Shopkins are Coming to St. Louis!

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If your kid is anything like mine than the word Shopkins has been thrown around your house like crazy these last few years. Season 1, season 2, season3 etc, etc. I have heard about them all. Not only from my daughter, but from my son as well. The little characters are pretty cute and the names are hilarious. Taco Terry anyone? We have hundreds of these little plastic toys and the checklists to make sure we have those ultra rares in our sights. So when the kids heard about the Shopkins stage show they asked when it was coming to our town and without even realizing it, it’s this month!!!

While Shopkins might seem like a total girl toy, my son loves them just as much and I have heard of other boys liking them as well. They are really cool and a great idea for kids to start learning about collecting. I love the checklists and the mystery figures. I only wish I had thought of Shopkins!

Shopkins Live on Tour will be pushing their cart through St. Louis on November 26th at the Fabulous Fox Theater at 1PM. There is only one showing for this amazing event so be sure to purchase your tickets soon before you miss out!

Want a chance to win four tickets from St. Louis Dad?

All you have to do is do two very simple things…

1) Share this post on Facebook! (I will be checking)

2) Comment on this post with your favorite Shopkin’s name!

3) Include a valid email when you comment so I can contact you if win. The winner will have 24 hours to respond with their details to claim their tickets. If you do not respond in 24 hours another winner will be selected.

Shopkins Live! is finally here! The #1 kids toy in North America is live and on stage in Shopkins Live! Shop It Up! Your beloved Shoppies make their theatrical debut in an original new live show featuring musical performances by Jessicake, Bubbleisha, Peppa-Mint, Rainbow Kate, Cocolette, Polli Polish and more! The fun and fashionista Shoppies are joined by the Shopkins – the grocery store-themed mini collectable toys – Apple Blossom, Strawberry Kiss, Lippy Lips, Kooky Cookie, Poppy Corn, Slick Breadstick and Shady Diva. An ensemble cast of multi-talented performers brings the show to life on stage through urban style music, song and dance.

All of Shopville is in a tizz as preparations get underway for the annual “Funtastic Food and Fashion Fair.” Shady Diva showcases her latest fashion designs; Lippy Lips gives colorful advice at the nail salon; Kooky Cookie tries to get in a beauty nap! But wait – no event is complete without a few hiccups! Who has high-jinxed the fashion pageant? Where is the super-secret celebrity guest? Will Slick Breadstick ever find a dance partner? The Shopkins and Shoppies need your help – the show must go on!

Shopkins Live! immerses audiences in the world of Shopville using custom-designed theatrical costumes, creative onstage characters, state-of-art video and set design, and original pop songs and music! Grab your besties and check out Shopkins Live! Shop It Up! Check ya later!

St. Louis Dad was compensated with complimentary tickets to the show in exchange for promotion of the event.

Pumpkins and Trick-or-Treats

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It’s a time of little ghosts and goblins running a muck through the neighborhoods snatching up all of the candy they can. We had our annually pumpkin carving contest at Mammaw and Pawpaw’s house this year and yours truly took home the winning pumpkin with my large and in charge scary face. Simple yet satisfying is the way I like it. The kids did an awesome job on their own pumpkins and we all had a fun time spending time with our family.

IMG_1252With carving out of the way and a few days until Halloween we took this as an opportunity to make sure all of decorations and costumes were ready for the big night. It didn’t take long to make sure we were ready, however my daughter wanted to switch things up at her schools Halloween party and decided to be a hot dog instead of Belle like she originally planned. It was an easy fix and she looked amazing as a hot dog! Mommy even volunteered for her class party so all of the kids got to have a blast with the various parents and their amazing teacher.

IMG_6583As Halloween night got here we headed on over to Uncle Mike’s and Aunt Shell’s to eat some pizza and get our candy! This year our little family of four decided to go with a Mario theme. My son was the title character Mario, I was Yoshi, my daughter was Princess Peach and my wife was the baddie Wario! I made a question block to show off Super Mario World and to hold my beer while we went around and collected our candy.

The neighborhood was jammed packed with kids and some really cool adults. It pulled on my heartstrings a little bit hearing my little guy saying “thank you” each time he got a piece of candy. He also made sure to show off each piece as he came running down the sidewalk to where I was standing. Of course all of the kids made out like bandits and had a blast doing so. Halloween is one of our families favorite holidays and this one was no different. Check out our pics from this years Halloween fun! Thank you to our awesome family for having us over, we love seeing the kids have fun and Halloween is the perfect excuse for us to join in as well.

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Be sure to follow me on Instagram (@dadSTL) for more awesome photos from Halloween night! Comment below and let me know what your family dressed up as!

Looking for some nice stylish clothes for this fall and winter season? Check out Terraces Menswear for many of the hottest styles!

Family Friendly Films!

pureflix_movie_checklist_StLouisDadSomethings just arn’t for everyone. That goes for a lot of things, food, sports, tomatoes, and even movies. My post about mature movies got a lot of attention, however not all families are as adventurous as I am and want to stick to some more family friendly films. While looking for a service other than Netflix that would provide these specific types of movies I ran across the site PureFlix.com. It is a fantastic website that has exactly what I was looking for, family friendly films!

