Monster Jam roared into Foxboro and brought fun and energy to Gillette Stadium

On Saturday, June 4, we went to Monster Jam in Foxboro at Gillette Stadium with our friends and we had an absolute blast! Before every Monster Jam show you have the chance to buy additional passes for the Pit Party and we wanted to have the up close experience for the kids to see the big trucks and tires that were almost as big as me!

It was a nice day so we brought some food to tailgate with the boys before the show and gates opened two hours prior to showtime - we went in with an hour to go and it was more than enough time to get to our seats and be ready!

If you go, be sure to bring hearing protection - the monster trucks can get LOUD! We wore hearing protection for us and the kids too!

Here is my friend's recap, for a different take on things than I usually give:

My 2 boys (ages 7 and 4) absolutely loved Monster Jam. After enjoying their first tailgate in the parking lot, the Pit Party was a great opportunity for them to get up close and personal with the trucks and their drivers. Then the show itself was a blast and they could not get enough of the non-stop action and music. 

Entering the night, Grave Digger was the household favorite but Zombie stole the show with its stunts and the crowd going wild whenever it’s music (Thriller) was played. The next morning my youngest asked me when the Monster Trucks would be back  and we’ve been watching videos all week on YouTube. Safe to say we’ll be back next year!

NOTE: We were provided with tickets for show in order to facilitate this review. All opinions are our own and no other compensation was provided.

Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live is at Gillette Stadium now through April 18

Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live is at Gillette Stadium now through April 18 and we had the chance to tour it. This one-of-a-kind journey lets you drive up close to Monster Trucks and Hot Wheels cars. that are larger than life. We were given four (4!) tickets to giveaway to our readers so be sure to read the whole article to get to the entry form - we will be choosing four different winners.

We drove up to the parking lots across from Gillette Stadium in Foxboro and were directed to open the audio tour recording as we drove into the exhibit. We pulled over to the side and opened the website and listened to the tour on our car stereo.

The kids enjoyed driving past the huge Hot Wheels Monster Trucks and enjoyed playing with the cars that we received when we drove in. Every ticket purchased lets one carload of people in and they give each car three Hot Wheels cars for the entire car to enjoy. If you are looking to get additional merchandise to complement the tour, you can buy merchandise bundles called the Hot Wheels Merch Bundle or the Bigfoot Bundle. You must purchase your merchandise bundle prior to your arrival. 

The tour is open Thursday through Sunday with the last car admitted at 6pm, which gives some really great views as the sun starts to set. We absolutely loved it and have a few tips to offer our readers:

• be sure to charge your phones since you'll want to take pictures and also listen to the tour
• bring snacks and toys to occupy the little ones in case they lose interest - there is food available but must be purchased ahead of time when you purchase your ticket
• be prepared to drive slowly and have it take a half hour to 45 minutes to go through the entire tour
• while there are restrooms 3/4 of the way through the event, it's a good idea to use the facilities before you leave your house!
• No part of the experience requires you to exit your vehicle. You must stay in your vehicle during the entire drive-thru. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NOTE: We were provided tickets and merchandise so we could go through the event to facilitate this review. No other compensation was provided and all opinions are our own.

Dinosaurs have arrived in Foxboro through September 27th!

Just in time for the 2020 season, dinosaurs have arrived at Gillette Stadium, the home of the 6x World Champion New England Patriots! 

The Jurassic Quest tour is here now through September 27th, featuring over 70 moving and life-like dinosaurs, as well as our 50 foot-long Megalodon that you can see all from the comfort of your car as you drive through the exhibit! If you're looking for something different to do this weekend, this is it.

We arrived around 6:30 pm as our tickets were good for any arrival between 6 and 7 pm and we pulled into the large parking lot off of Route 1 and were directed to the start of the exhibit. After checking in we downloaded the audio tour on our mobile device and started playing it through the car stereo. There were lots of cars ahead of us and it moved quite slowly, so it was great that we packed snacks as it took us around 10 minutes to get to the start of the exhibit.

For $49 per vehicle (up to 8 people and less than 10 feet tall and 25 feet long), your dino-adventure-seeking crew can enjoy about an hour-long ride back in time. Although we saw kids standing through the sunroof of cars, sitting on the roots and hanging out the windows - we decided to play it a little safer and checked out the dinosaurs through open windows.

One thing that was neat was the size of these animals in real life compared to things like our cars, rather than just reading about them in a text book or online.

At the end of the tour you can take a picture of the whole family inside the car, with a dinosaur in the background - by the time we took our picture it was so dark outside you could see us thanks to the flash photography but the dinosaur wasn't really in the photo... oh well!

