Family Concerts at Severance Hall.

So! I am thrilled to be giving away family sets of FOUR tickets to the Cleveland Orchestra!

Wait.  Let me rewind.  The Cleveland Orchestra is one of our city's best assets.  It is literally one of the best orchestras in the country if not the world.  And Severance Hall is in a word STUNNING:

Image from flickr here.

But!  With little kids I thought it was out of reach.  For us to go would mean babysitting which is few and far between.  And toddlers aren't exactly appropriate at the symphony.  So we'd take the kids to Blossom Music Center for a concert every summer and figured that was all we could do.

Blossom way back in 2012.  We've gone every year since!

Turns out?  I was completely wrong.  The Cleveland Orchestra has an entire series of concerts specifically for children!  And they are awesome.  There are two types of concerts (from the Cleveland Orchestra Website):

PNC Musical Rainbows - ideal for children 3 to 6

Which instrument is bigger – violin or viola?  How many strings are on a harp?  What’s a bassoon?  Children will discover the answers to these musical questions and more during our 30-minute Musical Rainbow concerts.  These presentations are a fun, interactive way for our youngest listeners to learn about the instruments of the orchestra, one at a time.  PNC Musical Rainbow concerts are performed by Cleveland Orchestra musicians and guests, are hosted by local actress and singer Maryann Nagel. Children have the chance to sing, clap, and move to the music as they have fun learning all about orchestral instruments.  Musical Rainbows are performed in the 400-seat Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall.

Family Concerts - ideal for children 7 and up

Family Concerts are a great way to get kids excited about classical music!  These narrated, 60-minute concerts performed by The Cleveland Orchestra in historic Severance Hall, are structured around a theme and feature guest artists such as young musicians, mimes, dancers, actors, and more.  Family Concerts offer a unique and fun-filled opportunity for families to spend quality time with their children, enrich their lives through exposure to the musical arts, and share the excitement of live music performed by one of the world’s top orchestras.
All Family Concerts are preceded by free activities, including hands-on Instrument Discovery, throughout the hall that enhance your child’s enjoyment of the performance.

 We took our kids to a Musical Rainbows concert on Saturday and they had a great time:

It was super fun.  The concert was exactly the right length to hold even Tiny's attention and was interactive and fun!  They loved it:

The concert was held in the Reinberger Chamber Hall - a smaller more intimate venue than the main concert hall - but equally beautiful:

Image from here.

Really everywhere in Severance is beautiful.  Such an amazing building and space.  I was proud to share it with my kids for the first time:

ART DECO MAKES ME SWOON.

So I am very happy to be sharing the opportunity to go to one of these great concerts with my readers!  I am giving away 2 sets of 4 tickets for each of their upcoming children's concerts - Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery on Saturday, May 3 and The Vivacious Viola on Saturday, May 9.   Feel free to enter both contests!!!!  


Cleveland Orchestra

PNC Musical Rainbows Concert - The Vivacious Viola – May 9


Disclosure:  My family and I received tickets to this event in exchange for this review.  As always all opinions are my own.

Bonus family portrait in MOCA.  We walked there for lunch after the concert.  It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday in Cleveland!

Clothe Ohio Giveaway!

So I was contacted by Clothe Ohio about doing a promotion on this blog.  Humorous Ohio Pride clothing for a good cause?  YES.  Check out their statement:

Local Ohioans are in need! With each order, we are able to donate a new T-Shirt or Sweatshirt to an Ohioan in need, helping them stay warm and feel loved. We all need to look out after each other in times of need, and now's the time! Pick up a sweet new Ohio item for yourself or that Ohio lover in your life, and together we’ll help Clothe Ohio.

 Plus their shirts are pretty awesome:

There are shirts specific to all of Ohio's cities.  I'm a Clevelander but I went to college in Cincinnati so some of the 'nati shirts are very tempting.  I especially love the West 513 one.  A whole bunch of our college friends were (are) Cincinnati Westsiders and I"m thinking this shirt would be perfect with a westside cooler (doubled up shopping bag filled with ice and beer):

They carry baby, toddler, and children's versions of their clothing.  Very fun and stylish!  I think the dude would be adorable in the fountain square shrit:

It's especially nice that you can browse their site by city - and even some of the smaller cities are represented:

.

