Disclosure: I received complementary tickets for Knott's Soak City, but all opinions are my own.

My son loves the pool. He enjoys the slides, just swimming but his favorite is the Tidal Wave Bay. So last Sunday when we were to Knott's Soak City he had so much fun. It was all fun under the sun.

We got there early and got a welcome from the park representatives. They gave us a goody bag with water toys, a towel and some snacks. They also provided us with access to the Cabanas. And if you are going to be at the Park all day that is the way to go.

Let me show you in pictures all the fun we had. My favorite is the Lazy River. I just enjoyed relaxing during the ride. My son loved the Tidal Wave Bay. But there is a little bit of something for everyone and people from all ages will have fun at Soak City. Even if you do not get in the water (my husband was injured) you will still have fun.

We had a very yummy lunch that included healthy options and my fellow bloggers surprised me by singing happy birthday and giving me a cute Snoopy cupcake. 

The service at all times was great. Safety is a priority at the Park as Cathy the supervisor explained to us. The park offers life jackets free of cost and the lifeguards are trained really well.

I want to thank Knott's Soak City for the invite and I can say it was a great way to celebrate my birthday.

You still have time to buy the Season Passes, before price goes up on May 27th. Hurry up and do not forget the sunscreen!

Disclosure: I am not being compensated for this post. My family and I were invited to celebrate Mother’s Day at the park and received complementary tickets. All opinions expressed are my own.

Mother’s Day, that special day that in my opinion should be celebrated every day, but I am happy at least we get recognized and celebrated once a year. For this year, my mother’s day celebration was perfect. My family and I got to visit Universal Studios in Hollywood and experience part of the VIP tours the park offers. I can tell you now not only I was happy but my son was super excited. And if you are a mom, you know that seeing your kids smile is the best present. So I can tell you my day was perfect.

We met with the wonderful people of Universal Studios Publicity department. They welcomed us and they gave us  a mother’s day goody bag present and introduced us to Nataly, our VIP experience guide

From there we went to The Simpsons ride, a simulator that makes you feel you are in a roller coaster. How cool is that? According to my son, it is super cool. And you know the best part? No lines, no waiting. Being part of the VIP experience allows you to go in front of the line so you do not miss any rides or shows.

From there we went to Jurassic Park. This was my first time riding Jurassic Park and the experience is unique. It is just like at the movie. It is amazing. My son was a little scared to ride it, but after he was telling his friends about how exciting this ride is. You do get wet, so I am glad Nataly our VIP tour guide had some ponchos for us.

It was time for the ride my son has been talking for months. We had been at Universal Studios just before they opened Transformers 3D, and it is has been my son’s dream to ride it. My son a true transformers fan manipulated the tour at this point. He knew the whole story line and characters. We had the opportunity to meet Juan Ledezma, Manager of operations of the ride, that gave us a very personalized tour and explained (with the help of my son) what was happening. The ride is by far one of the best rides I have ever been on. 

We also got to the ride the Mummy. So glad for the friends that stayed with Nico while dad and I went on the ride. But in case that you have little kids that do not want to ride the biggest rides, Universal Studios has rooms for parent switch, that allow parents to ride while the other one watches the kids and then switch without having to make the long line again. 

Then off to lunch we went. And lunch was in a private restaurant only for VIP experience pass holders. It is an all you can eat buffet with great food prepared by award-winning Executive Chef, Eric Kopelow. Lunch included” Shrimp, seafood, veggies, soups, fruit and so much more. The flavor was really good and the service was great as well.

After lunch we got to experience the park on our own. But thanks to the Front of the Line passes, we were able to skip the lines and see the rest of the shows and enjoy the rides.

The Studio Tour is one of the most popular rides. You get to go by the studios were shows as The Voice get filmed. You also see famous buildings such as the one from Back to the Future, Bates Motel (from Psycho) and the streets of Wisteria Lane (Desperate Housewives)

The park has so much to offer like Shrek 4D, Animal Actors Show and even playgrounds for the kids. If you are looking for something fun to do this summer with the kids, I recommend you take them to Universal Studios. Also, since lines might be long, consider buying the front of the line passes or even better the VIP experience.

