Tag: New England Sports Park

Nichole’s Picks 1/21 + 1/22

Posted on by Nichole S.

Pick #1: VANESSA TRIEN & THE JUMPING MONKEYS

Part of the Family Series at The Cabot in Beverly, this show is at 10:30 on Saturday.  Doors open at 9:30. Tickets cost $8.50 for children and $13.50 for grown-ups.

Buy Tickets HERE

ffe5a26b-988c-03f7-89bd3b681661710b

Vanessa Trien has been performing music for kids and families since 2005, many of those years in collaboration with her lively folk/roots/pop band, the Jumping Monkeys.  She has three Parents’ Choice award-winning CDs for kids and families and is currently working on her fourth album, due out this winter.  Vanessa packs concert halls, preschool fundraisers and outdoor venues with dancing kids and families.

She is known for her highly interactive shows, featuring plenty of group singing and movement.  One of her most requested songs, “Tickle Monster” has families sneaking around on tip toe and then on queue, all start tickling each other!

In addition to performing, Vanessa teaches as an early childhood music specialist in preschool and pre-K classrooms in Brookline and has also taught parent and child group Music Together classes for ten years. Originally from New York City.

Vanessa moved to Boston in the nineties to attend Harvard’s Graduate School for Education and has stayed ever since, first diving into the Cambridge folk music scene and festival production and then eventually jumping with her whole heart into the wild and wonderful world of children’s music!

Pick #2:  Snow Tubing at New England Sports Park in Amesbury.

Read all about it HERE

361066_61952b28ea5047b5b6eba65d0261726a-mv2

Tickets are available for different tubing sessions. You can choose either from 10:00-2:00 or 2:00- 5:00, or 5:00-8:00 (Saturday only).

361066_63a01c40fbe14641b1a33d53dd815cd2-mv2-jpg_srz_980_735_85_22_0-50_1-20_0

 

Pick #3:  The Cape Ann Museum

Read all about the fabulous Cape Ann Museum HERE

We are so fortunate that the Cape Ann Museum is free to all Cape Ann residents for the month of January!  This is the time to go!  What a wonderful escape from the winter blues.

cam-logo-new-1

Be sure to enjoy one of the Winter Shorts during your visit.

Walking Tours, Gallery Tours

Join the docents of the Cape Ann Museum on a variety of themed mini tours. Several twenty minute tours will be offered, beginning on the hour and on the half hour. Each tour will touch on a particular area within the Museum’s collections. Docents have created tours around their favorite topics, including Gloucester Fishermen, Women Artists of Cape Ann and 19th Century Selfies, among others. Participants are encouraged to spend the entire day at the Museum, enjoying one, two or all of the mini tours.

Tours are free for CAM members and Cape Ann residents or with Museum admission. Tours are “first come, first served” (space is limited – no reservations).

 

 

As always, for a comprehensive list of family activity please visit our friends at North Shore Kid

Nichole’s Picks of the Weekend 2/21 and 2/22

Posted on by Nichole S.

Is it wrong to simply repost last week’s Blog Post about Picks of the Week for February Vacation?   I mean…they still all hold true!

See all of last week’s ideas to kill time over vacation here!

Please don’t forget that in addition to all of the top picks from last week, I HIGHLY recommend:

1.  The pool at Cape Ann Marina and Resort.  We bought a vacation week pass last Friday and have already used it a few times and had a blast!  If you don’t want to invest in a vacation week pass now that the week is almost over, Day Passes are available!  Check it out for sure!

2.  Appleton Farm in Ipswich is offering a variety of fun activities this weekend!

Including:

Farm Fun Nature Crafts and Cookies  Saturday 2/21 10:00-12:00

Meet the Maples Tour   Saturday 2/21 1:00-2:00

The Mini Moos Tour      Saturday 2/21 2:30-3:30

 

3.  Pinocchio at the Wheelock Family Theatre

PinocchioWFTwebhome

The world premiere of an original adaptation influenced by Japanese theatrical traditions, Pinocchio’s adventures are told through mystical creatures, live musicians, and gymnastic choreography, making the transformation of an animated puppet into a real live boy, a magical, dynamic, and deeply moving experience.

4.  New England Sports Park!!  Get Your Tubing On!

                               

Nichole’s Picks of the Weekend 2/7 and 2/8

Posted on by Nichole S.

There is NO denying it….the snow is here…and it is here for quite a while or so it would seem.

So, don’t forget that the New England Sports Park is now open for excellent tubing.  Also, while the lure of hitting the bigger mountains up north is totally tempting and definitely worth it, we have some pretty sweet slopes that make for easy day trips or even simple half day trips near by.

 

In addition to it still being all about the snow…it is also all about the chocolate this weekend!

Pick #1: Chocolate or Bust!  In both Gloucester and Salem.  

Donna already mentioned that the Gloucester Chocolate Tour is taking place on Sunday from 12pm-5pm!   Read her post here!

 

Another pretty sweet event is  Salem’s So Sweet

Salem’s So Sweet Chocolate and Ice 2015 Festival – Feb. 6 through Feb. 15, 2015!

SalemSoSweet_Logo_2015-01

Check out a map and see more information here!

