Your Guide to Family-Friendly Day Trips in New Jersey, New York…and Beyond
We don’t have any pets at our house (unless you count fish), but I do like dogs and cats. I first heard about cat cafes while watching the Amazing Race. And then I found out there was one in New York City – it’s called Meow Parlour. My kids freaked out and couldn’t wait to go.
What is a cat cafe? Basically it’s a store front with adoptable free-roaming cats (from a shelter). You can play with them. Continue reading “Review: Meow Parlour in New York City”
If you live or work in Manhattan, you might be more familiar with Chelsea Piers. With lots of sports classes for kids and adults, plus a workout facility, this is a regular spot for many. If you live outside of Manhattan though, there’s still plenty you can take advantage of during trips into the city.
Here are a few things to do with kids at Chelsea Piers:
Bowling
Bowlmor at Chelsea Piers is not your neighborhood bowling alley. With fun lights and upscale décor, they also have high end pub food including burgers and pizza, tacos, brownie sundaes, plus some awesome signature cocktails (not so awesome when bowling with your kids in the middle of the day, however). Continue reading “What to do at Chelsea Piers with Kids”
When I heard about the new ice cream place called 10 Below in Chinatown, where they made the ice cream in front of you in two minutes, I knew we had to go. Soon! I saw these pictures of ice cream rolls with cute toppings and it was a done deal. So I told my kids that we were going into the city to get ice cream, and they thought I was nuts. Sure, we eat ice cream. A fair amount of ice cream. But planning a trip to New York City just to eat ice cream? Well, we added in a few other things on the itinerary too, but planned to get there on the early side (and on a weekday before school started) to avoid the lines.
Continue reading “Treat of the Day: 10 Below Ice Cream in Chinatown”
To be honest, I was a little nervous to go to the top of One World Trade Center. I wasn’t in the East Coast on September 11, 2001 but it’s impossible not to think about what a target this building is, and how high I would be, trapped if something similar happened. Okay, getting the creepy feelings out of the way early!
One World Observatory opened to the public in late May, 2015. The building opened to tenants the previous November.
The entrance to One World Observatory is on Continue reading “Review: One World Observatory”
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll see I’m a big Broadway fan (see our reviews of Broadway shows and our family friendly Broadway show page: Broadway for kids). So I was super psyched at a recent Disney Social Media Moms On the Road conference to get the “Behind the Magic” tour at the New Amsterdam Theater.
This tour is open to the public to those with or without Disney Broadway tickets Continue reading “Review: Behind the Magic Tour – Disney on Broadway”
The flagship FAO Schwarz store is closing in July, and if you haven’t been to this 5th Avenue location, here are 12 reasons you should go before it’s gone.
1. Get a bear in a bag – the FAO Schwarz bear
2. Get your fortune from the Zohar. Continue reading “Get to FAO Schwarz before it closes”
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder won the 2014 Tony award for best musical. So I had super high hopes. Overall I really enjoyed the show. The downside was that I only understood 75% of it, and I wasn’t alone. My two theater companions also had difficulty understanding either the accents and the lyrics to many of the songs. We did get the gist of it, though.
The plot
Monty Navarro is mourning the loss of his mother when a stranger tells him that his mother was a D’Ysquith (pronounced dies-quith), a well-known upper class family. If true (it is), that makes him ninth in line to become the earl of Highhurst, with all the money and prestige associated with that. While Monty doesn’t start out to off the other heirs, that’s exactly what happens, and this my friends, adds up to humor in the play. The drama comes from not knowing it he’ll succeed, and also whether he’ll get away with it (early and at the end we see Monty in prison). Continue reading “Review: Is A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Appropriate for Kids?”
I’ll be honest that Finding Neverland on Broadway was initially not a show I wanted to see. Why? It’s about JM Barrie’s journey in writing Peter Pan. And I’m not a fan of Peter Pan. But I wanted to see one of the boys who plays a Davies brother (Alex Dreier) as I’m friends with his parents from our college days. And I went to see Billy Elliot when Alex was cast in the show, but he wasn’t performing that night (the kid actors take turns and you’re never quite sure who will on stage that night). The other reason was that I was doing an annual theater night with my writer friends during a conference. We took a vote as to what show to see, and Finding Neverland was at the top of everyone’s list.
I’m so glad I went. The 20 or so in our group walked away raving about it. And we were all shocked that Finding Neverland didn’t get a single Tony nomination, because it was fabulous. It did win several audience choice awards from Broadway.com, including favorite new musical, favorite leading actor, favorite onstage pair and favorite new song. Continue reading “Review: Finding Neverland – is Finding Neverland Appropriate for Kids?”
Hand to God was one f-ed up bizarre play. Yet it was hilarious. This is not a show for children (please, please don’t bring your kids, not even your teens). In fact, I’d say this is not a show for many adults. It’s truly disturbing, and I say that even though I enjoyed it.
In a nutshell, this is a show about mother and son grieving the loss of their husband and dad, trying to get through the process partly by working on a church hand puppet show (“Christketeers”). While doing so, the teen son’s puppet (or is it the teen?) becomes possessed by the devil (or not). And the mom isn’t doing so well either. And herein lies the tension…and the jokes.
The cast of five includes Steven Boyer who plays the grieving teen Jason, and his puppet Tyrone. There were no puppeteering gigs listed in Boyer’s bio. You would never know he wasn’t born doing this. Not only do you forget at many points that there’s only one person playing both roles (even though his mouth moves when the puppet talks), that puppet moved/acted so well that when the puppet came off, I fully expected it to get up and start moving and talking some more. Continue reading “Review: Hand to God – is Hand to God Appropriate for Kids?”
You don’t have to be a Broadway junkie or know Shakespeare’s plays by heart to enjoy Something Rotten, but you’ll get more out of it if you do.
Is Something Rotten appropriate for kids? More on that later. First, a little background. This musical comedy is based in the Renaissance, where one of Shakespeare’s playwriting contemporaries is trying to come up a show that will make him famous and well paid. With the help of a “friend” he creates the world’s first musical. Hilarity ensues.
Actually hilarity runs throughout the entire production. Continue reading “Review: Something Rotten – appropriate for kids?”