So get your comfy shoes ready and start your Universal Studios experience. Both you and your kids will love it. And I hope your Mother's Day was as exciting as mine!

Disclosure: I am not being compensated for this post. My family and I were invited to celebrate Mother’s Day at the park and received complementary tickets. All opinions expressed are my own.

Summer is almost here and the last day of school is approaching. Kids will be at home, with no homework and a lot of energy. You know you want to take them out of the house to do fun staff but things are expensive. So take advantage of the summer movie programs. They have fun movies at a great price.

You can enjoy some movie family fun this summer. Here are two movies programs one from Muvico and one from Cinemark. It is a refreshing way to spend a hot summer day.

Muvico had a free summer movie program for 2013 is called the Muvico Free Summer Film Fest. The Muvico Free Summer Film Fest starts showing their free summer movies at 10:00 a.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning, from June 11, 2013 through August 15, 2013.

Here's the schedule of the free summer movies being shown at Muvico Theaters this summer:

·         June 11-13 - Despicable Me

·         June 18-20 - Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

·         June 25-27 - Rise of the Guardians

·         July 2-4 - The Smurfs

·         July 9-11 - Hotel Transylvania

·         July 16-18 - The Lorax

·         July 23-25 - Clifford's Really Big Movie

·         July 30 - August 1 - Happy Feet Two

·         August 6-8 - How to Train Your Dragon

·         August 13-15 - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Cinemark has also a movie program called  Cinemark Summer Movie Clubhouse. You can purchase tickets to 10 movies for $5 at cinemark.com or in advance at the box office. 
Tickets purchased at the box office on the day of the show are $1/ea for both children and adults. 

Each theater has a different schedule so make sure you check the schedule for your local theater for movies showing there.

This is not a sponsored post. I have received complementary passes to visit the park on opening weekend.

It feels like summer now. The heat and sun have arrived and my family is always looking for ways to have fun while staying cool. What a best way that going to Knott’s Soak City that will be opening May 18th.

Knott's Soak City is one of the favorite things to do in Southern California. One of the best things about the park is that you can find entertaining for everyone in the family.

The ride such as Banzai Falls is my son favorite. He loves the thrill of sliding down from a 41 feet high. I love seating and relaxing by the pools or just cruising around in the Sunset River.

With so many rides and fun, your family will be hungry. You can take your own snacks, or you can also enjoy good food at the park.

And for a more enjoyable day make sure you keep your family safe:

1.    Follow are the rules. Some rides might require that kids use a life west.

2.    Remember that it is slippery around pools. Avoid running. Just walk.

3.    It is going to be hot. Drink plenty of fluids to avoid heat stress

4.    Take your sunscreen and apply it often

5.    Take an umbrella and stay on the shade as much as you can

For more information you can visit Knott's Soak City website  and also be sure to get the Knott's Soak City season pass before May 27, 2013 - because that's when prices go up.

It is time to find the perfect swimming suit and have FUN. You can enter below and win two tickets to Soak City to visit the part with your family. See you at the park!

This is not a sponsored post. I have received complementary tickets to visit the park on opening weekend. All opinions expressed are my own.

Open only to U.S residents 18 years or older. Only one winner per household. Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery of prize. 

There is something you have when you visit Knotts Berry Farms, one of the California Amusements Parks. You will always have FUN.
And spring will not be any different, because with the "Knott's Spring Fling" available from March 23rd through April 7th awesome family activities, rides and shows will bring everyone in your family smiles.

What can you expect to find at the Knott's Spring Fling? 

• The Search for the Easter Beagle: Kids 3 to 11 can discover the park while looking for images of Snoopy!  All children who complete the quest will have a chance to win giveaways!
  

• Peanut’s Party in the Park: This new interactive show will take place in Charleston Circle and will feature some of today’s most popular songs as the Peanuts gang.
  