Youngstown.  What up

Anyways!  I'm happy to be giving away one of their awesome T-shirts!  Enter below before midnight on Friday, March 6.  I will choose and email the winner on Sat morning.  Yay Ohio!


a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclaimer:  I received a sample shirt from this company in exchange for this promotion.  As always all opinions are my own.

WIN 4 Tickets to Halloweekends at Cedar Point!!!!

So last month I had SO much fun at Halloweekends at Cedar Point:

And now you can go, too!  I'm giving away a family 4 pack of tickets!!!  That's nearly a $200 value. 

YAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!

The tickets are only valid this year, and the lucky winner only has three more weekends to use them. Cedar Point is open on Friday nights (after 6 p.m.), Saturdays and Sundays now through Nov. 2, 2014.

 
This competition only runs until 11:59 PM on Thursday, October 16.  I will email a winner on Friday morning.  Yay Cedar Point!

I also have some news.  I changed my Twitter name. And my Instagram name. 

I'm hoping for more consistency across social media platforms.  LifeInCle makes sense with the blog Life In Cleveland.  Although I have to admit.  It was sad to say goodbye to Sourire11.  The name  originated as my AOL name back....when AIM was still a thing....in the mid '90's....20 YEARS AGO AAAAH I AM SO OLD.

Haaaahahahahaha my mommy remembers the '90's.

Anyways!  Follow me at my shiny new name LifeinCle for a chance to win!



 4 tickets to Halloweekends at Cedar Point

Disclosure: I am a Cedar Point Blogger and have an ongoing relationship with the park. However I was not compensated for this post.  All opinions are always my own.

Win Cleveland Garlic Festival Tickets!

So we are less than a week away from the Cleveland Garlic Festival!  And I'm giving away some tickets!

North Union Farmers’ Market is proud to present the sixth annual Cleveland Garlic Festival at historic Shaker Square! This grassroots food and music event will take place Saturday, September 06, 2014 from Noon to 9:00 PM, and Sunday, September 07, 2014 from Noon to 6:00 PM.

Last year we were out of town and couldn't attend so this year I am especially excited to go.  GARLIC!  Really all good things start with garlic.  I can't wait to see what the celebrity chefs do with it during the grill off.  I'm also looking forward to the many (14!) bands and bringing the kids to the Mighty Locavores Kids Area which will feature:

• Pedal Tractor Maze
• Chalk Art classes
• Cooking classes
• “Taste the Season” Game
• “How How Does your Garlic Grow” with Green Corps
• Euclid Beach Boys Rocket Ship Car and Thriller Car
• Rock Climbing Wall
• Flower Clown
• Glenn the Bubble Guy
• Apple Tastings
• Antique Tractors Display
• Outback Ray
• Musicians Garden

 Sounds like fun!  Also:  GARLIC.

Tickets are $9 for adults, $5 for children 4-12, and $5 for seniors.  You can purchase them ahead here.  Or enter to win below!

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure:  I was asked by the North Union Farmers Market to run this giveaway and attend the festival.  In exchange I was given 2 tickets to the event. 

Cleveland Photography Session Giveaway!

So!  Remember when I said that I was going to have a giveaway for a portrait session with I Heart Life Photography?  That day is today!!!  YAY!  But first I have to subject you to lots of photographs of my family because I am super excited about how the images from our photo session with Valerie turned out:



Yay!  Valerie at I Heart Life Photography (or on facebook here) was excellent.  Easy to work with, fast with her turn around (it takes a long time to edit this many pictures!), and captured some really stunning images:

Along with making sure that each kid was represented:

And taking the posted photograph that I wanted.  This one was taken in the same place as some of our wedding photos.  What a difference nearly 10 years makes!

Seriously.  10 years!!!

I could honestly post every picture from the session here - 40 images in all.

