Tanglewood Marionettes – Review

Tanglewood Marionettes

So these guys, based in Ware, MA and do shows all over the state and further a field.

I most recently saw the “The Fairy Circus” performance which was held at the Strawberry Festival in Concord, MA.

I have seen them perform else where, with other shows, but this one in particular I thought was most appropriate for little toddlers and a mix range of kids. It was a lovely performance, with music and very laid back with a nice little bit of audience participation.

The performer really knew how to engage the kids as well as the parents and handled the crowd really nicely, especially when kids where getting a little too close to the stage.

After the show, the children were allowed to get a close up look of the puppets and touch them which was really nice, as they were lovely.

They have a pretty good list of free, public performances listed for the summer on their website, which if you get the chance, you should definitely check out with your family!

Ben Rudnick and Friends – Review

Ben Rudnick and Friends, the group who played at the Strawberry Festival in Concord.

A very fun, family friendly and quirky little band with easy going music, a combination of blue grass and rock in their own original musings.

These guys seem to play all over the state and further out, but pretty much all are free concerts such as town summer green concerts, or fairs etc.

They played 3 sets of around 40 mins a piece with great music that the kids could dance around to, which was a lot of fun to see.

You have the opportunity of getting free music if you sign up to their newsletter, but also check out the samples they have of all their CD’s.

At the end of each set, you could hang around and have a chat with the band and get the chance to buy their wares, which included CD’s, fun tie dye t-shirts and a collection of other small things, but they really didn’t put up a hard sell at all which was rather refreshing.

For a line up of coming soon events, which is listed on their site, include:-

July 11 – West Bridgewater, MA
July 12 – Newton, MA
July 13 – Boarding House Park, Lowell, MA
July 14 – North Kingston, RI
July 15 – Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Oak Hill, NY
July 19 – Revere, MA
July 20 – Candia, NH
July 21 – Medford, MA
July 22 – Lexington, MA

So for those in Boston, there’s Newton and later in the summer, Natick as well as a host of other venues you could catch these guys. Well worth keeping an eye out for!

Strawberry Fest Review

Strawberry Festival

As mentioned last week, this happened last Saturday.

It’s definitely a great event to be marked into your calendar for next year as it was a lovely, family event.

The strawberries were superb and the pick your own plentiful, as well as being very well priced at $3 a pound.

The farm also had a lovely marketstand type store where you could buy locally grown fruit and veg, which seemed to be very well priced as well. Plenty of lovely looking home made lunches boxes were available as well.

Because of the rain this time around, I don’t think they had the pony rides which was a shame, but they did move the music and puppet shows into the greenhouse and there was plenty of room to enjoy them.

The one main consideration I think would be to arrive early, because even with the heavy morning rain, which had cleared out by the time this started at 11am, the place did get very busy by the time we arrived at lunchtime. There was quite a lot of parking available, but it was still a bit of a struggle to find a spot.

There also might be a bit of a struggle to use a pushchair if you had to as there might not much space to move it around easily when the shows get going and it’s certainly very grassy outside.

The toilets inside were also very nice and clean and they had ample portaloos outside as well.

I’ll get around to writing a review for the music and the puppet shows, which were both fantastic entertainment for everyone.

Free Fun Fridays – Family Events!!!

Highland Street have organised a Free Fun Friday for the summer, starting in July going through to the end of August.

Details of the events are here.

Basically, every Friday, there are a bundle of museums, art exhibits, zoo’s and other children’s activities that will be free. There’s no registration, no need to be residents of the state or county, so a great way to have fun with the family and especially if you’ve got guests from out of state coming for the weekend.

Some of the personal highlights over the Fridays include :
BUTTONWOOD PARK ZOO
425 Hawthorn Street – New Bedford

137 Warren Ave – Plymouth


THE DISCOVERY MUSEUMS
177 Main Street – Acton

FRANKLIN PARK ZOO
1 Franklin Park Rd – Dorchester

BOSTON CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
308 Congress St – Boston

STONE ZOO
149 Pond Street – Stoneham

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM IN EASTON
9 Sullivan Avenue – Easton

OLD STURBRIDGE VILLAGE
1 Old Sturbridge Village Road – Sturbridge

ECOTARIUM
222 Harrington Way – Worcester

What’s nice about this, they are dotted all over the state of MA, so everyone should have the opportunity of finding something nearby as well as a few other fun day trips such as the Boston Harbour Ferries.

Brit and other bargain goodies

So at the moment, The Christmas Tree shop has been carrying crates and crates, in loads of locations of Robinson’s Barley Water, both in lemon and orange flavours for $1 each instead of the going $7.50 a bottle.

They also had sun factor 50 sun screen, especially childrens sun screen for $3 which normally go for $8-9 in Target.
Then head over to Ocean State Job Lots, they had chocolate digestives and hob nobs for $2 each and also a 2 for 1 deal on Terry’s Chocolate Oranges, which were $3 each, which is a bargain.