Event: Jurassic Quest 

Place: Gillette Stadium (1 Patriot Pl, Foxborough, MA 02035) 

Date: Through September 27, 2020 (Closed Monday & Tuesday) 

Hours: 9 am - 8 pm daily 

Admission: Tickets available online at https://www.jurassicquest.com/events/drive-thru-boston

Cost for entry: $49 per vehicle.

NOTE: We were provided with passes to check out this awesome exhibit and be able to tell you all about it. No other compensation was provided. As always, all opinions are our own.

Splitsville: a great place for a bowling birthday party with nothing to spare!

If you are looking for a fun place to have a kids birthday party then look no further than Splitsville at Patriot Place. They have two different packages available where you can rent two or three lanes depending on the size of the party, and the party package comes with pizza, chicken tenders, and all you can drink soft-drinks (soda, lemonade and iced tea). The nice part about the party package is that you just have to show up a little bit early, and hand off the cake to your server who will handle everything. Our server was a very nice woman named Emily who ensured that everything went off perfectly.

A lot of people were invited and we ended up having the larger party, so there were 8 kids per lane and we took up three lanes easily. It was easy to get the shoe rentals and they had the balls right at the lanes. We had to look around for the smaller sized balls for the younger kids, and Emily was a great help. We made sure to use the gutter blockers and they even had a special contraption for the youngest kids to roll the ball down a ramp so they didn’t have to throw it with momentum. If you’re looking to keep score, and even if you’re not, you need to set up the computer so that you can play. We found that you needed an adult should be present to enter it in and having multiple tech-savvy adults made it a lot easier. If you need assistance the staff is easily accessible and very helpful. Our waitress was great because she brought everything perfectly timed and even helped us round up all of the presents after the meal was over.

The tables with booths are set up right near the lanes so that you can eat while bowling and there are other round tables behind the lanes that adults can sit at to watch the kids bowl. What was nice was that you could start bowling and then have the food come out whenever you want. We chose to have it arrive half-way through the party. My wife ensured that the kids had many activities to keep them busy if some weren’t interested in bowling. The best activity enjoyed by all was a little game of birthday-kid-trivia which were some cute questions about the birthday kid’s favorite items that some classmates might know and some friends would know other answers. The one with the most answers won! We also brought some coloring sheets along just in case some kids didn’t want to bowl.

A few things to note, there is an additional gratuity fee ($20 per lane, or 21% of the food & beverage bill, whichever is greater, at the time of this post) since your server is dedicated to your lanes and party. They will help serve the food that is pre-ordered & included in your package or help you order more food from the lane-side menu-if need be! The server will also help serve drinks, for kids & parents. They have all the utensils for the cake and do not charge an additional cake cutting fee! They also have serving utensils, forks, knives, plates & napkins. There are balloon decorations, but you can bring in any other items or goodie bags if you'd like.  One last thing, you also have to sign a contract to save the party date/time and they ask to have a credit card on file that will be charged in full the day of the event.

We highly recommend Splitsville for your kid’s birthday party. A great time was had by all!

NOTE: We were provided with the party package in exchange for writing this review. All opinions, as always, are our own. No other compensation was provided.

New England Revolution “Family Four Packs” Special Offer

The New England Revolution, the major league soccer team in Massachusetts, is offering “Family Four Packs” for two remaining games this summer that include tickets to the game and meal vouchers for the family. If your family is larger than four, there is also an option to add additional tickets. Family Four Packs start at just $88 for a night of family fun.

These packs are available for the following games:

• August 13 vs. Philadelphia Union (Mascot night)
• September 3 vs. Colorado Rapids (Fireworks night)

Here’s how you can find the offer to purchase a New England Revolution Family Four Pack:

1. Visit the ticket page at http://www.revolutionsoccer.net/tickets
2. Select “Single Game Tickets”
3. Choose your game – 8/13 or 9/3
4. Click “Special Offers” & select “Me + 3 Pack Offer”
5. Choose your seats

NOTE: We are just providing this for information purposes only to our readers. No compensation was provided.

Finish at the 50 and save $5 before 6/3.

I'm going to be participating in the Finish at the 50 again this year and am really looking forward to it! This annual 5 and 10k race and kids fun run is held at Gillette Stadium at Patriot Place in Foxboro, MA on July 3rd in the afternoon/evening with fireworks to follow. The keystone of the race is that you get to finish at the 50 yard line of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots and New England Revolution.

If you're interested in running, the great folks at Patriot Place have given us a code PARENTALRUNNER that you can use for $5 off an adult entry to either the 5k or 10k race. Act quick because this code expires on Friday 6/3.