• Big Boardwalk Board Games: Head over to Knott’s Boardwalk where you and your family will be featured as over-sized game pieces in some of your favorite board games.
  

• Lucy’s Really Big Show: Located in Camp Snoopy, Lucy will star in her very own show, joined by her brother Linus and his friends Charlie Brown and JT.
• Grande 3-D Art Show: Step into life-size drawings of some of nature’s most beautiful spring scenery for awesome photo opps (located at the Silver Bullet midway).

• Spring Fling Dance Party: Tweens and teens can dance the night away in Fiesta Village.
  
• Adults wanna have fun too! Make sure to take a trip to Knott’s Towering Topiary Gardens located in Wilderness Dance Hall. Everyone will enjoy the display of sculpted greenery while the adults can enjoy a tasting garden featuring wines from around the world, craft beers and farm fresh food offerings (additional fees may apply).

The park will offer extended hours (10 am to 10 pm) so the guess can enjoy all the fun and of course enjoy of the other rides and shows that make Knott's a fun place for the whole family.

Disclosure: No compensation was received for this post. Media passes were provided by GigaSavvy. All opinions are my own.

Do you have plans for Sunday, March 3rd in the afternoon? If not, I have the perfect idea for you

How about a place where foodies will have the opportunity to taste some of the best food around LA? 
The annual LA Weekly Plate that is held each year at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles will be taken place this year on March 3rd.

So far the following restaurants are confirmed: Border Grill, Canelé, Eva, Fred 62, Huckleberry, Jitlada, La Casita Mexicana, Little Dom's, Lukshon, Mo-Chica, Night + Market, Nickel Diner, Oinkster, Parks BBQ, Phillippe's, Picca, Tom Bergin's and Valentino. Imagine. But you can be sure that there will be more announced soon.



Where:
Petersen Automotive Museum
6060 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036

I was lucky enough to attend an event on celebration of the holiday release of ICE AGE: Continental Drift on Blu-ray/DVD at the Ice Age Palace at the Beverly Center in Los Angeles.


The Ice Palace is a 30-foot ice dome with falling snow, lights and interactive globes that show Scrat trying to finally reach his acorn.

Visitors at yesterday's event were able to walk through the interactive Ice Age Ice Palace and meet talent on-hand including Keke Palmer (voice of “Peaches”), Blue Sky Studios’ Award-Winning Character Designer Peter de Seve. There were also Special guest appearances from the ICE AGE characters: Sid and Scrat.

The new Blu-ray/DVD will feature "Picture-in-Picture" signing! It's like subtitles but with an actor/actress  on the screen doing sign language for the hearing impaired. Here is a clip:

The event was really fun and the movie available on Blu-Ray/DVD on December 11th is a family favorite.

From now to the end of the month, all Taubman Shopping Centers nationwide will have this very cool attraction for you to visit.

Oh, and I also got to tell Santa all the things on my wish list....

Disclosure: I was invited to attend the event, but I was not compensated to write this post. All opinions are my own.

I am always looking for new places to visit with my son that will educate and entertain at the same time. My son loves animals. We visit frequently the Zoo, SeaWorld and other places. So when I found out about the Wildlife Learning Center I knew we had to take a trip.

The place is small, it took us like just 2 hours to visit and that even includes the behind the scene activity we chose. My son liked that we were out soon, so we had time to visit the mall and do some window shopping too.

I recommend visiting, because you will be learning about animals, and at the same time you will be supporting a great cause, saving wildlife animals. I think this place does a wonderful job rescuing all this wild animals and providing a place for them to live and a place for kids to be educated.

Besides seeing all the animals, you can choose a behind the scene activity to interact with some of the animals. It is an extra fee but my son really enjoyed petting the fox. As I saw it, I was donating money, not spending it.

The Wildlife Learning Center is located at 16027 Yarnell St, Sylmar, CA 91342


Disclosure: I am writing this post, because I like sharing experiences. I paid for my own entry tickets and was not compensated. All opinions are my own.

