Ticket Giveaway: Easter Eggstravaganza at Irvine Park Railroad (3/14-4/4)

We are thrilled to be invited back to a media preview of Irvine Park Railroad's Easter Eggstravaganza! Starting on March 14th, the Easter Bunny will be at the Irvine Regional Park in Orange, CA to celebrate the season with daily Easter egg hunts, hay rides, carnival games, and more! Bring Easter baskets!

TECH Review: iClever Portable Bluetooth Wireless Speaker IC-BTS02

We've been testing this iClever Portable Bluetooth Wireless Speaker over this past week, and have been highly impressed. It's a good quality wireless speaker! Not only is it stylish, it sounds good, it's compact, and it has about 8-12 hours of playtime with its built-in rechargeable battery. If you like to talk hands-free on your mobile, you'll love the speaker phone feature!

Music on the go!

If you like to listen to portable music, travel light and bring this instead of a heavy boombox or radio, because it weighs about 12 ounces! Going to the park or beach? Toss it in your bag, and free up an arm to carry other things. There are control buttons on the bottom of the speaker (power, rewind, skip, play). It also comes with a 3.5mm audio port for non-Bluetooth devices.

How to Ride FREE on Your Birthday on the Catalina Express | Birthday Offerings on the Island!

Are you looking for last minute travel deals for your birthday? Did you know that you can ride for FREE on your birthday to Avalon, California? Due to overwhelming popularity, the Catalina Express is once again offering FREE Ride on Your Birthday now through December 31, 2015!

Family Dining at Johnny Rockets! | #JohnnyRockets #Giveaway

Do you like good old-fashioned styled burger joints that remind you of Route 66 with jukeboxes and hand-spun ice cream shakes? Every once in a while we like to reward our kids for good behavior by taking them somewhere fun for the whole family. This time we took the family to sample the Johnny Rockets menu.

Ticket Discount: Marvel Universe LIVE! | @HondaCenter @CBBankArena @TheForum @MarvelOnTour #MarvelUniverseLive

Marvel fans, watch your favorite Marvel Super Heroes come to life in an action-packed arena extravaganza in Marvel Universe LIVE! The Marvel experience debuts in Southern California starting March 26th!  We have a ticket discount offer below!

 

With nearly two years in the making, Marvel Universe LIVE! brings cutting-edge special effects, pyrotechnics, aerial stunts, martial arts, motorcycles, and stunning video projections to the arena. It is being hailed as the most technically advanced and innovative live touring shows in the 40+ years history of Feld Entertainment! You'll see more than 25 Marvel icons together including Spider-Man, The Avengers (Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hulk and more) plus Villains.

ABT’s THE SLEEPING BEAUTY | @SegerstromArts Mar. 3 - 8 #ABTSleepingBeauty

The American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is returning to Orange County with the World Premiere of the classic ballet performance of The Sleeping Beauty March 3rd - March 8th at Segerstrom Center! (This will be ABT's 23rd visit to the Center, the Company’s fourth production of the ballet, and Ratmansky’s eleventh work for ABT.)

Segerstrom Center - Hee Seo as Princess Aurora in American Ballet Theatre's The Sleeping Beauty
Photo by Fabrizio Ferri

FREE: Kids Fishing Derby at Mile Square Park in Foutain Valley Sat. 3/21st!

Have you taken the kids fishing? Not sure if they will love it? Well, take the family and try it for FREE at the annual Kids' Fishing Derby at Mile Square Regional Park on March 21st! They supply everything (the poles, bait, and fishing tips!) Thanks to OC Parks, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Angler Chronicles, kids ages 6 to 15 can learn all about fishing, fish for free, and compete to win multiple prizes for finalists and champions in different age groups. North Lake will be stocked with trout and catfish just for the derby!

Girl Scouts of Orange County Partners with OC Restaurant Week | @GirlScoutsOC #OCRW2015

Those addictive Girl Scout Cookies are everywhere right now through March 8th. New this year is a gluten-free (GF) cookie, Gluten Free Trios, which is a chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookie. We received samples and our kids gobbled them up! This year Girl Scouts of Orange County again partnered up with OC Restaurant Week where select restaurants will feature special Girl Scout Cookies inspired desserts during OC Restaurant Week (March 1-7)!

Photo Courtesy of Girl Scouts of Orange County.

Tips for the Family at Dana Wharf Whale Watching in Dana Point

Last weekend, we had a "whale of a time" with Dana Wharf Whale Watching from Dana Point, California. Our family was invited to join an excursion and share our experience. Whale Watching is year-round and fun for the whole family! Right now there are Gray Whale migration in the winter, and in the summer there are Blue Whales. Although we never know what we will encounter on the waters, there's always an adventure that's waiting to be explored.

TECH DEALS: T-Mobile's Simply Prepaid™ Plan | Samsung Galaxy Avant | #ChangingPrepaid #ad

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ChangingPrepaid #CollectiveBias 

Looking for the perfect Valentine's Day gift? Maybe someone you love needs a new cellular phone so you can stay connected, but you're not sure if it's affordable, and signing up for a new contract is scary and stressful. Maybe it's because you don't know if you're making the right decision so you don't want to commit - I get it.

Well, stress no further - introducing the Simply Prepaid™ from T-Mobile. No longer do you have to settle for subpar and slow data when considering prepaid plans, because for just $40 a month, you'll get unlimited talk, text, and 4G LTE data (with a max speed of 8 Mbps) on the T-Mobile Network!