I think my favorite image from the session is this one, though.  It so completely captures the personalities of each of them.  The big guys are messing around and the little one is all "they are crazy people.  I live with crazy people."  I love it:

Yay!  Not to obsessively pin photo collage walls.  Because that is SO happening now that I have some wonderful images to work with!

Would you like your very own session with Valerie?  You can enter to win!  The fabulous prize is:

Lifestyle Photo Session

60 minutes on-location photo session for up to 5 people

Receive 12 digital pictures with print release

Photo session location within 30 miles of 44107 zip code.

Expired in September 2015

Entry is easy with the rafflecopter below.  I will choose and email the winner next Monday, June 23.


a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure:  Valerie at I Heart Life Photography provided a photo session for my family in exchange for hosting this giveaway.  All opinions are my own.  All images in this post are from I Heart Life Photography.  

Cleveland Garlic Festival.

So I have an awesome giveaway for you guys.  Tickets to the Cleveland Garlic Festival:

September 7 and 8 in Shaker Square this festival celebrates All Things Garlic.

Um... YUM.  SERIOUSLY YUM.

There is going to be all sorts of awesome things happening at this festival including:
Live grilling competitions (the audience gets to sample stuff.  YES.)
Tons of music (seriously look at this schedule)
Parades (who doesn't love one of those)
And a bunch more including something called a Tomato Throwdown and Miss Garlic which.  Yeah.  That's happening.

Sounds like a blast.  And also GARLIC.

The Mighty Locavores kids section sounds extra fun with a pedal tractor maze, rock climbing wall, story telling, ChalkArt classes, a "Taste the Season" game, and more.  Definitely a fun thing to check out with the kids.

See also:  GARLIC.

(in case you can't tell I'm a fan.  I doubt anything I've cooked in the last decade is garlic free.  Vampires would love me.)

This is also the annual fundraiser for the North Union Farmers Market - a nonprofit organization committed to championing the local foods of Northeast Ohio.  What a great mission statement!  And you know how I feel about local food.

Anyways I'm happy to be giving away two weekend passes to this super fun, Cleveland, family, and yummy event!  You can enter through rafflecopter below.  The giveaway ends on Monday at 12AM:

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Or if you don't win you can purchase tickets online here.    You can keep also up with all of the Cleveland Garlic Festival Happenings through their twitter, facebook, or instagram.

Yay GARLIC!

Disclosure:  I was offered two weekend passes to this event in exchange for this blog post.  Unfortunately I will be unable to attend as I'm out of town that weekend.  Much sadness ensues because GARLIC.

Goldfish Swim School and a Giveaway!

So recently I was asked to write about the brand new to Cleveland Goldfish Swim School.  I was super excited about this opportunity.  I think that the ability to swim is something that we should teach our kids just from a safety standpoint.  However finding time and availability of actual swim lessons is a different story.  I had my daughter in lessons when she was very young but it just hasn't happened since then.  Until now:

I have to say I was thrilled with the Goldfish Swim experience.  First of all the facility is great.  The water is 90 degrees.  So my freeze baby girl didn't spend the entire time shivering with blue lips.  Also the way the changing areas are laid out makes SO much sense for families!  There are no locker rooms - just a big bank of large changing stations, separate single bathrooms, and a large hair drying station:

Which works perfectly b/c you never have to be in that awkward shared changing space situation.  I would even feel comfortable taking both kids by myself with this setup - something not really possible with a huge locker room situation.

They even have turtles!

The way our lessons were scheduled our son's lesson was first and our daughter had to wait.  There was enough to do in the facility - books! turtles! fish! - that this was never a big deal.

But I think the big difference between Goldfish Swim and other situations is the lessons themselves.  The classes are kept to a 4 to 1 ratio.  So the kids really get individual attention.  Also they teach actual survival skills - like how to move along the wall and then climb out of a pool - which is exactly the reason I think swim lessons are so important in the first place:

Learning how to climb out of the pool.

The coolest thing of all, though, was seeing how my kids progressed and learned from week to week.  The first week my poor dude was pretty freaked out.  He clung to daddy and then just wanted me:

Trying to get out of the pool to get to MOMMY.

