>Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

>Today was Yo Gabba Gabba Day!

We were given comp tickets to see Yo Gabba Gabba Live by the kind people at the Oakdale Theatre and the awesome Yo Gabba Gabba promotional staff (thank you, Michelle S!)… and we had an awesome time!

The show was in Wallingford, CT which was about 2.5 hour drive from us, but worth the drive, considering we mostly see shows in NYC, but the PARKING there is horrific, so it’s well worth the extra drive time to avoid the city altogether. The theatre was beautiful – spacious, clean, and wonderful.

This was Lilian’s first show since she was just a few months old (which I’m sure she doesn’t remember) and she was excited and it blew her mind that the characters were right there and LIVE!

They did an adorable balloon segment, where they give Brobee balloons to cheer him up, but then he flies away with all the balloons, and all the kids marveled that he could fly!!!

But then it got one step cooler as they released hundreds of balloons from the ceiling onto the audience! Lilian caught a green balloon, and she was so happy! She felt like she was part of the show.

Then they did a bubble segment… what kid doesn’t love bubbles? You can see them on the left in the photo below, I swear I had never in my life seen THAT many bubbles all at one time.

Then Biz Markie blew all our minds with Biz’s beat of the day! He was on the screen first, but then he said he wished he was there with us, the screen split, and the real Biz Markie came out! That got a lot of applause from the parents too.

Party in My Tummy was a big hit, Lilian loved the dancing carrot (below).

And then the grand finale. (with confetti pouring on us).

The show was interactive, colorful, fast paced, and just wonderful for the kids and the parents. DJ Lance is totally adorable and did a great job holding the children’s attention.

Lilian had such a good time, Thank you again to Yo Gabba Gabba Live for sharing this experience with her!

>Yo Gabba Gabba Live – *Giveaway*

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Lilian enjoys her TV time and she likes a variety of shows including Yo Gabba Gabba. And if you’re a caregiver of a young child, you probably know, that Yo Gabba Gabba has awesome music, and as an adult, is one of the most fun shows to watch, so I encourage her to choose this show!

So when we got the opportunity to get tickets to the Yo Gabba Gabba Live tour presented by Kia Motors, I was so excited for both Lilian… and me! Kia Motors America (KMA) caused quite a stir with its first-ever Super Bowl ad, which featured a colorful cast of life-size children’s characters in the 2011 Kia Sorento CUV, including Muno from YO GABBA GABBA!, the award-winning children’s television series and live tour. Building on the momentum and increased brand awareness generated by the 60-second spot, KMA plans to extend its relationship with YO GABBA GABBA!, as the presenting sponsor of the upcoming YO GABBA GABBA! THERE’S A PARTY IN MY CITY! tour. We’re going to a matinee show in Connecticut at the end of September and I couldn’t be looking forward to it MORE for Lilian. She’s going to have so much fun and lose her mind over it! You can see the full list of tour dates and venues here. There is also a contest online to WIN free tickets and a VIP package… so click that link to enter!

I hope some other readers will purchase tickets for the tour to take their children, and to get them excited, I have an AWESOME giveaway for a Yo Gabba Gabba prize pack including the “Yo Gabba Gabba! Clubhouse” DVD and the “Party in My Tummy” book, which promotes healthy eating. One lucky reader will win this DVD/book gift set from Yo Gabba Gabba! The DVD features performances by musical guests Erykah Badu, The Killers, Jimmy Eat World and more – which is fun music for not only your preschoolers, but for mom or dad too! That’s something that I love about Yo Gabba Gabba, is the way they mix adult/contemporary music and artists with the children’s songs/themes, which makes it cute for the whole family. (When Weezer was on and had the “All My Friends Are Insects” song, that song was stuck in my head for weeks! I loved it as much as Lilian did.

So, in case you couldn’t tell… I’m super excited about this! I just want to say:
Thank you to Michelle from the Yo Gabba Gabba PR crew, thank you to the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT, and thank you to Kia Motors for giving my family to attend this awesome event.

Buy your tickets!
Enter to win your own VIP tickets.
And…

WIN the Book/DVD set here!

Mandatory Entry:
You must be a public follower of my blog either via Google reader/friend connect or Networked blogs. Just leave a comment and tell me what your child’s (or your niece, godchild, nephew, best friend’s child, etc.) favorite TV shows are and if they have a favorite Yo Gabba Gabba character.

Additional Entries (all worth one unless otherwise specified) Please leave SEPARATE comments for each entry you are entitled to:
* Like Lil Family Blog on Facebook
* Join/like Yo Gabba Gabba on Facebook.
* Click on both the “Top Mommy” brown button and “Picket Fence” buttons on the right of my page to vote for Lil Family Blog on both sites. (worth 1 total entry)
* Click on the black Swagbucks button on the right and sign up as my referral. (Will be verified on the Swagbucks site).
* Add one of my buttons to your site (again, on the right of my page, copy the text below the button and then paste it onto the sidebar of your blog). Worth 2 entries.
* Post about this giveaway on your blog or site and leave me a link where I can see it.
* Share this contest on Facebook. (Can be done easily with the little “F” icon on the bottom of this entry near the comments).
* Add me to your blogroll/blog list on your site.
* You get one additional entry for every friend/family member you get to enter (they have to leave an extra comment saying who sent them).

Good luck to everyone entering!

This contest will end on September 15, 2010 at 11:59PM EST, no more entries will be accepted after that time. The winner will be chosen at random and announced within a day or two on the blog. The prize will be shipped directly from the Yo Gabba Gabba Live people to the winner within a reasonable amount of time. Please see my disclosure link on the top of the page for fine print.

Disclaimer: My family will be attending the Yo Gabba Gabba live tour at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallington, CT for free. I was not compensated in any other way for this review or posting. All opinions are my own.

>The Care Bears Dance

>A few weeks back, I wrote about Lilian’s Care Bear obsession…. but here is some video proof of how insane she gets when the movie comes on! The movie kind of puts her in a trance, until this one song comes on… then she gets up and does a frantic dance with a very intense face on. It’s hilarious! She gets a little shy when the camera comes out, but I did my best to try to capture it!

>Care Bears Stare

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This week, Encore on Demand on Cablevision is showing The Care Bears Movie from 1985. Always a fan of old-school kids stuff, my wife M put it on for Lilian the other day. She loved it. Then last night, I had a few chores to do around the house (including changing the linens on the bed), so I put Lilian in her high chair and put the movie on for her again. Nowadays, Lilian isn’t that big of a fan of her high chair anymore. But as soon as the music started for Care Bears, she was completely absorbed. For some reason, this movie has a hypnotic effect on her. It’s weird, cute, but a little disconcerting too! I know those 80’s animators were a lot wackier than they are nowadays. And Big-Fan-of-Conspiracy-Theories-Mommy (me) is convinced that they are actually hypnotizing my child or sending her subliminal messages. Or maybe the Care Bears are just cute. I don’t know. I know I certainly had one as a child (Cheer Bear, the pink one with the rainbow on the belly)… did you? Which one? And when they were re-released, M bought me one in 2003 as a gift (which has now been passed on to Lilian). But Lilian’s concentration on this movie is phenomenal. She’ll sit for over an hour without moving, watching from beginning to end.

To be honest, 80’s cartoons have almost no educational value, unlike Dora, Little Einsteins, etc. now that Lilian watches. But for pure entertainment value, nostalgia, and cultural awareness, a little Care Bears never hurt anyone! I’m always secretly glad when she likes something that one of her two mommies likes or liked as a kid!