DVD Giveaway: Strawberry Shortcake - Snowberry Days! #SnowberryDays

It's Strawberry Shortcake's 35th Anniversary! Just in time for their anniversary and as a Fox Home Ent Insider, we received a DVD copy of Strawberry Shortcake Snowberry Days, and a bonus copy to give away to one lucky reader!


Episodes in Snowberry Days include:

• In "The Berry Long Winter," playtime is interrupted when the squirrels are low on supplies.
• Blueberry’s success with her specially designed ice skates have the other girls feeling left out in"The Big Freeze."
• Raspberry’s spring fashion show plans are put “On Ice” when an out-of-control fountain covers the catwalk.

Special DVD features include:

• Printable Coloring Pages and Activity Sheet
• Berry Bitty Adventures Sing-A-Long

Highlights: Tango Buenos Aires' Performance of Song of Eva Perón at Segerstrom Center #SCFTA

Segerstrom Center for the Arts hosted Tango Buenos Aires on the weekend of January 17-18. Their performance this year was based on the amazing story of a great Argentinian woman: Eva Peron. "Song of Eva Peron" will be forever engraved in my mind, as one of the most spectacular Tango performance I have ever seen!
 

Segerstrom Center - Tango Buenos Aires Photo by Lucrecia Laurel
Courtesy of CAMI

Tango Buenos Aires took us on a journey from the humble beginnings of Eva's life, through her discovery among the crowds of Buenos Aires and to her glorious days as First Lady of Argentina all in very smooth transitions. Each stage of Eva's life was represented by a different dancer while each and every one of them accentuated different characteristics of the amazing Eva. It was very exciting to see how they painted through their movement the life of this dame. The male dancers were also spectacular, and they had such great coordination as they portrayed the typical Argentinian gaucho with their "boleadores". Their power and strength tied this performance and made it absolutely unforgettable.

Ladies' Movie Night-In with Teavana and THE BEST OF ME Movie | #TheBestofTea #BestofMeInsiders

The girls and I love tea parties. There's something special about catching up over yummy tea sandwiches, pastries, and hot tea. It can be as fancy and girlie as we want, or it can also be comfortable and casual. As a Fox Home Ent Insider, we received a fun Valentine's package to help us this time which included "The Best of Me" in Blu-ray, a Teavana Perfectea Maker, Teavana's limited edition "First Blush Tea", a tin of Rock Sugar, themed mason jar mugs, and candles. 

Sample Tea Party Menu

We served a simple menu which included a variety of tea sandwiches (cucumber, chicken salad, egg salad), and heart shaped cookies. Note: Cucumber Sandwiches is one of the easiest sandwiches you can make. I only used 4 ingredients (cucumber, butter, sliced bread, and a dash of salt). The hardest part was cutting off the crust - so easy!


RELATED: Movie Giveaway: THE BEST OF ME in Blu-ray/Digital HD! 

Cool Finds Inside New Orlean's Audubon Aquarium of the Americas #TT

We love aquariums! They're not only educational, but observing sea creatures are just fascinating. You would think all aquariums are the same, but they all have animals unique to their local regions that we like to explore. Which is why we reached out for tickets to review the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, Louisiana. Highlights include animals from Louisiana's fishing industry, the white alligator in the Mississippi River Gallery, and a giant shark tank at the Gulf of Mexico Exhibit.

DATE NIGHT: Dirty Dancing Musical @SegerstromArts | #DirtyDancingTour #SCFTA

Romance is in the air this month, and if you're looking for something sexy to get your love juices flowing, take your date to Dirty Dancing now showing at Segerstrom Center for the Arts!

It was the perfect setting for an early Valentine's Day Celebration as we had reservations for a nice dinner before the media preview of the performance. (Disclosure: Dirty Dancing is one of my favorite movies!) We were all in for the time of our lives as the show takes us down memory lane with familiar tunes, erotic dancing, when Baby (Jillian Mueller) and Johnny (Samuel Pergande) fall in love, and well you know the rest.

Family Dining: The Great Tater Creator at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour | #TaterCreator @FarrellsIsBack

This past week we took the family to Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour Restaurant to sample their new Great Tater Creator menu. Now with over 2,000 combinations, you can upgrade your side of fries and have tasty taters your way (the way you like them.) Here's how it works...

TECH REVIEW: iClever 6-Port USB Travel Wall Charger | @Hisgadget

Disclosure: We received a test product.

One of our biggest frustrations when we travel as a family is having to pack the wall chargers for our electronic devices. Do we pack all of them or do we share and take turns? What happens when they're all low in battery, which one do we charge first? Eventually we all start fighting over the outlets and chargers adding unnecessary stress to our travel. (Usually whomever has more battery life goes last.)

Need a simple solution? 
iClever makes a 6-port USB Travel Wall Charger. Yes, 6! Now you can charge up to six devices at the same time - just bring the charging cables! BRILLIANT!

Movie Giveaway: THE BEST OF ME in Blu-ray/Digital HD! | #BestOfMeInsiders

Based on the #1 New York Times Best Seller from Nicholas Sparks, The Best of Me is a romantic story about two former high school sweethearts who gets a second chance after being apart for over 20 years.  As a member of Fox Home Ent Insiders, we received a Blu-ray copy to review and one to give away to one lucky reader! Enter below!

 

Available February 3rd!