's open to everyone!

This is a new show that's different from what I remembered as a kid. It's produced by Feld Entertainment and as of last year, no longer includes elephants roaming around performing various tricks. They still have other animals (dogs, tigers, horses, etc.) with their trainers but they also have lots of clowning around and some pretty neat acrobatics! I think our favorite was the trampoline guys.

The only downside was the light up toys that they sold were SUPER bright. I don't know if they used some new LED lights in there but it was quite distracting and actually painful at times. So much so that I tweeted it out and the president of Feld promptly wrote back to me - how's that for customer service! I was pretty impressed.

On a totally random note, when we walked in to the TD Garden arena and were going to our seats, we happened to pass a room that had signs that said Nursery and School - pretty neat to think that the program is providing school for the families while they are on tour!

Next time they are in town, we strongly recommend you go! We went on a friday night and it was a nice time to go right after work but there was a little bit of traffic. It was nice though, since the arena wasn't as full as a weekend daytime performance.

You can watch a video I made about the circus:

Here's some photos that we took from our seats.

NOTE: We were provided with tickets and some fun swag in exchange for some promotion before the event as well as this blog recap. No other compensation was provided and as always all opinions are our own.

Our experience at the Deutsche Bank Championship

This past Labor Day weekend, I got to go with my dad to the Deutsche Bank Championship, one of the stops on the FedEx Cup tour of the PGA Tour of golf. The coolest part of all of this was that it was located a few towns over from where we live, in Norton, MA, which is also where I went to college.

We started our morning just after breakfast and parked at the Xfinity Center which is where they had general and VIP parking. General parking is $20 for the day while VIP is $40. VIP Parking gets you dropped off closer to the action, but we were all set with the general parking and a nice walk. I was curious about how many steps we would take (I wore the Withings Pulse along with a Fitbit Charge HR to compare them). When you drive in to the Xfinity Center you can go to the Will Call window to pick up tickets that were left for you or else you can also purchase tickets. Then you park your car and go through a ticket and bag check and then board shuttle buses. 

After you get off of the bus, you walk quite a bit on paved and unpaved paths until you arrive at the  9th fairway which is the first green you see. There are a few sponsor booths located on the 9th green which we were able to get some snacks from the Nature Valley granola bars to munch on.

We walked into the main sponsor area and had passed the merchandise tent which we also found some great items on clearance! They also had a huge assortment of hats, t-shirts, polo shirts, long-sleeved wicking shirts, jackets, pretty much anything you could think of! One of the most popular items for the kids was a replica hole flag that they could have the players sign in autograph alley (a space where the players go after they are done golfing).

We stopped at a few of the sponsor booths and then also checked out the Kids Village where they had some fun things for kids to do with bouncy houses, corn hole and mini-golf of course! It was really nice because it was located in a really shady spot right near the clubhouse.

We tried some of the scrumptious food, but we really liked the plain hamburgers that we ate in the Champions Club. For an additional $40 to your ticket you could gain access to the Champions Club which is located on the 17th fairway and is air conditioned and has some nice upscale food choices (panini, etc.) and a bar. There is also a private air conditioned bathroom just for Champions Club guests which is great if you’re not a fan of port-a-potties.

We walked around more of the course and I just couldn’t get over how great the grass looked - such attention to detail! I even had the chance to chat with John Boeddeker, who is a cameraman for NBC Golf Channel and is perched high above a 120 foot tall crane to get those amazing photographs! He started a few years back taking pictures with his cell phone and posting them online and people urged him to make a book of it, which he finally did. He gave me a copy to check out and giveaway to one of my lucky readers! You can enter through the rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We checked out a few more of the sponsor booths and then followed some of the players from hole to hole. On Saturday we watched Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy as well. Sunday we saw Kevin Kisner and even watched him up close as one of his balls landed near some spectators. One of the highlights was also waiting in autograph alley and finally getting Rickie Fowler (last year’s winner) to sign my ticket.

The final round of the championship ended today and after two days of checking out the grounds, I decided to just watch it on TV. It was pretty cool that what I was watching on TV was happening a few towns over. 

if you guys are looking for a great family experience, I strongly recommend checking out the Deutche Bank Championship next year, just be sure to plan ahead as it’s a lot of walking with the kiddos!

NOTE: We were provided with tickets and parking in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was provided. All opinions, as always, are our own.

Red Sox game recap and Bobble head doll giveaway

OK Red Sox fans, I’ve got some exciting news for you! The Red Sox have absolutely gone to town with promotions and giveaways this year and have some pretty amazing giveaways coming up! We were lucky enough to attend Wally’s Birthday a week ago and got a cool Red Sox tote bag, but more on that later!

So, as you may have heard, this year is the last season for Red Sox slugger, David Ortiz (a.k.a. Big Papi), one of our favorite players on the team! In honor of his great accomplishments, the team has a slew of Papi-related giveaways coming up (Build-a-Papi on July 26, Papi Gnome on June 21, etc.) but the one that we’re excited for is the Papi Canvas art that will be given away to the first 15,000 fans in attendance on Tuesday May 24th. As a Red Sox Parent, they sent me one to hang on the wall.

I also received a David Price Bobblehead doll to give away to one of our lucky readers! So… you know what to do, fill out the rafflecopter at the bottom of this post!

Now… for the recap of our amazing trip to fenway for Wally’s birthday!

The game started at 1:35 on a Sunday afternoon, but we were lucky enough to get into the VIP birthday party with Wally and his friends which started at 11:35. We lined up outside of gate C at Fenway for the special party and once inside, we received the day’s giveaway (a Red Sox tote) and went to the party inside of the Champions Club. Last year, the Red Sox created Wally’s Clubhouse which took place inside of the Champions Club at Fenway from innings 3-7 during most games in the summer. This was a great idea to keep the kids out of the hot summer sun and give them an air-conditioned place to relax. We’re happy to say that it looks like this is being continued for this year as well!

When we entered the party we each got our Wally gnome and proceeded to a balloon-filled party room complete with food, snacks, games and more! We took in the sights and sounds of the party and then took a little break to go see the Sox and Astros take batting practice on the field.

After we had our fill of food, it was time for the main event. We all gathered near the front of the room and then Wally came into the room with all of his mascot family and friends from other teams. We all sang happy birthday to Wally and then posed to take pictures with him, his family (Walter, his dad, Wanda, his mom and his little sister, Tessie) and friends.

We took our picture with Wally, ate some more food then went to our seats in Right Field to watch the pre-game festivities and the game!

In the fourth inning the Red Sox invited us to visit Wally’s Clubhouse again and this time we got to eat some of his birthday cake. It was so delicious and honestly, how often do you get to go to a baseball game and eat birthday cake! That was a great addition!

After a gorgeous afternoon of springtime baseball, we hopped in our car and went home. We can’t wait to do it all again!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NOTE: We were provided with tickets to the game and the canvas print and bobble head doll for review and bobble head for giveaway courtesy of the Red Sox as Dave is a Red Sox Dad. There was no promise made of a positive review, but we had a really great time anyways! All opinions are our own.