Xtreme Craze in Foxboro is a great place for your child's birthday!

Xtreme Craze is an indoor inflatable air park with arcade and laser tag in Foxboro, Massachusetts conveniently located right off of Interstate 95. I had the pleasure of hosting my son's birthday party there recently with the Xtreme Combo Party which included a 1-hour session in the Inflatable Airpark and a 45-minute session consisting of four games of Laser Tag. 

Everything was so simple to coordinate and the only thing we needed to do was to show up with a cake and goodie bags for the attendees. Each party package includes:

• 8 guests, including the birthday child
• A reserved table for the duration of the party
• All of the paper products (including plates, forks, knives, and candles)
• Unlimited fountain drinks (included for any of the parents as well)
• A server to coordinate and serve your party
• Two large 16″ pizzas (16  slices in total)
• Additional Pizzas can be ordered on the day of at $14 per pizza

Our party was scheduled for noon and we showed up around 11:30 which gave us enough time to get familiarized with the location, fill out the waiver for my kids and meet Denna, our party host. She was so nice and took care of everything!

Once everyone arrived, we started the party with an hour in the all new upgraded inflatable air park. We had a great time jumping around and going down the fun slides and playing dodgeball. I even got in on the fun running around with my kids and enjoying all that they had to offer. We worked up such a sweat by exercising that afterwards we were ready to enjoy pizza and soft drinks that came with the party.

Everyone enjoyed lemonade and soda, while eating their pizza and relaxing a little bit from all of the running around. We didn't have to bring any utensils or worry about setting things up because the party hosts at Xtreme Craze took care of all of it for us!

Then, we went into the Laser Tag area where we watched a brief introduction video, where all of the children paid attention and were so excited to put on the vests and gear and get started. There were four rounds of the game with my kids winning the first two rounds and then my team caught up and figured out how to win the last two rounds. It ended after 45 minutes of running around with their team getting more points by capturing more of the hills in the game.

After playing laser tag, we finished up by eating cake and playing in the arcade room for 15 minutes until the party ended. People were welcome to stay later in the arcade, but we were absolutely wiped after all of the fun. 

So thankful to the team at Xtreme Craze for a great birthday party experience!

One of the many arcade games

At the top of one of the inflatables

The dining and party area

Another game

A fun arcade game

Running around the inflatable park

One of the large slides

The front registration desk when you walk in

NOTE: We were provided with the birthday party experience in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was provided and all opinions are our own.

Harlem Globetrotters shined in Providence

The Harlem Globetrotters came back to Providence and we really enjoyed seeing them at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence. The show was very entertaining and we absolutely love all of their antics. We arrived early and had the opportunity to watch them warm up and enjoy the festive atmosphere. They switch up the game of basketball with comedy and added a four-point shot which made things a bit more exciting. It really brings me back to my childhood to laugh and enjoy these games with my kids.

After the game the players all stay around for an autograph session and you want to be sure to bring things to autograph as the team is very approachable and happy to take photos with the kids and sign things. It is really nice because the players will spend a few moments talking with each kid as they sign their autograph and they are making memories that will last!

NOTE: I was provided with tickets to attend the show and facilitate the review. No other compensation was provided and all opinions are my own.

Harlem Globetrotters are back in providence!

The Harlem Globetrotters are back in New England! We absolutely love going to see them. I really enjoy taking my kids to see the show that brings together families, friends and basketball fans.

I'm excited to partner with them and be able to offer my readers: Save 20% Off Harlem Globetrotter Tickets Any Game Use Promo Code: USFAM https://www.usfamilyguide.com/coupon.php?bid=13043&dealid=2964

The Scooper Bowl has a whole new meaning for me on this World Kidney Cancer Day #partner

This year, one of my favorite events of the year has extra special meaning to me. The Scooper Bowl, an event held in downtown Boston where you can eat as much ice cream as you want, is held the first week in June and benefits the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and The Jimmy Fund. Today is World Kidney Cancer Day and has special meaning to me as my family has been affected by the disease, so I wanted to help raise awareness.

I have worked in downtown Boston for the past two decades; I learned about The Scooper Bowl one day walking through Boston and have made it a mission to go every year since and let as many people know as I can.

I had a great time and got to try some delicious ice cream from favorites like HP Hood, New England Ice Cream, Friendly's, Haagen Dazs, Bliss, Edy's, Alec's and Brigham's, as well as some brands new to me like Holy Cow Ice Cream Cafe, Jonny Pops, Melona, and Philadelphia Water Ice.

My favorite ice cream by far was pretty much every flavor from Holy Cow and HOLY COW their cereal milk as soooooo good as well as their award-winning Ritzy AF flavor - Salted Butter Cracker ice cream loaded with house-made Ritz Cracker Toffee Bark. Yum.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2021, they even had a Scooper Bowl-in-a-box at home version where you picked up kits at various places around Massachusetts and would hold your own event at your house! The team at DFCI was so creative to pivot so quickly and put together such an event.

If you're wondering why it has extra special meaning to me, that's because late last year, during my regular physical, my doctor ordered an ultrasound of my abdomen. Well, one thing led to another, and they found something on my left kidney, but they just weren't sure if it was cancer or not. Either way, it had to come out.

