Family Fun

Nintendo Wii U Extends Social Experience, Family Fun #WiiU

May 5, 2013 By JavaMom Leave a Comment

Despite JavaDad’s protests, I began lobbying for a family gaming system four years ago when JavaBoy entered Kindergarten. I could see that video games would eventually be one of the factors in our kids’ social lives as to who wanted to play at whose house. By having a gaming system in place, I wanted us to become familiar enough with the games to know what our kids would be playing elsewhere, and of course I hoped we would become what used to be called “the Kool-Aid house,” a place where the neighborhood kids wanted to come play.

After much thought and consideration, we bought a Nintendo Wii console.. It seemed the most family-friendly of the choices, had what was then considered an innovative interactive form of controller, and it was a system I truly saw us playing with together. And I was right — my husband’s 40th birthday was a Wii Party!

Back then, I had no affiliation with Nintendo. Today, I am a Nintendo Social Media Ambassador, which simply means their PR company sends me products from time to time to try out and while they hope I’ll talk about it, I’m not required to. If you are a long-time reader, you know my opinions are always my own.

Which is how I happened to have about 30 friends* and two very nice (and yes, I’ll say it, quite adorable) representatives from Nintendo’s PR team in my house last week, trying out the Wii U. It sounded fun. It was also great motivation for getting the whole family to pitch in and straighten up the house. Win-win, right?

Why would I worry, right? (Yes, this is the “give me your tiger/crazy face” shot.)

Shortly before the party, I became slightly panicky at the thought of 30 people in my house playing a game with five remotes. Especially since about half of those people were under the age of 10. So in addition to the Wii U set-up that Nintendo provided, I managed to bring in another one and set up a “kids room” in one room and an “adults room” in the other. Just wanted to bring that up so you didn’t get the crazy idea I normally keep a Wii U in my formal living room. Or a large gaggle of children.

This is merely half-a-gaggle of children.

In a nutshell, everything I liked about my original Wii — family-friendly, interactive, promotes movement rather than being a couch potato while playing — still exists in the Wii U. However, enhanced features such as TVii, streaming video and Wii U Chat, both reduces the remote control clutter and extends the entertainment functionality of our family room.

What’s Different

Playing with the Wii U GamePad in Nintendo Land's Mario Chase.

My friend S. is very focused on the Wii U GamePad during a round of Nintendo Land’s Mario Chase!

The GamePad is the most obvious change between the original Wii and the Wii U, but more than just a fancy new remote, it radically alters the way games are played. In addition to allowing you to have a fifth player in many games, it is a touch screen with a camera, and allows you to participate in the game in a different way from the other 1-4 players holding regular remotes. For example, you may be the only one who can see the entire layout of a course — in Mario Chase (Nintendo Land), the player with the GamePad is Mario and runs a maze to escape the Toads. Only Mario can see the entire maze and everyone’s position. The perspectives of the Toads are divided onto the TV screen. There is an option that allows the Toads to watch live video of the face of the person holding the GamePad either for fun or to see if that gives away any clues as to Mario’s location (i.e. shifting eyes).

On the TV screen you can see the perspective of the remote-holders in Mario Chase.

Outside of gameplay, the GamePad can become an interactive TV remote with Nintendo TVii; provide access to video on demand services such as Amazon Instant video, Hulu Plus and Netflix (service subscription required); and bring YouTube and the rest of the Internet to your TV.

Wii U Chat allows you to video chat via the camera and microphone on the GamePad with another Wii U user. My kids enjoyed interacting with their cousins this way (the video can appear on both the GamePad and the TV) not only because of the video chat, but the added feature of being able to “scribble” on each other with the stylus. You must be approved “friends” in order to chat, and like most Nintendo products, there are ways to lock this down, so I feel pretty confident about giving my own kids access to this. They can’t add a friend without my intervention.

We haven’t explored everything in the Miiverse, but again, we have been able to keep the parental controls pretty tight, so we are comfortable with this interactive/social portion of the Wii U.

