Celebrate with Medieval Times in Scottsdale,AZ!

My daughters birthday falls just six days after Christmas and my son's birthday is in January, which means they get a few days spread out over a month period where they get to open a few presents! This year we wanted to do something a little extra so we decided to head out and check out the new Medieval Times in Scottsdale to celebrate the kids birthdays a little early. We've been to the one in Anaheim so when we told the kids we were going to the one that just opened here they were beyond excited and couldn't wait to go.

Pulling up we thought the new castle looked wonderful, they had bridges to cross over into the castle and an outside stable. The castle in Anaheim has an outdoor area where you stand in line to get tickets, get your tickets scanned, etc before entering into a welcoming building where you get your seating assigned and get to take photos. The Scottsdale castle has an indoor reception area that reminded us a bit of a hotel entrance, the lines are nice and organized and the staff at the desk give you where you'll be sitting right at check in. You receive your areas colored crown and are then able to take a group photo in front of a green screen if you choose to do so.

How is the inside of the Castle grounds and how does it compare to the castle in Anaheim? If you've been to the castle in Anaheim you'll notice quite a few differences, the first being that there is no court yard to stroll/sit in and the inside seating and shopping is much more limited, I was also sad to see there was no in door viewing area to see the horses. However I do really like that they updated the area where the Queen comes out to sit and interact with guests, and that the announcer has his own balcony which makes him easier to spot and hear when he is directing guests into the main tournament hall. Everything ran smoothly getting into the hall and getting seated at our tables. We got lucky and I think our row was missing a seat so we were able to scoot down a little so we weren't elbow to elbow with the people next to us.

Before we entered into the show I had my husband take the kids to look at the gift shop while I went over to the announcement table to purchase an announcement which the Queen reads during the show as a surprise for the kids! For $10 you can get a short personal announcement and a scroll with the occasion/name to take home, they also have other package options available that come with a gift, etc. (the scroll is delivered at the end of the tournament). The kids were so excited when the queen wished them a Happy Birthday!

How does dinner work? As you can imagine they didn't have the wide assortment of eating utensils we do now during the Medieval times so you eat with your hands! All foods are finger food friendly, and you are provided with a napkin and a wet wipe (they bring out another towards the end of dinner). Each row in the different sections has it's own server to help make everything run smoothly, drinks are served first followed by soup and garlic bread. After the servers are part of the show for a moment then they come back and start serving roasted chicken, corn on the cob, and roasted potatoes. All of the food is pretty delicious and they serve you quite a bit so you are sure to be full by the end of your meal. Afterwards you'll be served which ever dessert they have for the night, we had ice cream. Your server will come by again during dinner to see if you need a drink re-fill and they will come by during dessert to see if any of the adults want coffee.

Did our Knight win? Sadly not this time, perhaps next time! But the show was a lot of fun to watch and it is always fun to participate in cheering for your Knight and booing your opponents. After the show is over the Knights come out to take photos with the crowd. I also loved that before the show started the falconer and his Falcon were out in the hall taking photos with people. The show last for two hours, which is a steal seeing as the price of $45.95 per Adult & $35.95 per child is for the price of a four course meal and a two hour show. For a limited time you can save 40% on Adult tickets and 20% on kids tickets by using code USF4020 at checkout. You can also register to WIN 4 free tickets to a show of your choice (at any of their castles) by clicking HERE.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Medieval Times for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

December Gramma In A Box!

I didn't tell my kids that we were going to be getting the December Gramma In A Box, instead I waiting until it arrived and put it on the counter until my kids arrived home from school. They were so excited when they came home and seen the box sitting on the counter! Sadly we weren't able to get to it right away, my son wasn't feeling the best so we waited several days before we did our treat decorating. This month's theme is something I am sure you can guess, Christmas! As with all of the Gramma In A Box this box came with three different treats to decorate and create.

The box comes with everything you need for the three treats, you will just need a bowl and a fork to heat up the melting chocolate. I love that she also includes wax paper to lay the treats on after they are decorated so the chocolate can re-harden and the treats won't get stuck when you go to take them off. The first treat in the box is Hot coco buddies!

