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Kids’ Night on Broadway 2013 – NYC

 

Kids’ Night on Broadway is coming up soon, February 25- March 3, 2013. That means you can take the kids (ages 6-18) to a Broadway show for free, when you buy a ticket at full price. In addition to discounted shows, you can get discounted meals (kids eat free) and cheaper parking – plus some pre-theater events. Lots of great shows to choose from, including Annie, the Lion King, Wicked, Mary Poppins, Newsies and Mamma Mia.

HOW IT WORKS

You buy a ticket for one of the participating shows (see the list here) and your kid gets in free. Fine print – you buy tickets in pairs of two – one adult, one kid. If you have an extra kid (1 adult 2 kids, or 2 adults 5 kids, etc.) you pay full price for the extra kid’s ticket. All the tickets (in pairs) will print out at 50% off, and you have to pay the fees (ticketmaster, etc.) for each ticket. Make sure to use the link on the Kids’ Night Out website or use the discount code they provide. That’s it!

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, January 9 at 10 a.m. at the KNOB site. If you’re serious about which show you want, get online that second. The tickets go very quickly for the top shows. Know that some shows are only available Monday through Friday night, maybe with a Wednesday matinee – tough if you live further away and you don’t want your child staying up late on a school night. And the weekend shows are the first to sell out. I tried going online for a presale on Friday (if you sign up for the email list, you’ll get on the presale list). I decided not to skip my exercise class and went online an hour after the presale opened. All the tickets I wanted were gone (don’t worry, they open up a new set of tickets for the regular KNOB sale).

The participating shows are not all appropriate for all ages. Avenue Q, for example, I LOVE. But I would not take my kids to see it (they’re 9 and 11). I have no desire to explain drunken hook-ups and puppet sex to them. But you should get a babysitter and go on your own, outside of Kids’ Night on Broadway. Jersey Boys is the same thing. Not appropriate for my kids (I saw it in Vegas) but a fabulous show. They’ll have to wait until they’re older. While my kids have heard the soundtrack for Chicago (over and over and over) – do I want them watching the show? Uh, probably not. So use your own judgment!

 

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Review: Yotel

I’ve been wanting to check out Yotel for some time, and finally made it there when I went to a toy show. One of the nice women working in the information area agreed to take me to see some rooms. I didn’t realize how generous she was going to be, as she took me to a lot of rooms to give me a good idea of the various types they have. My kids were in heaven and wanted to stay there.

Yotel is at 10th Avenue and 42nd Street, an easy walk from Times Square (and Port Authority). The hotel is more economical than many, with rooms starting at $149 (in winter, for the smallest room for 2) and going up from there.

The front of Yotel, on 42nd and 10th. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan

Yotel is a very funky hotel with smaller than average rooms (think cruise ship), and they actually call them cabins. The space is well designed though, and you kind of forget about the size when you realize how much else it offers. Like great design! Yotel in NYC is the only actual freestanding hotel in its group – the other three are airport hotels at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports, and Amsterdam’s airport, where you can book by the hour without worrying feeling like you’re in a brothel.

Leave your luggage with YOBOT while you hit the town on your first or last day in town. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan

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Gingerbread Houses – a Unique Take

Though I’m terrible at making and decorating gingerbread houses, they’re awesome. While in Tucson last week, this western town at display at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. If you like theses, you’ll want to check out these offerings on Red Tricycle and the gothic Notre Dame reconstruction, via the Star Ledger.
Tracks of candy and pulverized cookies. Fondant and candy decorations.
The black and red in the background is the holiday Oreos, twisted apart. That’s a lot of food coloring. In the foreground, a lot of gingerbread people. Continue reading “Gingerbread Houses – a Unique Take”
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Review: Glassworks in Morristown

Our recent trip to Glassworks in Morristown was a resounding success, and now we can’t wait to go back. We went as a Girl Scout activity, and saw lots of families making crafts together. They have a party room set up as well.

The party room! You can see one of the tables holding holding glass pieces in the middle, by the cupcake. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan

The space was quite large, with several tables seating 10 set up. We had a choice of three projects (set up with our troop leader ahead of time), so we all chose which item we wanted to make, and the staff person explained how to do it.

