When BASA’s chief Lena (Jessica Alba) informs the brothers of an SOS from the Dark Planet, a place where no one has ever returned from, Scorch rejects Gary’s warnings and bounds off for another mission. Soon after landing on The Dark Planet (Earth) Scorch finds himself caught in a trap set by Shanker (William Shatner) it’s up to Gary to do the rescuing.

The star-studded cast also includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Sophia Vergara, Ricky Gervais, Steve Zahn, George Lopez, Jane Lynch and Craig Robinson.

My girls (ages 7 and 11) really enjoyed the movie. The story pokes fun at science fiction movies while also following a storyline unto itself. Adults will enjoy the cultural references and humor while kids will crack up at the lovable aliens and their slapstick. The kids in the theater cheered and laughed out loud.

Plan a movie night or afternoon and take the family to see Escape from Planet Earth. The kids will giggle and shriek with laughter and you’ll smile a little bit too.

My family and I received complementary tickets to screen this movie in exchange for my honest review.

Last year, I took my 6-year-old daughter to Monster Jam for a dirt-filled, truck roaring mother-daughter date. She loved it. Monster trucks racing, jumping and rolling. We had such a good time, that my now 7-year-old is all ready to go AND my very girly 11-year-old can’t wait.

Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam®, starring the biggest performers on four wheels: Monster Jam monster trucks! The twelve-feet-tall, ten-thousand-pound machines will bring you to your feet, racing and ripping up a custom-designed track full of obstacles to soar over or smash through!  Monster Jam provides a massive night’s entertainment tailored perfectly for your family’s budget, and these colorful, larger-than-life beasts are sure to capture the hearts of both young and old.

If you love to get dirty, cheer and shout and watch some mechanical beasts take to the race track indoors, than Monster Jam is for you!

Get $10 Kid Tickets and $15 adult tickets for Friday, February 8th  at 7:30pm. Get four kids tickets per adult ticket. Use discount code MJSTATION at checkout. Purchase tickets through TicketHorse.  Tickets prices – $20, $25, $35 GOLD CIRCLE, $50 FRONT ROW. All tickets are $2 more the day of the show, so buy in advance.

Monster Jam will have more performances than ever before at Pepsi Center at the following dates and times: Friday, February 8, 2013:  7:30 pm – New performance added this year! Saturday, February 9, 2013:  2:00 pm and 7:30 pm Sunday, February 10, 2013:  2:00 pm   More Trucks than ever before!!! – including Four-time World Champion Grave Digger®, the Denver debuts of Scooby Doo and Advance Auto Parts Grinder, El Toro Loco®, Raminator, Incinerator, and Rammunition!    The Party in the Pits on February 9 and 10 is before the 2:00 pm shows from 11:30 am – 12:45 pm. The Pit Party gives fans the opportunity to get a view of the trucks up close and meet the drivers of the massive monster trucks. Pit Party passes are $10 and require an accompanying 2:00 pm event ticket.

PERFORMANCE TIMES MORE SHOWS THAN EVER BEFORE!!!

Enter to WIN 4-Tickets to opening night, Friday, February 8th at 7:30pm. Leave a comment below with your favorite Monster Truck. Our Favorite is Monster Mutt.

Contest ends Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 5pm MST. Winner will be notified via email and will have 24 hours to respond. Winners can only win one contest per show.

My girls and I saw the Phineas and Ferb Show last year in Denver and thought it was a Hoot! If you are fans of the Disney show, then you can’t miss this special show coming to the Wells Fargo Theater in Downtown Denver the first weekend in February. Yes their eyes are a little creepy and their heads look like they are going to teeter over, but the music and characters make this live event fun for the whole family.

“Mom! Phineas and Ferb are going on a LIVE tour!!!” School’s out for summer and anything is possible as Phineas and Ferb create their biggest invention yet- Disney’s Phineas and Ferb:The Best LIVE Tour Ever! Phineas, Ferb, and the whole Tri-State Area gang embark on a bold escape jumping out from behind your TV and onto the stage in a live action adventure-right in your hometown! And, before you can wonder, “Hey, where’s Perry?” the beloved pet platypus shifts to his secret double life as Agent P to foil another one of Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s evil plans. Musical madness abounds in an escapade so awesome that even Candace can’t help but join the hilarious hijinks. It’s the ultimate end to summer vacation, so seize the day ’cause Phineas and Ferb are gonna do it all!

There are three shows available at the Wells Fargo Theater at the Convention Center in downtown Denver.

