Fun Things On Our Calendar.....

Next Month (July):
I'm so excited for the fun things that we have marked on our calendar!!! We have a 4 day mini-vacation coming next month (July)! We are going on a 5 hour road trip up to Paso Robles, where we will be attending our second Fresh Beat Band concert with VIP backstage passes to their party (Woop woop)!! We have reservations at a cute Inn for 3 nights, and we will attend the famous Mid-State fair, and more! Even though we will be in the middle of beautiful Wine Country, we aren't planning on going wine tasting since this is a family trip, but we will be exploring the sites, going to the Children's Museum, and possibly will even go up to Hearst Castle (time permitting)!

The following weekend, I am going to a Scrapbook Workshop -many of the industries top artists will be there- I am really looking forward to meeting some of them for the first time, and getting to play and learn lots of new ideas!! Fun treat for mommy!!

Between our 4th of July festivities, our vacation with concert, and my scrapbook workshop, and most likely a squeezed in Disneyland trip- the month of July is definitely going to be a whirlwind of fun!

More This Summer:
We also have plans to take the family to a few of my favorite beaches this summer too! We are planning on making a few mini vacays at the beaches (staying for 3-4 days at a time). We will be going to Redondo Bch to the Seaside Lagoon (one of my favorite spots as a kid) as well as my favorite surfing beach County Line (which is a little secret of the 'locals'- I used to be one, hehe) and surfing beaches are way better than crowded 'family/tourist beaches'.  We will also be going to Catalina Island for a few days too. 


Later This Year (November):
Maletch is also looking forward to 2 events a little further out- in November: We already have tickets to what will then be our third Fresh Beat Band concert. We also have tickets to our third "Day Out with Thomas" (the train). Thomas only comes to So Cal once a year, so he counts down to this all year long!

It is interesting/ funny what has happened with the Fresh Beat Band tour. I heard that at first many venues were reluctant to 'book them' for fear that they wouldn't sell enough tickets to fill a large venue... but as soon as they announced their tour schedule, tickets sold out everywhere (some within minutes, some within just a few days)- it was quite the frenzy! Concert promoters immediately began contacting them begging them to add their venues to their tour schedule, and immediately their tour tripled in size (with added show times and cities). They kept expanding their tour trying to accommodate the demand, but every show has sold out almost instantly, and many national newspapers and magazines have covered the story that "Fresh Beat Band tickets are harder to get than Springsteen tickets." What is terrible is the price gouging that is happening on Stub Hub: for good seats like ours, they are getting about 2000 bucks a piece and regular tickets are running between 500-1000 bucks a piece- insanity! I have even heard that a few celebrities have tried using their Hollywood connections to try to get tickets for their kids, and after being made fun of (for that being how they wanted to use their connections) even they are complaining that their connections couldn't help! VIP tickets are practically all but impossible to get since they are so limited and sell out literally- in minutes!

Needless to say, we were very lucky to get any seats to our first concert (in Feb)- let alone front row with VIP backstage passes- (that really took pulling a lot of strings)- and we have been lucky with all of our good tickets for all 3 shows! You can't believe the number of upset parents complaining that they can't get tickets to all of the sold out shows, and also the number of parents getting hosed for thousands of dollars for scalped ones! I feel really bad for those parents, especially since I am so thankful to be able to share something so fun and exciting with my kids, and knowing that we are creating memories that will last a lifetime!
Maletch has not stopped talking about his interactions with the band, "Twist thanked me for going up on stage and high-fiving him, he said that it made the songs more cool"... "Remember when Sariah was crying when Shout was holding her, why was she crying mommy?".... and endless other stories... the experiences and memories are truly priceless!
I can't wait for July!We are coming back Fresh Beats, and this time Sariah will be singing along too!
I am especially excited to watch the kids interact with the band again backstage- you know Maletch considers them best friends, hehe! Although, I imagine that Maletch will manage to interact with them again before we even get backstage, lol-- like last time during the concert! This time Sariah will definitely recognize them and she can interact too- amazing how 5 months time makes such a difference with little ones!
How lucky are we- at the end of the year, we will have been to 3 Fresh Beat Band concerts in 2012: Feb, July, Nov

You know I will be posting LOTS of photos and videos from all of the fun places will be going!! Wish you could join us!
Let me know if any of you want to plan to go to a concert next year-- once the 2013 tour schedule is posted, we can plan it VIP of course. We need to get our tickets before they go on sale to the public though- so I have to know ahead of time!!