NOTE: I was provided with a comp bib for the race in exchange for the pre-publicity as well as a post-race followup post. All opinions are my own.

A fun Saturday in Foxboro and Sharon

We had a fun Saturday in Foxboro and Sharon today! We went to the second to last stop on the Life is Good #GrowTheGood tour and had a great time playing outside at Patriot Place with life-size jenga pieces, corn hole games and frisbee. They even had an airstream bus on site which was retrofitted to have fun Life is Good products in it. We got to toss around a huge Life is Good beach ball.

Emily and I have been HUGE fans of the guys from Life is Good for the past 15 years… We’re volunteered at their summer festivals, backyard athlete games, seed spitting contests, pumpkin festivals, days at Fenway and other events. We were fortunate enough to be asked to be team leaders for various festivals and one of the most memorable was in 2009 on the Boston Common where we led a team of volunteers which consisted of many art tiles that were put together to make one big mural. It was called the Art for All Mural and there was a picture of it in the Life is Good store on Newbury street for the longest time…  We were really excited to find out that the same picture is printed on page 199 of Bert and John Jacobs new book, “Life is Good: The Book”.

The coolest part of the day was when we got to meet one of the co-founders of Life is Good, John Jacobs. He was so cool, easy to talk to, down to earth and such a nice guy. We briefly talked about the festivals and he was so thankful that we volunteered. We were so thankful that he created the company! We LOVE Life is Good - okay, have we said that enough? ;) Another neat thing was that he was there with his sister, Berta, who was equally nice and is also featured in the book.

We can’t wait to read it! Thanks guys! One other thing about the Life is Good store in Foxboro - it used to just feature Life is Good products, but now it features a whole host of other cool items that I find really align with how we are trying to live life… Mindfulness, Fun, Music, Art, etc. We hope to feature some of these neat things in the future!

when we got home we had to quickly bundle up and head back out because it was time for us to go to the last event of our town’s 250th anniversary celebration. They had the biggest bonfire we have ever seen and it was really warm and bright! We tried to capture it on video for your enjoyment! It was sponsored by Crescent Ridge Dairy which is the local ice cream place here in Sharon and they even had free samples! We were all over that and it was absolutely delicious! Crescent Ridge is listed as one of the Top 10 ice cream places in the world and it’s tops in our hearts!

NOTE: We were given copies of the new Life is Good book as we were one of the first 25 people to visit their table and meet John Jacobs. We were not provided wth anything in exchange for writing this review. We just love Life is Good so much that we wanted to write about our experience. All opinions are our own.

Foxboro 5k recap

On October 4, Emily and I participated in the Foxboro 5k which benefitted the Hockomock YMCA in Foxboro. This was a great run that was preceded by a kids Fun Run in the morning. Preregistration was a breeze as it was all handled online. We got a really nice tech-dry-fit shirt that was included with registration (the kids got a kids t-shirt). We received email notifications telling us the details and the folks at the Y were great to deal with! They had an inspiration station where you could decorate signs to hold up as your friends were running by.

The kids race was at 9 am and Lily had a great time. The 1 mile course was around the grounds of the Y and in the parking lot so we didn’t need to be concerned that the kids were running in the street. Additionally, Foxboro Police were stationed at the main crossroads at Mechanic Street and had closed off traffic so we didn’t need to worry about any cars zipping by.

The adult 5k started at 10 am and Emily and I actually ran for the entire first mile of the 5k. This was a personal record for us. Then we kept walking/running for the rest of the it and there were really nice volunteers at Y staff that directed us at each turn. This was SUPER helpful because for all of the other 5k’s that we have done this year, while there have been people directing runners, there have certainly been times when we have been wondering whether or not we were going in the right direction. With the Foxboro 5k these guys had thought of everything and we knew that we were going the right way. Also at each mile, they had someone with a stop watch who was telling us exactly what our time was. I thought that was also super helpful and encouraging!

When we finished we got Finishers Medals which was nice so that we could add them to our collection! The kids also got a finisher medal which Lily really enjoyed…

After the race, there were some snacks that we got and the nice people at Peapod/Stop and Shop had tons of water to give out so we stocked up! We also got a massage from the great people at Tiger Lilly spa in Foxboro. There were some bouncy houses for the kids and huge bubbles so they could play around with them. I also got some stretching technique hints from the people at Baystate Physical Therapy which was cool because I didn’t know the proper way to stretch before/after a run. They also gave some t-shirts and towels as cool swag.

Overall, the race was a huge success and we look forward to running next year!

NOTE: We were provided bibs to run the 5k and kids fun run. There was no promise made of a positive review. All opinions are our own.