February 1st at 7pm
February 2nd at 12pm and 3pm

DISCOUNTED TICKETS

Save $4 off the Friday, February 1st show. Use 4MOM discount code at checkout. Call 1-800-745-3000 or visit TicketMaster to order tickets.
Discount does not apply to Stageside or VIP seats. No double discounts. Not valid on Saturday shows.

WIN a FAMILY 4-PACK OF TICKETS

Leave a comment below with your favorite Phineas and Ferb episode or character. Mine is the episode where they go to the Comic-Con-like convention and have a battle between the sci-fi-space-geekers and fantasy Lord-of-the-Rings-geekers. I also love Ducky Mo Mo.

Contest ends Friday, January 18, 2013 at 5pm. Winner will be notified via email.

Additional Entries -
Leave a comment with one of the famous tag lines from the show like “Where’s Perry?”  OR answer the trivia questions correctly. Each comment is one entry.

The holidays also mean it’s time for Disney on Ice to visit Denver. This year, Dare to Dream, comes to Pepsi Center December 6-9, 2012. Use promo code 4MOM to save $4 off each ticket (VIP and Front Row not included) at TicketHorse.  You can win a Family Four-Pack to see the show on December 6th.

Get tangled up in Disney On Ice presents Dare to Dream! Experience Disney’s hilarious hair-raising escapade, Tangled; as Rapunzel, her unlikely companion, Flynn, and Maximus, embark on an uproarious journey that takes adventure to new lengths!  Boogie to the beat of the bayou with Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen in a magical, musical journey that all begins with a fateful kiss.  And fanciful dreams become reality as Cinderella meets her Prince Charming, with a glass slipper fit for an unforgettable fantasy come true. All your favorite princesses take to the ice in a spectacular finale at the ultimate Disney Princess event of a lifetime!  Experience the beauty, sparkle, and spirit when Disney On Ice presents Dare to Dream comes to your hometown!

Quick Tips:

Parking is not free at Pepsi Center (like it is at Denver Coliseum). Know that you will need to pay for your own parking if you attend the show.

The Sunday, Dec. 9 show at 7 pm will be performed in Spanish.

Opening night tickets for the Thurs., Dec. 6th, 7 pm show are just $15! ($15 for 200 and 300 level seats. $20 for 100 level seats. Front Row and VIP seats are full price. Additional fees apply)

Win a Family 4-Pack:

• Leave me a comment below with your favorite Disney character
• Leave a comment with your favorite saying from a Disney movie. Mine? “Frying pans, right? Who knew?”
• Like Two Hands Two Feet on Facebook (leave a comment below saying you follow with your Facebook name)
• Follow Hands and Feet on Pinterest (leave a comment below saying you follow with your Pinterest name)
• Follow @ColoScienceMom (leave a comment below saying you follow with your Twitter handle)
• Tweet about the contest – Enter to #win a family 4-pack to #DaretoDreamDenver from 2Hands2Feet & @ColoScienceMom http://ow.ly/fi3RE (leave link to tweet)
• Like this post on Facebook or give us a Google+ (just leave a comment below with your name and link if possible)

RULES: This contest will run from now through Monday, November 19 at 11:59 p.m. MST. One winning family will be selected from all eligible entries using Random.org and will be notified by email on Tuesday, November 20. Winner will have 24 hours to claim the prize. If the prize is not claimed within 24 hours, an alternate winner will be chosen. You MUST be over 18 to enter and available to attend the December 6th show at 7 p.m.

I try to follow in the footsteps of a friend of mine who prides herself with getting her cards all postmarked by December 1st. But that’s so not me.

Christmas Cards are  a month-long project of planning, ordering, writing, addressing, chasing missing addresses and dropping in the mail box.  I swear every year I will be organized and get it completed in an evening. That never happens.

Once again, I’m planning and I’m focusing my efforts on getting my Christmas cards done early. This year, I have help from Tiny Prints and Shutterfly.

Receiving Christmas cards in the mail is one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. It’s the only time of year when my mail box is full of happy letters vs the usual junk and bills. It is unfortunate that so many are forgoing the holiday card and moving to online or nothing. Hopefully I’m not the only one who enjoys sending and receiving cards and the tradition will continue for a long time.

Tiny Prints 2012 Holiday Collection has arrived with fresh designs and fun features, especially their new Premium DoubleThick Matte Paper.

They’ve got a wonderful collection this year from traditional colors and embellishments to merry and bright colors that take on a modern feel. They also feature religious/scripture based cards (including Hanukkah). I love their modern and unique designs and colors. There is something for everyone.

http://youtu.be/-RkNuHqMiD4

Tiny Prints is currently running several special offers and savings. To find out more, visit their Special Offers page.