Focusing more on family and faith the movies found on Pure Flix are all appropriate for the entire family. There are dramas, comedies, educational films, cartoons, and more. There’s something for everyone in the family. There are several movies listed that we have watched as a family that I know my kids love.

Browsing through their catalog I see thousands of movies that fit all sorts of categories and knowing that the service works on just about all devices, including Chromecast, Roku, and the Fire stick is a great benefit of the service.

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Pure Flix even sent over an awesome checklist that you can print and use yourself for planning out your family fun movie night. Be sure to list all of the essentials you are going to need such as popcorn, drinks, and other snacks! Popcorn and nachos are my top two favorites. What are some of your favorite snacks to eat while watching a movie with the family? Tweet at me @dadSTL!

You can check out Pure Flix for a month for free and if you like it the cost per month is pretty low compared to a monthly cable or satellite bill. So what do you have to lose? You are minutes away from having thousands of movies just a click away!

I was not paid or compensated for this post. The thoughts and opinions of Pure Flix are my own. Pure Flix is available on PC and MAC as well as iOS and Android and is supported on a variety of systems so you can totally cut the cord with Pure Flix!

 

Spend a Day at The St. Louis Renaissance Festival!

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Whenever I think of the renaissance, I think of the greats like Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, and Botticelli. None of them are Ninja Turtles either. I’m talking about the time of kings and queens. When pirates did more than set their sails on the internet superhighway. Some of my favorite movies are set way back in ye old time.

stlrenfest3Surprisingly I have never been to the St. Louis Renaissance Festival in the previous 18 years it has come to town. This year I was invited to bring my family out and see all of the fun I am missing and then write what I thought. I’ll just cut to the chase and say that if you have never been to the festival, you should go, if you have been, you should go again. There is so much to take in that I hope I can do it all justice here.

Be sure to follow me on Instagram to see more photos from the festival that didn’t make it into this post.

The festival is located at Rotary Park in Wentzville. Parking is free but there is admission to get into the renaissance faire. There is so much to do that you could spend an entire day experiencing it all. When we entered the festival we were greeted by an absolutely amazing atmosphere that takes you back in time, except you still have cell service. The setup for the faire was interwoven between the trees of the park. The setup crew did a fantastic job putting everything together. Various shops and food spots scatter the entire region. Everything is separated into areas based on a theme. Pirates, gypsies, royalty such as kings and queens, knights, fairies, mermaids, and more all makeup the cast of characters you can find.

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Stage performances, magic shows, dancing, music, and even jousting all take place at the St. Louis Renaissance Festival. Each event is just as cool as the next. The stage performances are interactive with the audiences and are hilarious.

One of the cooler things that the festival setup for the young kids is a quest for them to become knights and princesses. All they had to do was look out for these little signs and then visit with a pirate, wench, wizard, etc in the booth and from there they would show a trick, act a certain way, or give some history about their heritage. The kids would then get a stamp on their checklist and once they completed the quest at the end of the day they would meet the king and become a knight or princess. It is a great way to navigate through-out the entire faire and visit various spots and really experience the festival.

stlrenfest2My favorite area in the festival was the petting zoo. There was a huge snake that Mrs. St. Louis Dad got to hold! It was so cool. The kids pet the snake and ponies and several other animals as well. They even got to see a real life dragon. It was a bearded dragon but it was still a dragon nonetheless. The food was fantastic and the turkey legs were plentiful. I had my fill of one right when I got there. My heart was set on one and I made it happen. Fried pickles, nachos, funnel cake, and much more were all on the menu. I would recommend bringing cash as most food booths only deal in cash. Most of the merchandise booths do accept card so save your cash for food and card for stuff if you must. There is all sorts of things to buy. Clothes, swords, jewelry, shirts, mugs or would those be goblets? I’m not sure but they had all sorts of cool things. We allowed the kids to pick out one thing a piece and they chose a sword, a flower headpiece, and a unicorn headpiece. We also picked up two small swords for our son and nephew just because.

The jousting event was incredible. It looks like it can hurt pretty bad getting stabbed with that joust and falling off your horse. Big props to both of the knights on all it takes to do what they’re doing. They had the crowd going wild. It was a great sight to see and the kids had a nice view seeing it all going down.

After spending several hours back in time the kids were tired and we headed out.

There was a few things that we missed out on that we would love to check out at another visit. We didn’t get to try out any of the meads (beers). Since we had the kids with us we didn’t want to drink any alcoholic beverages, but maybe on a kid free visit we can try out the pub crawl that they have, or just drink at our leisure. Also, just in case you had not realized, the Renaissance Festival isn’t just one weekend. It’s gonna be happening for a while and each weekend is a themed weekend. This weekend was Pet Fest. So attendees could bring their pups! We seen so many cute doggies today it was dog overload for my canine obsessed wife. Be sure to check out the website for more details about all of the event that are scheduled during STLrenfest!

The St. Louis Renaissance Festival is open weekends September 16 – October 15, 2017 10am-6pm Rain or Shine. Check them out at www.stlrenfest.com and on social media at @stlrenfest on all social channels!

St. Louis Dad was provided tickets to The St. Louis Renaissance Festival in exchange for an honest review.