For the hot coco buddies you will need the marshmallows, candy canes, melting chocolate and sprinkles of your choice. After you've melted the chocolate you will need to dip the end of a candy cane in, then gently push it into a marshmallow. Allow the chocolate to harden just enough that you can hold the candy cane by the hook end so that you can dip the marshmallow into the chocolate covering the lower half, before it dies you can add the sprinkles of your choice. We found it was easiest to gently roll the marshmallow in the sprinkles to make sure it was even.

Next up are some pretzel peppermint bites! You'll need the remaining melted chocolate, crushed peppermint and the small chocolate decorating balls. Mix the crushed peppermint in with the remaining chocolate, you can add as much or as little as you want. We added about half of the container to make the peppermint not overwhelming. I really enjoyed these and think they would make a great snack for any holiday party!

Last but not least are the sugar cookies which are included in every box! This is always our favorite part because it is a lot of fun expressing yourself with the decorations provided and the cookies are delicious. The box includes three different frosting colors, the frosting works best if you message the frosting for a few minutes before cutting the tip off to use and you can use any left over sprinkles or decorations in the box.

Want to subscribe and decorate cookies and treats with your own children? You can order a single box or you can pre-order several months at a time, if you subscribe in the auto-debit program which is $20 a month for a box your first box will automatically be discounted to $10. Past treat projects can be seen in the gallery on their website. Your order must be placed by the 3rd of the month in order to receive that month's box.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Gramma In A Box for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Grade school children Holiday books from Candlewick Press!

I recently shared some great holiday themed books that are perfect for toddlers and now I am going to share a few books aimed towards older children including a chapter book. I really enjoyed reading through all three of these with my kids and think they are the perfect books to add to any holiday collection.

Dasher by Matt Tavares (Retail $17.99)

We've all heard the story about Rudolph and how he came to be one of Santa's reindeer pulling his sleigh, but have you heard the stories of the other reindeer? This story is all about Dasher and her adventures. The story starts off a little sad because her family works at the Circus and the circus owner doesn't treat them very well, so Dasher always pictures a better life in a place filled with snow like her mother describes from when she was younger herself.

One night the gate to their pen was left open so Dasher took the chance to run, she follows the brightest star in the sky but starts to get lost until she comes upon a man talking with a horse in the woods. That horses name was Silverbell and the man? It was Santa himself, she offers to help pull the sleigh because she heard Santa ask Silverbell if he wants to rest because the sleigh was heavier than normal. Santa agrees and she helps pull the sleigh delivering all the gifts and Santa takes her back home to the North Pole. She tells Santa her Christmas wish is to be with her family so Santa goes and rescues the rest of her family and brings them to the North Pole as well. I really enjoyed this book, the story was heart warming and it helps put you in the holiday mood.

Little Robin's Christmas by Jan Fearnley (Retail $16.99)

This sweet book showcases the true meaning of Christmas and it was a lovely read. This book is about a little Robin and his warm Christmas sweaters. Little Robin pulls out his favorite seven sweatshirts the week before Christmas and he plans to wear one each day until Christmas. Each day Little Robin excitedly puts on his sweater and he goes out to explore and he unexpectedly runs into an animal in need on each of the seven days. Being the kind Robin that he is, he offers the cold animal he comes across his sweatshirt.

On Christmas Eve he gives away his last sweater but on this particular day he was further away from home than usual so on his way back he ends up becoming quite cold so he stops on a roof to rest and ends up falling asleep. He is awoken by a man's voice and is scooped up by the same man telling him that he is alright and is going to be taken someplace special. Little Robin then finds himself in Santa's home, Santa told him he has showed the true meaning of Christmas and he is very proud of him. Santa warms up the Little Robin and gives him a special gift that Mrs. Clause made for him! A little red sweater made from a red string from Santa's own sweater. He tells Robin that the sweater is magic, it will always keep him warm and will make those who seem him in the sweatshirt feel warm as well. Then Robin is dropped back off at home and he awakes to go out and wish all of his new friends a Merry Christmas.

I really enjoyed this book and it was sweet to see all the different animals the Little Robin helped. Even with some people don't have a whole lot they are the one's who give the most. This is not only a good holiday book but a great lesson to teach children during the holidays.