For most being at Maui, means relaxing, being by the pool, tanning, drinking and eating.  However I do like to explore and do more things during our vacations.

I do sleep in, try to do “nothing” but I like to explore the places, mostly when I know I will probably not be visiting soon.

While all my research about Maui, I found out about the Maui Tropical Plantation, where you can take a pretty inexpensive tour, and they teach you about the fruits and plants from the Island. My son, who is seven, was very interested during the tour. I was worried that was not going to be something he wanted to do, but he really enjoyed it, to the point of asking if we could take it again another day.

We also did some snorkeling. Although there are several beaches that might be good to see some fish and even sea turtles, I do recommend that you take one of the boat tours that take you to the Molokini Crater in the ocean. There you can really see corals, sea turtles and even dolphins. Some of these tours even offer lunch and the one we took had a glass bottom that gave my son a better viewing experience. 

For those that are not good swimmers, I do recommend to take a submarine tout. There are a few of these as well. Since I knew we were going to be snorkeling, I took the cheapest one, but if are not going to be out in the ocean I will recommend to take the most expensive so you can see more things.

Another adventure is Zip-line. My son always wanted to do this, but most places have a height and weight requirement. At the Maui Zip-line they have a family zip-line where kids as young as five can zip-line. My son really liked this experience I do recommend that you try it at least once. 

I will also recommend that you visit Maui Ocean Center.  If you buy the tickets online with three days in advance you get a discount. They have interactive experiences that will sure keep the little ones entertained. 

And my last recommendation, it is of course a Luau. You cannot visit Hawaii and leave without watching the show and eating the local feast. Almost all resorts offer one. I recommend you read reviews and book one in advance because they fill up fast. Most offer an option of VIP for an additional fee. The VIP allows you to eat first and be closed to the stage, so you can have a better view. Prices and offers change very often so I will advise you to research what it is better for your family. When I booked mine they had a free child with paying adult, but that offer is not available at the time I am writing this.

And with this, we end our series of post about our trip to Maui. I hope that if you are traveling there any soon, our experience and advice would be helpful.

If you have missed any of the post they are 

Travel to Maui, HI 
Sunrise at the Haleakala (volcano crater)
Drive west on highway 30
Road to Hana

Well my friends, in the part 1, part 2 and part 3 of the series trip to Maui, I have been all about things you want to do driving your car and not using some of the expensive tour agencies. This post is different. I will still give you advice that can save you money, since that is the purpose of these series of posts, but for the adventure that I will describing today, I DO recommend that you get a tour.

The main reason for me to suggest not to drive yourself is: you will not enjoy as much. The road to Hana becomes very narrow and hard to drive. You will be driving to the rain forest. I am very glad I listened to my friends and booked the tour online. It was raining and I would have just probably turned around afraid of driving on the slippery narrow road.

The tour is an all day thing. So be prepared and take everything you might need, including extra batteries for your camera. There are so many great things to see.

Since the road is on the rain forest, there are lots of waterfalls, beautiful trees and plants and of course beaches as well.  You will be taking many pictures and having a guided tour will help you learn about the different plants in the area.

Because of the narrow road, the tours are in minivans, which mean it is only a few people there. That makes it easy to stop in different places. Take snacks and drinks with yo. Our tour included a lunch and drinks with the lunch, but the rest of the 8 hours you have to either buy or eat what you have.

I found a great website to find tours and also information about Maui. The rates are cheaper than other sites. ( Let me clarify here I am not being compensated I am just letting you know about the website I used and found to be cheaper after several hours of research.)

As of many of the other activities you are going to be doing in Maui, remember that you have to walk, climb and hike so take comfortable shoes and a light jacket. It can be raining or it could be a lot of breeze at times. Also do not forget your swimming suit and towels.

Now, seat and enjoy your tour. You will be seeing amazing places like the O’heo Gulch Pools (a.k.a Seven Sacred Pools), the grave site of Charles Lindbergh and the black sand beach at Waianapanapa State Park among other beautiful places.

A personal tip here: Do not forget to buy banana bread, it is so good.