Family Fun – Strawberry Festival

>Verrill Farm in Concord, MA

25th June, 11am-3pm
Strawberry Festival, including ponies, hay rides, muppet shows, live music and a strawberry dessert competition.
Could be a lot of family fun for free.

Boston Pride Parade

>The whole gay pride celebrations are ending today, 12th Sunday, but the parties have been going on through out the week and the big parade starting out on Tremont St, going past Boston Common and ending behind Faneuil Hall was yesterday.

What a great family day out, even if the weather was poo and it rained like crazy.
It was a great chance for kids to see a lot of diversity which they might not be accustomed to seeing with a lot of fun and friendly people. The atmosphere was great and really up lifting and the floats and people in the parade were great, having various organisations taking part from various religious and charity groups, various banks, Zip Car, Google Android, the works.
Plenty of free swag for people being handed out as well, must of which was very family friendly, beads, bracelets, sweets, keychains, balls etc. There was only one float handing out stuff that you might not want your little kids to get, packets of condoms, but as ZipCar had decorated their car with condom balloons, you might not have minded.
What a great party festival feel and a great day out with the kids. Would definitely recommend going again, or taking part if you can!

Pampers v Huggies Pull Up Nappy Review

Starting to potty train?

A look at a couple of the training pants, the Pull Ups.
Pampers v Huggies As the main two contenders, this is what I’ve found from using both for a while each.
Pampers – What I liked about these, they had plenty of blue “wet” indicators on the front of them and also they were slightly more roomy, so easier to actually pull up like a pair of pants. That was it and both of those had flaws to them.
The blue wet patch indicators never actually disappeared to show the nappy was wet, which they were supposed to do. Being a bit more roomy meant that the pants came off with the trousers very easily, which is not what you want if you’ve got a poop to deal with.
The biggest problem with Pampers though, the tear away sides didn’t have a velcro like fixer to them, so if you had to change them in public it became a major hassle as you’d have to take the shoes and trousers off, you couldn’t simply whip on a new pair like a regular nappy.
Huggies – The best thing about these were the velcro like sides, they came apart and stuck back together really firmly, making them very convenient to change when on the go.
Personal preference was the Disney characters as well, though that’s no reflection on the quality of the nappy, but the wet indicators did actually work on these so you wouldn’t find a bowling ball size nappy all of a sudden. These nappies were a little tighter than the Pampers, so were a little tougher for the little one to pull them up on her own, but it did mean they stayed up when you pulled the trousers down which was nice.
Over all, having loved Pampers for nappies in general and not liking Huggies, Huggies were the big winner this time, being much better product. The major flaw to both of them though, as they aren’t nappies, they don’t have proper side stickies to wrap the nappy up in case of a smelly poo disposal, which isn’t quite so fun and also the gussets aren’t quite as large as in regular nappies so they might spill a bit of baggage if the kid is moving around vigorously with a large load in their pants. You also do not get as many in a packet as you do for regular nappies, about 60 for $20.
Because of that I really do think they are a waste of time to use when your toddler is first starting out on the path to potty training and you might as well stick to regular nappies until they are well on their way to being able to use the potty or the toilet because once they start on these they probably won’t want to go back to nappies either.

Toddler Birthday Party at the "My Gym"

My Gym

This is a nationwide kids gym franchise aimed at 6 weeks to 13 years of age.
They offer a whole range of activities for kids, from arts and crafts, to sporting activities and general play.
Membership can be a little expensive, so that’s up to you, but the party service they offer was superb. We were invited to a friends toddler party, for mostly 2-3 year olds.
The whole party went really smoothly, from story time to running around using various equipment such as a ball filled pit, to jumping around various padded blocks, to swinging around on huge rocket shaped swings. The activities were great fun and even though the whole thing was very laid back, it was nicely structured, to get the kids doing something different very quickly leading up to singing before the cake, which they were great about preparing and serving. A great couple of hours entertainment for a huge number of kids.

Things to Do – The Ecotarium

The Ecotarium out in Worcester, MA

It’s a great day out for kids, especially those 2-8 as they have a lot of activities for the kids to play around with, water toys, mini wind tunnels, music and light toys.
More than that, a collection of live animals, great collection of turtles, frogs and birds.
On a good day, they have lots of trails outside which are lovely too, nice short walks around a pond, with places to observe the water life and bird life, those some of these paths aren’t very easy to get around with a push chair while others were. The kids playground is also very nice and spacious.
Some of the attractions were closed such as the walking tree canopy, which I could see being fun in the summer, and also the polar bear wasn’t on display. The train ride is though and that is very cool, but it is a shame that some of these attractions cost extra.
One big tip, get a library pass to this place, entrance is then only $5 for adults and kids under 3 are free and older kids are $3 instead of being $12 for adults and $8 for kids.