GIVEAWAY:

Win $50 off your total order (expires 12/14/12). Does not include shipping and cannot be combined with any other promos.

To enter, leave me a comment below sharing why you enjoy sending or receiving holiday cards. Extra entries can be earned by following Tiny Prints on Twitter or Pinterest and Hands and Feet on Twitter or Pinterest. Follow us on Facebook – Tiny Prints and 2Hands 2Feet too! Just leave me a comment below with your Twitter handle, FB page or Pinterest name. Follows will be verified.

Contest closes on Friday, November 16 at 11:59 p.m. MST. Winner will be announced Saturday, November 17th.

**This is a sponsored post. I am receiving compensation in the form of merchandise from Tiny Prints in exchange for this post.

The gardens at Chatfield are at the edge of the western suburbs in Littleton, just west of Chatfield Reservoir and Park. The fall festival was packed, but parking isn’t a problem, because there are huge empty fields. I’m not sure they’d ever run out of parking. The only problem with this is it’s a bit of a hike up to the festival. Not such a bad thing going in, but tough when you are lugging four pumpkins and three kids. Just be prepared to do a lot of walking on mostly dirt paths. A wagon isn’t a bad idea either. They do have some, but they are tough to secure.

The ticket booth is a tad confusing. It’s hard to tell if you just walk in, or if you pay admission, or how the entire system works. Attending the festival is free, but the activities are a fee. The corn maze is $10 Adults, $8 Member, Student, Seniors (65+), $6 Child (ages 3-12), $4 Child Member, Free for children 2 and under. There is also a mini maze – perfect for the little ones.

I had 7 to 11 year olds so they weren’t going near the “baby” maze. We hit the big maze. I thought i

t was interesting that the gardens didn’t print maps of the maze to be green, but did hand out papers with a “passport” or clues. I didn’t look at the passport and let the kids do the navigating. That was my first mistake. They didn’t understand how the passport worked, but weren’t letting on. We’d get to a fork in the path, they’d look at the passport and say “go right” or “go left.” I thought they knew what they were doing until I realized we had traveled in several circles.

When I took over the passport, I discovered that you had to find marked posts in the maze, read a trivia question, and then the right answer would tell you to go in the right direction. It was difficult to find these posts and without a map, we were caught with a lot of people just wandering the maze trying to navigate ourselves.

And don’t try to cut through maze walls, pick the corn or throw anything. The gardens has people on cranes up above the maze who are watching your every move. Those caught cutting will be removed. The nice thing about the Big Maze Brothers in the sky is that they were also giving hints here and there. While probably also laughing at us as we hit repeated dead ends. The hints may have been pity – they couldn’t take us walking in any more circles.

I’ve been to a few corn mazes and we always enjoy the ones where you get  a map and have to find punches or markers along the way. It adds to the fun and you aren’t just looking for the end. But that’s my opinion.

After about an hour of wandering around the first half of the maze, we found the bail out exit. We were done and took it. We aren’t exactly the best navigators. Next time, I’m taking the piece of paper in the beginning and starting us out on the right foot. Hopefully.

After escaping the maze alive, we grabbed a few snacks, tried out the other activities and then hit the pumpkin patch last. It took forever for the kids to find the perfect pumpkin. There isn’t a fee to visit the patch, but pumpkins are charged according to height. I spent $16 on two mid-size pumpkins.

Like I mentioned above, the tickets are a little confusing. They are sold in a large yurt in the middle of the festival. There’s a sign that says “TICKETS” but many people (including us) weren’t sure if they needed to buy general admission tickets or patch tickets or what. The yurt sells tickets to the corn maze, the jumping pillow, hay rides and pony rides. One ticket at the jumping pillow gets you 5 minutes of jumping. ($3 for one ticket, $8 for three tickets, $13 for five tickets). The hay and pony rides are $5 each. It would be nice if an all-inclusive ticket was available or there were signs explaining all of the different fees. Do your research ahead of time so you know what you want to do and how much it will cost. It’s cash only (there is an ATM available) and you can burn through your money quickly as you pay for each activity individually.

For the older kids and adults, the gardens also offer a Haunted Maze from after dark until 11 p.m. It’s $15 per person.

Trick-or-Treat in the Trail
Little ones 12 and under can trick or treat in the trail (in McDonald’s Mini-Maze) on Sunday, Oct. 21 or Sunday, Oct. 28, 1-3 p.m. It’s free.

Don’t miss this family-fun event near Denver. For more information visit the Botanic Gardens Chatfield Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze.

Hours & Location

Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from Sept. 14 through Oct. 28, 2012 at our Chatfield location.
Fridays 4-9 p.m.
Saturdays Noon – 9 p.m.
Sundays Noon – 6 p.m.

Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield
8500 W Deer Creek Canyon Road
Littleton, CO 80128

My family and I generously received four free passes to explore the corn maze in exchange for this article.

Congratulations to our winner, Julie!

I’m always struggling to find time for myself. Whether it is grabbing a cup of coffee with a friend or reading a book or just loading the dishwasher. Trying to find time to spend with my dear husband is next to impossible.

My husband and I just celebrated our 15th anniversary in September. We managed to carve out almost 48 hours to escape to Snowmass, Colorado for a little getaway. During our time away, we discovered something … we are sleep deprived. The romantic getaway turned into going to bed at 10:30 and sleeping until 11:00 a.m. the next day! We were stunned and realized we had given up on sleeping in.

We also try to steal away precious moments after our girls go to sleep and watch a movie or enjoy each other’s company while doing monotonous jobs like cleaning up after dinner. Even with these little moments, we still spend a lot of time raising children and taking care of a household.

I’m fully aware that my husband and I are not the best with creating “we” time. What do you do to steal a few minutes with your sweetie? Leave a comment below with how you create “we” time.

Frito-Lay is giving one lucky reader a “we” time starter kit. I’ll randomly select a winner from the comments and email you for your address.

• 2 bags of Lay’s Kettle Cooked Potato Chips
• Pair of chalkboard mugs (perfect for unwinding with your favorite drink)
• Large ceramic bowl (in yellow for sharing chips)

You can share a movie after the kids go to bed, share some potato chips and have a hot toddy or drink of your choice.

(Or the chalk board mugs make a perfect teacher gift. If you are as thrifty as I am.)

In exchange for this post, I also received the same starter kit. Potato chips are my weakness. The Sun-Dried Tomato and Parmesan chips are to die for!!! And look what my lovelies wrote on my mug immediately after I unwrapped it.

Contest ends Friday, October 12th at midnight MST. Winner will be notified and announced October 13th.

My kids also enjoy all of the activities, especially the giant corn maze. It’s the country in the suburbs.

We are hoping to bring home a few pumpkins to carve while enjoying the beautiful Colorado fall weather.

For more information on the Chatfield Pumpkin Patch, visit the Botanic Gardens website.

My family and I received free passes to explore the corn maze in exchange for this article.

I read an article titled this on Moms Who Drink and Swear some time ago. If you can handle a little drinking and a little swearing, or a lot of drinking and a lot of swearing and a lot of laughing, check out her blog. She’s much bigger in the blog world than I am and there’s a reason. Even though this particular post didn’t include a lot of swearing, it brought it home to me and I decided there and then that on my birthday I’d write a similar post. So, here it goes…

I want more for my birthday.

For starters, I want more birthdays. (Is this like wishing for more wishes?) Mine, for obvious reasons, but also more of my friends and family’s birthdays to celebrate and share.

And I want more of the days in-between birthdays to be filled with love and cherished moments with my girls, my husband, my family and friends and be filled with moments like -

• More times where my girls jump into my arms, hug me tight and tell me they love me and want to be with me.
• More movie nights on the couch, just the four of us snuggled up and fighting over the last popcorn kernels.
• More snuggles at bedtime with my girls as we discuss our hopes and dreams as well as disappointments in the dark.
• More snide, sarcastic yet supportive emails and chats with my cousin, Meghan, who is really my sister and more importantly, my reality check.
• More time to exercise, yes exercise, to help keep my body and mind in a healthy state so I won’t need drugs or Weight Watchers or Tony Robbins to help keep me going strong in the future.
• More time to huff and puff my way up a mountain with my husband who calmly keeps encouraging by saying “we are just taking a short, relaxing walk.”
• More eating dark chocolate and drinking coffee (decaf only)
• More traveling and exploring the world we live in with my girls, husband and family.
• More time to text, call, email and Facebook my incredible friends to share laughter, sadness, and precious moments. I am so blessed to have so many caring, loving, genuine friends in my life. Without them, I know I will never be alone.
• More time to be annoyed at my mother, while I chauffer her all around town and chat about anything and everything.
• More time to do things for myself and not just all the people I love, like massages and foot reflexology.
• More time to clean and finally paint my freaking house. Not to mention also clean the basement out so I can invite guests down there.

I have so much to see and do and say and feel and think and read and learn and visit, that I’m going to need a lot more birthdays and days in-between to get it all done. There is so much MORE in this life to become that I’m going to need more.

I’m also going to need a lot more kitty litter and kat fud now that we have adopted a kitten into our cat-riffic family. I’ll also need some patience as I pull her off my screens and couches with all claws extended.