The table is set up for customers. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan

Continue reading “Review: Glassworks in Morristown”

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Fun New Toys This Season

The kids and I visited a toy show recently and got to test out some new products. I wanted to share our favorites with you.

YUMMY DOUGH
I thought my kids were too old for play dough, but it turns out they’re not. This Yummy Dough was a surprise hit. Combine the ideas of play dough with cookies, and you get an edible play dough (you can eat it raw or baked). It has no butter in it, and almost all natural coloring (the only color that isn’t 100% natural is the blue, which has a few drops of dye). The other color comes from things like tumeric and beets. It’s a German product being introduced in the U.S. by two parents. The dough is $12.95/container, and you mix it yourself to make it fresh. Each container carries 4 colors in separate packs – just add water. It’s pricey enough you may want to give it as a gift or use for special play dates, though I have a buy one, get one free code good through January 7, 2013 if you buy from their Smarty Parents website. Use code BOGODOUGH at checkout. I’ve purchased color cookie dough before, and it tasted terrible. The Yummy Dough, while not something I’d choose to serve guests, tasted okay and the kids liked it. A neighbor sampled the leftovers that we brought home, and he thought it was great.  Continue reading “Fun New Toys This Season”

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Passports with Purpose – Win a Garmin Nuvi 1490LMT from Buydig.com

For the third year, our sister site Frisco Kids is participating in Passports with Purpose, a fundraiser run by travel bloggers to give back to other communities. Each year the organization chooses on project and raises funds for it. In the past, the group built a school in Cambodia, built a village in India, and libraries in Zambia. It’s very much of a grass roots fundraising effort, and minimum contributions are $10.

This year, the recipient organization is Water.org, which will build wells in two Haiti communities with the funds. The goal is to raise $100,000 this year, which is easily doable even in $10 increments! Clean water is so important and it’s something we take for granted here in the U.S. In fact, I just wrote about the importance of clean water for A Garden Life profiling another fabulous clean water charitable organization, Water for People. 

To encourage you to donate, bloggers solicit amazing prizes like hotel stays in Sonoma, Maui, Vancouver, Mexico, Helsinki, Nicaragua, Mumbai, a trip to Rome, a week in a Provence, an Amazon river cruise, white water rafting in the Colorado river, travel gear, digital cameras, Kindle keyboards, and gift certificates for all kinds of things. 

The fundraising ends on December 11th at midnight, with prize winners announced on December 18th. How to enter? You get one entry for every $10 donation. In the “# of entries” spot on the right, put in how many entries you want for each prize you’re interested in, and then give them your email address at the bottom. Easy!

Frisco Kids is hosting this prize:

 

a Garmin Nuvi 1490LMT 5-inch bluetooth portable GPS with lifetime map and traffic updates. List price is $350. This Nuvi has an ultra-thin design and offers Bluetooth wireless technology for hands-free calling. No need to pay for map and traffic upgrades – they’re free for life. The device even has an ecoRoute feature which will calculate the most fuel-efficient route.  Shipping for U.S. winners only.

Why am I excited about this prize? I have a Garmin Nuvi and use it ALL THE TIME in New Jersey. I would not make it down the street without my GPS. Mine is not this fancy, and I would love one with traffic updates and the Bluetooth calling technology. Plus, mine doesn’t have the ecoRoute feature, which I’d also love to have. So I’ll be bidding to win this, along with the other great prizes offered.

Thank you to buydig.com for sponsoring this prize. Please visit their site and check out the great deals they offer on technology.

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Union Square Holiday Market

If you’re looking for a unique holiday market with high quality vendors, check out the Union Square Holiday Market which runs through December 24th, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. More than 100 booths have a variety of items, from gourmet foods to soaps, from hats to dog clothing, from toys to jewelry. My daughter and I spent a leisurely 2+ hours strolling from shop to shop, buying a few gifts and nibbles. Here’s what we saw:

The Union Square Holiday Market. Yes, it’s crowded.
Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan 2012
Copa Soaps smell so good and are a good deal at $5/each. Nice gift box assortments too.
Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan 2012

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Hurricane Sandy

I hope you’re all doing okay in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Until things calm down and life gets back to normal for most of us (I realize that won’t happen for all shore residents or those in Staten Island/Long Island for longer), I’ll wait to post more.

My personal blog includes reflections on what’s happening as well as some updates for those in Union County. Please post how you’re doing.

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