The First Christmas Sweater (& the sheep who changed everything) by Ryan Tubridy (Retail $14.99)

This book is about a little sheep named Hillary who isn't like the other sheep in her flock. She stands out from the others not only because of her unique personality but because her wool is rainbow in color. She loves everything about Christmas, and she especially loves Santa. She is very excited to learn that Santa is traveling around Ireland looking for a sheep with perfect wool to use for his very own sweatshirt.

She goes on a journey to trying to get Santa's attention and in the end she is successful. It was a great book and is perfect for Grades 2-5th. There were a lot of cute illustrations mixed into each chapter as well to help break things up and keep kids engaged in the book.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Candlewick Press for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Christmas at Schnepf Farms!

The holidays are always a fun time to go out to events with the family to see holiday lights and enjoy holiday festivities. We are lucky and we live near lots of different places that host holiday related events and we were recently invited to check out Christmas at Schnephf Farms located in Queen Creek, Arizona. Looking at the info online it shows the farm has a lot to offer, visits with Santa, cookie decorating, a train ride, bounce houses and more. We live about 45 miles away but it sounded like it would be an event worth driving too.

We were all pretty excited to attend, however I wish we would have gone on a different day than we did as things didn't quite work out as expected. Prior to leaving for the opening night I received an email letting us know that due to the rain storms we had the week prior a few of the attractions weren't going to be open on the night we were going which didn't seem like a big deal. With rush hour traffic it took us about an hour and a half to reach the farm but it wasn't too hard to find and they had a ton of parking available close to the entrance. We arrived about 45 minutes after they opened and were able to find a parking spot in the first row, we were a little surprised more people weren't there. Right away when you arrived the farm is covered in Christmas lights and it is a beautiful sight to see.

I am a blogger and part of what I do is including the good along with the bad (even when I feel bad about it, and don't want to sound like I am whining), our experience had good points and also bad points. When we arrived both girls at the entrance were extremely friendly and welcoming, walking in I was amazed by how many lights were up everywhere it was breathtaking and my eyes didn't know where to look because there were so many lights to see. The kids thought it was very pretty as well. After the long drive my daughter needed to use the bathroom so after taking in the view we set off to find a bathroom, we didn't really see any clear signs pointing to where anything was so I walked up to what I thought was a staff member sitting on a golf cart near guest services to ask where the bathroom was, she told me she wasn't sure but they are normally off to the right so just keep walking until we find it. We went the way we were told and we did find it! I was happy to see that the farm offers a large building for their bathrooms vs port-a-potties. The bathrooms were clean and seemed well taken care of.

Just past the bathrooms is the bounce house area. We got lucky and there was only one other child playing in the bounce houses so our kids pretty much had all three of the bounce houses to themselves. They had a ton of fun running around in all three of the bounce houses, and we liked that each bounce house was different, there was even one that was more suited for toddlers which was nice to see that they were included as well. The grassy area the bounce houses are in is gorgeous, I wish I had grass like that in my backyard!

There were three medium to large bounce houses in a grassy area for the kids to play in and a short distance away is a Huge bounce house obstacle course. I was honestly shocked at how big it was! Depending on the age of your child and how well they do with obstacle courses it will take 5-10 minutes to complete the obstacle course. There was no staff by the three smaller bounce houses but if you need help there were a few staff members near the obstacle course. They were letting in teens and adults as well which is nice because it looks like a lot of fun for all ages, If I hadn't of been a bit chilly I may have ran through with my kids as well.

After spending some time at the bounce houses we decided to go see what else the farm has to offer. They have a train ride that takes you around the farm to see a number of lights they have around the farm, the train is cute and the ride is packed with lights to see. They had a few photo cut outs to take photos with, a few small shops to see including a sweets shop that was packed with delicious goodies, a cookie decorating station where we saw Mrs. Clause helping out children and talking with them. They also had a Hot coco/coffee stand, the night we went was a lot colder than the previous several nights so we decided to get a coco. The line was pretty long and we stood in line for 15-20 minutes, when we got closer to the stand and were second in line we realize there was only one person working inside of the shop, which is no big deal, what was a big deal was seeing the guy taking people's money and credit cards with bare hands and then going over and making hot coco and putting marshmallows in the cup with the same bare hands he was just handling money with, without washing his hands in between! Yuck, so we decided it was a no go on hot coco and got out of line.