I had part of my kidney removed through a procedure called a Robotic Partial Nephrectomy. I'm super thankful for all of the surgeons, oncologists, doctors, nurses, medical staff, pathologists, anesthesiologists, and everyone on my care team at Mass General Brigham and Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

I am also grateful and blessed to live in the Boston area where we have world-class healthcare facilities, and educational institutions.

RealRacer by Kobotix is an amazing first-person driving experience!

We have been playing with RealRacer, a first-person remote control car driving experience using a car that connects to your iOS device. We had the chance to test out two of the cars and decided to have a little fun racing around our house. My little guy and I connected them to our phones, and we were quickly able to get moving.

The cars were very responsive, and they handled great, responding to the different turns and tricks we were trying to accomplish. They were very fast and responded appropriately to the increases and decreases in speed.

The best part of the experience was that once the car was out of sight, we could still see where we were going thanks to the camera mounted on top of the car and the great video quality that the car had.

What's great is that this is a perfect car for beginners. It is quick to learn, and you also can record videos and quick pictures through the app or on a microSD card that you insert into the car.

If you want the full-blown first-person driving experience, you can put your phone into the included headset and then you're off to the races. Careful with this option, especially if you tend to get motion sickness... We don't, so we enjoyed checking it out and having a ton of fun!

If you are looking for a great gift for the holidays this year, be sure to check out RealRacer by Kobotix and add it to your list!

NOTE: We were provided with two cars to race one another around the house and really enjoyed them! No other compensation was provided, and all opinions are our own.

Over the summer, we visited American Dream - largest indoor mall on the east coast!

Over the summer, we visited the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey - largest indoor mall on the east coast that has two indoor attractions including the DreamWorks Water Park - the largest indoor water park on our continent! We were in the area for our cousin's wedding and had the opportunity to have an adventure with the kids.

We had tickets for the Nickelodeon Universe and DreamWorks water park theme parks. Both of these are located directly in the mall, which is so cool, literally. Well, the Nickelodeon Park was cool - the DreamWorks Park was a comfortable 81 degrees since you were out of the water walking around from slide to slide and pool to pool. We spent one afternoon walking around the whole mall getting to know the setup and seeing what stores and attractions are there.

It's home to the first Toys 'R Us store since they closed, which has a slide that you can take to get from the second floor down to the first floor. Adults can go down the slide and have fun just like the kids! They also have a store called It's SUGAR which has three floors of any candy you can think of, even a whole kosher candy section. On the top floor, there is also the OREO cafe where you can order OREO-based desserts.

NICKELODEON UNIVERSE

You want to be sure to set aside at least a day for each theme park as there are a lot of attractions to check out. Some of the rides that we liked were the Dora Sky Pass and the Adventure Bay Paw Patrol experience. The Sky Pass was like a people mover experience that is nice and slow that will show a sky-high view of the indoor theme park. 

The kids also enjoyed meeting their favorite characters as there were meet and greets on the half-hour where you got to meet the characters and take pictures with them. It was great to meet the pups from Paw Patrol, SpongeBob, Dora and others!

The kids really enjoyed going on the Legends of the Hidden Temple Ropes Course challenge and even ventured up the 9 level ropes course, which had us a little squeamish from the ground - ah, to be young again!

The other fun rides that the kids liked were more like roller coasters but those aren't much my speed. We enjoyed going on Dora's Sky Railway which gave scenic views of the park from tracks that are above the attractions!

DREAMWORKS WATER PARK

The water park opens at 10 am and there is a line that forms starting at 9:30 and if you're lucky they will let folks start going down to start registering at 9:45. We arrived at 9:45 and promptly went down to check in. Check-in was easy and we walked in and waited for the park to open.

It was a steamy 81 degrees inside, and we quickly found chairs to put our items down on.  There were lots of places to relax and enjoy the water! Every so often, they would have some of the Nickelodeon characters appear and you could take photos with them! The kids were so excited to go swimming and enjoy the water slides that they only were able to take a few photos with their TV favorites.

We enjoyed taking in the entire experience from one of the private Skybox suites and had a nice place to go to so we could relax on a comfortable sofa, watch TV and had exclusive access to a VIP hot tub. If we were hungry, they had food delivery and pickup, complimentary Coca-Cola and snacks. They also gave two beach towels so we could dry off.

We look forward to visiting American Dream in years to come any time we go through NYC and nearby New Jersey!

NOTE: We were provided with complimentary passes to Nickelodeon Universe, DreamWorks Water Park and other attractions at American Dream. No other compensation was provided, and all opinions are our own.

It's been a long summer, lots going on!

Hello dear readers!

It has been a long summer with lots going on. Kids went to camps, we went on some trips to Legoland and American Dream and got to attend a cousin's wedding. I came back to start a new job, something I haven't done in over 15 years! We also continued planning our daughter's bat mitzvah happening later this year.

While they are all wonderful problems to have, what that meant is that the blog took a backseat to everything else, so in the coming months, I hope to have posts to inspire and enlighten you as well as to give you more information about things that we find interesting!