Pick #2

I mentioned Patriot Place two weeks ago as a great place to go to get in the Super Bowl mood.  Well, now that the Patriots have won the big dance, there’s even more reason to go! For the next several days you can have the opportunity to have your photo taken with the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The New England Patriots are Super Bowl champions for the fourth time in 14 years and for this weekend only, The Hall at Patriot Place presented by Raytheon is offering fans an opportunity to take their photo beside the Vince Lombardi trophy with admission to The Hall. Guests who bring their own cameras will be able to pose beside the trophy for a photo in The Grand Hall. The trophy will be available at The Hall from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 6; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 7; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday Feb. 8. In anticipation of lines, The Hall will provide hot chocolate to guests awaiting entry.

Pick #3

This may be cheating because it isn’t actually a weekend pick.  Sadly, just like the Patriots Duck Boat Parade, Truck Day at Fenway happens on a school day.  If you’re able to sneak out, however, it is a nice way to cheer on the Sox as Spring Training gets underway.

This year Truck Day falls on February 12th!  The Truck  even has its own Twitter account. You can follow it here.

So if you want to send the Sox off at Fenway Park, mark your calendars for Thursday, February 12. That’s the day the equipment truck will make its 1,500 mile trek down to Florida — better known as “Truck Day.”

Here’s a video from last year’s big send off

truck

 

Nichole’s Picks of the Weekend 1/17 and 1/18

Posted on by Nichole S.

Pick #1

If you make it, they will come….I think.

With no real accumulation and the kids dying to go sledding…or in this case TUBING, New England Sports Park (formally Amesbury Sports Park) has you covered! This weekend is finally opening weekend so they must be making snow.

What is New England Sports Park? Where do we start? 

We are best known the steepest, fastest snow tubing hill in New England in the winter.  

But we are so much more.

amesbury1

Pick #2 

I am a huge fan of Scavenger Hunts…just saying.  So, this sounds like a ton of fun! I’ve been meaning do one of the Watson Adventures Scavenger Hunts for some time now.  I’m not going to lie, the outdoor ones around Boston are more my cup of tea, but this sounds great….especially if you have kids who can’t get enough of the Museum of Science!

The Mad Science Family Scavenger Hunt

See the surreal side of science on a whirlwind tour to see the best of the Museum of Science. Kids and adults work together to uncover the secrets of eye-popping interactive exhibits, a life-size T. rex, a sneaky snake, hidden messages, an electrified jumping disk, optical illusions, a mad scientist’s lab, a musical zebra in a hunter’s trophy room, a book by a cat, live animals and a nightmare chair.

For ages 7 and up. Kids must be accompanied by adults, and vice versa. Click on the button below to see the hunt schedule and find more fun!

Saturday 1/17 at 2:00.  Kids 7 and up.  Be sure to purchase tickets ahead of time on the link provided!  GOOD LUCK!

images

Pick #3

Ok. So this is a bit premature, but if you want to score tickets, you need to act now.  The new Cabot in Beverly is such a fantastic venue and they have opened with a bang offering a wonderfully diverse array of shows.  If you’ve been wanting to take your kids to a concert, but haven’t scored tix to Taylor Swift, One Direction, or Gosh Only Knows Who Else….or if you’re not sure that they’re old enough for such an event…next weekend’s Alastair Moock concert may just be the ticket you’ve been looking for. A sweeter, simpler concert for young music fans, for sure!

ALASTAIR MOOCK: A REAL CONCERT FOR KIDS
  • When: Saturday, Jan 24, 2015 10:30 AM (Doors open at 10:00 AM)
  • Ticket Price: $5.33 – $8.24

AWARDS: 2014 Grammy nomination – Best Children’s Album; 2013 People Magazine Best Kid’s Album; 2013 Parents’ Choice Gold Medal; 2013 NAPPA Gold Medal.

Nearly twenty years into his performing career, 2014 Grammy-nominated musician Alastair Moock has managed to carve out a unique niche for himself: He is a songwriter committed to celebrating the roots of American music while knocking down the walls between different audiences, genres and musical traditions. Today, his audiences range from adults all the way down to preschoolers, and he plays everything from nightclubs to theaters to schoolrooms. Like his boyhood hero, Woody Guthrie, Moock believes in the power of music to reach all people — young and old, far and wide, for all occasions.

 

 

But it is Moock’s newest album, Singing Our Way Through: Songs for the World’s Bravest Kids, which is nearest and dearest to his heart. In July of 2012, one of Alastair’s daughter’s was diagnosed with leukemia. The Singing Our Way Through project began when they started writing songs together in the hospital. Over the next several months, Moock continued to write and collect songs that reflected his family’s experiences – the love, the pride, the surprising amount of joy, and some of the more difficult parts too.

Moock decided he wanted to record an album for other families traveling similar paths. With the help of an amazing fundraising campaign and the musical talents of friends including co-producer Anand Nayak, Chris Smither, Aoife O’Donovan, Rani Arbo, Mark Erelli, The Okee Dokee Brothers, and (fellow 2014 Grammy nominee) Elizabeth Mitchell, Moock released Singing Our Way Through in July, 2013. Since then, more than 2,500 albums have been distributed to hospitals, cancer organizations and patient families around the country.