After getting out of line the kids wanted to ride on the carousel, the ride went on for a decent amount of time and the kids seemed like they were having a lot of fun. The ride is located conveniently in the middle of everything, with plenty of space for parents to wait for their children without being in the way of people wanting to walk by. We continued on to see the other half of the farm, I really wanted to take the hayride out to see the reindeer they had for everyone to visit but sadly we weren't able to. We went to where the "Hayride" sign was but there were no times posted and no staff near it to ask about how to get onto the hay ride so we ended up skipping it. I was actually kind of surprised there weren't more people both staff and guest wise. We walked around to check out all of the little buildings, Santa's workshop was pretty amazing inside and they have toys/ornaments available to purchase and decorate., they also had food and sweets for sale. We took a few photos with some of the large light displays and then we went home. We spent just over an hour at the farm, we did a few of the activities but it felt like we missed out on a lot for various reasons, we also didn't see any signs saying which of the activities were closed due to the rain. While the experience didn't work out quite how we wanted, my husband and I do want to take the kids back on a weekend when more people are likely to be there to experience the rest of the farm.

Disclaimer- Tickets to the event mentioned above were provided by Schnepf Farms for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Win a Jon Klassen's Hat Box Book Gift Set!

The holidays are coming up quickly, have you gotten all of your holiday shopping done? If not books are always a great option for a gift that is both fun and great for keeping a mind active. Candlewick Press has dozens of amazing books for all ages that are sure to be a big hit.

I have a great giveaway for a book set that will make a wonderful holiday gift. I am giving away TWO gift box sets of Jon Klassen's Hat Box which comes with three books and a collectable print, this gift set retails for $49.99

The books included in this set are "I want my hat back", "This is not my hat" and We found a hat" along with the print seen below in a hard shell case. All three books are hard covers and have beautiful illustrations.

This is open to US Residents! Please remember if you DO NOT leave a comment on this blog post as your mandatory entry into the giveaway then all of your entries will be void. Doing the Daily entries will increase your chance of winning. Winners have 72 hours to respond to the notification email! This giveaway is hosted by ME and is not associated with any of the brands mentioned above.

This giveaway ends on 12/13/2019

Giveaway entry question: Tell me another book that your child loves. 

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Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Candlewick Press for the giveaway free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

December Beauty & The Book Giveaway!

I am pretty excited about this months Beauty and the book giveaway, there are a lot of great products in this months prize box. I almost wanted to keep the eyelash box myself because of how nice the box and the eyelashes are!

It is crazy to think that Christmas is almost here, are you all prepared for the holidays or are you still getting everything ready? I am still getting everything ready myself, but I am not stressed because I know I will get everything done in time. I've been rather busy lately, but I have some exciting reviews and giveaways coming soon that I think you will all enjoy.

For now let's get onto what is all in this goodie box. You'll be receiving a acoustic wave face cleaner, a false eyelash set that includes three different lash thicknesses/lengths and some eyelash glue, a bracelet that says "Love", a face mask, silver glitter nail polish, a bath bomb set, Pixi lip gloss, a lip mask, a eyeshadow trio, ELF beauty products, lotion samples and of course this months book. This month I decided to go with "Beauty & The Beast: Belles Library: A collection of literary quotes and inspirational musings", I thought it would be rather fitting for this giveaway and it would make a great holiday gift.

Here is a better look at the lashes that come in the box:

This is open World Wide! Please remember if you DO NOT leave a comment on this blog post as your mandatory entry into the giveaway then all of your entries will be void. Doing the Daily entries will increase your chance of winning. Winners have 72 hours to respond to the notification email! This giveaway is hosted by ME and is not associated with any of the brands mentioned above.

This giveaway ends on 12/31/2019

Giveaway entry question: What is your favorite thing about the holidays? 

a Rafflecopter giveaway