Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! rocked Boston!

We had the chance to go see Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! Get the Sillies out!  at the Orpheum Theater in Boston on Saturday. Both of my kids love the TV show and I knew they would have a blast.

My kids couldn't even wait until the show started to sing and dance in their seats. As soon as the lights dimmed they were cheering for their favorite characters, Plex and Foofa.The set is partly digital with a huge screen at the back of the stage. The screen images changed along with each song which I thought was pretty cool.

 

 

Of course they played a bunch of my kid's favorite songs like "Hold Still" which had them both wiggling and dancing in the aisle and "Hugs are Fun" which resulted in a rare snuggle moment between the kidlets. My husband, who is not a huge fan of most kid shows, actually said he loved the show. I am pretty sure the presence of Biz Markie helped with that.

 

I really liked that there were a bunch of kids dancing in the aisles and in their seats and as they performed the songs they encouraged them along. Nate had a chance to show off his sweet dance moves and managed to get a dancing buddy out of it in the form of my friend Joanna's (Baby Gator's Den) son. I definitely see a dance party play date in their future.

 

Over-all, the show was a perfect length, 80 minutes including a 20 minute intermission. I think it is just the right amount of time to hold my kids' attention. It was truly fun for the whole family, even though that sounds lame and cliche! There are still plenty of stops left on the tour, so don't miss out on this show!

Disclaimer: I received compensation for my posts in the form of 4 tickets to the show. All opinions and dance moves are my own!

Fall in New England

I'm a California girl. Fall never really meant much to me. Nothing really fell. Sure, it got a little cooler and some of the trees would drop their leaves, but I went trick-or-treating in spaghetti straps and tutus. I didn't own a winter coat until I moved out here. Scarfs and mittens, ha!, I didn't know anything about them. We'd go get our apples and pumpkins from the grocery store or "pumpkin patch" which was like a Christmas tree lot, but with pumpkins. I love that my kids get to experience what fall really means.

 

It's cable knit tights and knee high boots, rows of pumpkins that you get from the farm where they grew, apples hand-picked from the tree and turned into warm pie, tractor rides and corn mazes, and so much more. 

I  love this time of year when the leaves change to golden yellow, warm orange, and fiery red as the trees prepare to sleep the winter away.

 

I'm not a fan of winter here, but I truly LOVE the fall!

 

May Days

We have been running around like mad lately. May has been busy and, thankfully, it is starting to get warm. I realized that I have taken lots of pictures this month, but I never have the time to edit them. I guess I need to be less worried about that and just get some memories up on the 'ole blog before I turn around and have high-schoolers on my hands. So what has been filling our days besides work and cleaning my house?

• Running through the sprinklers. I really wish we had them in the backyard, but I'm ok with being that family who sets lawn chairs up in the driveway and lets the kids run around in the front yard.

• Climbing trees. Every chance this kid gets he is up in the tree in the back yard. Sometimes he can even get himself down. Do you know how hard it is to get a 53 pound kid out of a tree? Mama's back is tired.

•  Playing in the garden beds. Aka, go turn the soil for me so I don't have to do it before we plant our veggies! I have a feeling I will be sorry I ever let them play in there. Let's just hope she doesn't attempt to scoop any of our seedlings out of "her garden".

•  Falling out of the garden bed. She will hate me for this shot one day, but I had to do it. ;)

•  Eating watermelon sherbet. Our local ice cream stand has the best sherbet. Lucky for me it is only 100 calories because I like it a lot. A LOT.

•  Watching the bushes and trees bloom. I need to plant more colorful flowers in the backyard this year too. Next weekend...or so I keep telling myself at the end of each Sunday. 

•  Getting injured and giving me this dramatic face. I am in for some looks in the teenage years.

•  Fun at the circus. Or not. I hadn't been since I was a kid and lemme tell you, the Peta people outside with the elephant signs kinda squashed the mood for me. Note to self, find a circus without animals to attend.

•  Bouncy house cage matches with friends. Batman meets Power Ranger. What can be more fun and energy zapping than that?? 

• Running half marathons.... I will save this for a post tomorrow. It needs more than a bullet point!

Go see "Biego" Go!

I like to do fun things with my kids. I am always on the lookout for things I think they might like to see or do, especially if they are cheap or free. I heard on the radio that a local chain furniture store was having an event for charity to collect new pjs and books for children in need. Well, actually I heard the words Backyardigans and Bob's Furniture and took it from there. Nate loves the Backyardigans and I told him that we were going to go see one of them and he was so excited. The commercial also said to visit the website to see which one was at your local store. This is where it started to go downhill.


Apparently RI isn't good enough for the Backyardigans because they were only at the NY and NJ stores. Crap. I look to see who is at the stores in our area, and it is some characters I've never heard of. Then I see it! Diego will be at a store semi-close in MA. We're going! Nate got over the switch in characters pretty quickly, which was good. I was happy that he didn't get too upset by the change.

Saturday arrives. Daddy is working so I get both kids ready and loaded into the car. We get 5 minutes from the house when I realize I have forgotten the diaper bag. Double Crap! Murphy's Law clearly states that if I were to keep going to the store without said bag, baby girl would have a blowout of epic proportions and I would have nothing to combat the situation. Of course the other part of that law implies that if I do go back, she won't need a diaper change at all. I reluctantly turn around, explain to a confused Natey that we are still going, go get the diaper bag, and head back to the store.

Now picture this: Baby is in seat and locked into the stroller, I have an excited toddler practically pulling me through the parking lot toward the store, giant Nikon camera around my neck. Got that mental image? Now picture the look on my face, the store employee's face, and Nate's face when we discover I looked at the site wrong and Diego wouldn't be there until NEXT weekend. Um, yeah, that happened to me. Luckily this store has a giant supply of candy which I promptly distracted Nate with and assured him we'd come back next Sat! A little candy and a Happy Meal for lunch is always a good strategy for when you screw up royally.

Needless to say, Saturday we went back, were the first ones there and Nate FINALLY got to see "Biego" (as Nate calls him), up close and personal!

Maybe too up close and personal. I hope there was a girl inside that Diego costume becasue Natey had to give him a kiss.

Arielle was not impressed with Diego. She was more impressed with the fact that she has recently discovered her thumb.

I literally had to pull Nate out of the store. Other kids wanted to see Diego too and Natey kept trying to get back next to him and into other people's pictures.

One last hug from Diego's biggest stalker fan and we were out of there!

Of course we didn't need the diaper bag either time, but you know what would have happend if I hadn't brought it! My biggest lesson learned form this whole adventure is to not open my big mouth until I know what I'm talking about! Oh, and the other thing I learned is that giant themed characters are so creepy. Try explaining to a 2 year old why Diego doesn't talk! Ugh!