By the 4th week he was not clingy at all:

Instead of climbing out to get to me he kept looking up and smiling all proud.  KICK! POOL!

He was so, so excited about his lessons:

POOL!  POOL POOL POOL POOOL!!!

He even was fine with being dunked completely.

Daddy was a lot more aggressive with the dunking than I was.  Which is why he got to take him into the lessons and I sat on the sidelines being the nervous mom.

And he started to do things like pay attention to the teacher and follow along with the rest of the class.  Skills that will serve him well in the future!

My girl was totally nervous the first week, too.  I told her I would come into the lesson with her if she wanted.  But once it was time she said "I think maybe you can stay over there."

The next week she was scared of putting her face in the water.  Which is something she's never really been a fan of.  So I told her she could do that in her own time and there was no pressure.  She thought about it and when it came time not only put her face in but dunked her whole head under the water!  SHE WAS SO PROUD!  Confidence building situations like that are so important for kids.

So yeah.  I would highly recommend the Goldfish Swim school.  We intend on continuing with lessons for both of our kids.  I should also mention that it was NOT far away at all.  Living on the west side there is that whole the east side is the other side of the world mentality.  It's just not the case.  Even on the snowiest of days it took us less than 30 min to get there.  Totally a doable drive!

Eating a snack after his lesson.  Swimming makes them HUNGRY and TIRED!

Oh and did I mention they do family swims?  And birthday parties? So many fun possibilities with this place!  And what's super fun is that I get to offer you guys a giveaway!  I am thrilled to offer one lucky reader a Goldfish Swim Party!  A $450 value!  It's perfect for a kid's birthday party.  I honestly wish I could win it myself. To enter just use the Rafflecopter Giveaway Below (if you already follow me in various places you're basically already entered.  Just need to click on the form.)  I will leave the giveaway open for 1 week and pick a winner next Wed, 3/20/13.

Edited to add:  A winner has been picked and emailed.  Thank you to everyone who entered! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway Disclosure:  My kids received 1 month of free swim lessons as compensation for this post and hosting this giveaway.  As always I only blog about products that I believe in and all opinions, photographs, and crazy children are my own.

$100 Pottery Barn Gift Card Giveaway!

So who likes Pottery Barn?  Wait.  Let me start again.

 

So in an attempt to get this blog back on the roll that it was on before I disappeared into the early pregnancy sickness I took out a couple of ads on other blogs this month.  I'm especially excited about my ad on Vintage Sunshine.  Not only is her blog fantastic (and I think will have similar readers to mine) but her sponsers pooled together to give away something really awesome.

 

A $100 giftcard to Pottery Barn.

 

I know with all of the post-holidays redecorating we're doing it would be super useful!  It's a simple rafflecopter giveaway which means that if you're already following me on twitter or instagram or facebook you don't really need to do much to enter.  Just click through the rafflecopter below.  Yay for fabulous prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Knitting Patterns Giveaway!

So I am thrilled to have Chocolate Mints in a Jar Patterns as a lovely sponsor:

Her patterns are super cute. And are great for both knitters and crocheters:

How awesome would this be for a day at the beach?

LOVE the toe detail!!!

And she has been generous enough to offer three of them to one lucky reader!  To win enter the rafflecopter giveaway below:


  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Uprinting Giveaway!

So recently through Bloggy Mom's Uprinting offered me the chance to host a giveaway for my readers.  I was super excited about this opportunity because I think their die cut business cards are pretty neat:

Super interesting, right?  I think they'd definitely stand out in a pile of plain old square corners.  They even offer a full circle!  I love the design potential of that. And with all of their editing tools your creativity is basically unlimited.  Or you can even upload your own design!


If you want to win 250 custom die cut business cards for your very own you can enter from now through June 4 below:


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Disclosure:
 You should assume that the owner of this blog will receive free print products in exchange for the post. Any and all reviews posted are based solely on my own experience and may be atypical. Please practice due diligence in making any related purchase decisions. Interested to hold a giveaway like this? Please sign up here.