The Wii U console typically does not come with remotes other than the GamePad. If you had a previous Wii, although your old remotes will work, if you hadn’t already upgraded to the Wii Motion or Motion Plus remotes, I highly recommend doing so as some of the new games take advantage of the vibrations and other features of the Motion remotes.

Your regular Wii games will still work on this console, but the Wii U games will take advantage of the added dimension of the GamePad. It is difficult (for me, at least) to explain how much this allows the game developers to enhance the creativity and interactivity of a game — you really need to play it to grasp it.

The Games We Played

Nintendo Land appeals to me because it has a variety of games that use different types of skills. At the opening you walk into a virtual theme park with attractions based on different Nintendo worlds. My favorite is Luigi’s Ghost Mansion where the person holding the GamePad is the Ghost and can see all the other players in a haunted house and tries to scare them to death. Meanwhile, they have flashlights and try to shine it on the ghost. They work as a team, knowing the ghost is nearby if their (Wii Motion) remote vibrates, and try to zero in on its location. There are so many games on this disc, we haven’t played every level of every game — but it is a quick way to entertain any group of people (no matter what age or skill level).

Luigi’s Haunted Mansion in Nintendo Land is my favorite game. I am partial to playing the role of the ghost!

In Super Mario Bros. U, the whole gang is here, including your Mii characters! With new worlds and new power-ups, the changes aren’t merely in the scenery the GamePad player can help by adding bricks to block the bad guys or help the team get a lift.

I love how K. goes from “game face”…

… to laughter in a split second!

SiNG Party was clearly the hit of the evening with the adults, but the kids loved it too. Unlike traditional karaoke where all eyes are on the singer, this party game has prompts for the dancers (that’s the rest of the crowd!) so everyone can get in on the fun. One or two special Wii U microphones can be plugged into the console.

The Results

Pure hilarity!

Can you guess which song we we were singing and dancing to here?

My friend J. wowed the crowd by crooning a classic Monkees song.

Oh sure, the kids are dancing, but notice who is REALLY into it. Yep… the adults!

I didn’t personally get much time to play during the party as I was running around taking photos and cheering like a maniac and making sure, for example, that children didn’t get chocolate cake on the white sofas. I had no worries that the kids would enjoy themselves — they figured things out quickly, mobbed the screen and yelled out instructions to each other. But the adults! Oh my! I loved watching them transform from cautious, polite parents (“Oh no, it’s okay, you can take the GamePad first…”) to singing and dancing rock stars. The laughter as they teamed up for games reminded me we are all kids at heart. Which is why I’m going to make a point to invite families over (not just kids) to play more often.

Resources

The Wii U game console is available in different configurations and bundles ranging from about $299 – $350 from a variety of big box stores/retailers/e-tailers. For more information and/or purchase, you may be interested in the official Nintendo Wii U site at http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu. If you are having trouble finding it locally, you may be interested in using my Amazon Associates affiliate link, which will allow you to support Caffeine and a Prayer at no additional cost to you.

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Wii U is a trademark of Nintendo. KOOL-AID is a trademark of Kraft Foods Groups LLC.

*If we know each other IRL and you weren’t invited, it doesn’t mean you aren’t my friend. It’s because I don’t have a house large enough to invite everyone I wanted to. Ping me if you want to come play!

Filed Under: Family Fun, Reviews Tagged With: Nintendo, Wii U Leave a Comment

S’mores Represent Everything Great About Camping #CampBondFire #smores

August 23, 2012 By JavaMom 2 Comments

Mention going camping and JavaGirl will inevitably ask, “Will there be s’mores?” The two are inextricably intertwined in her mind and I fear the day when she encounters a camping trip without that marvelous, gooey treat. The disappointment is sure to involve tears brimming in her big, brown eyes while trying to put on a brave face — a look so pitiful that it breaks the heart of any grown man within a 50-foot radius.

Her association is not unique. I, too, can’t imagine a campfire without s’mores. In fact, I love all campfire cooking. S’mores were essentially the gateway to teaching me all about the joys of harnessing the raw power of fire to produce cooked food out in the wilderness.

Don’t get me wrong. I covet my air conditioning and California King pillowtop bed as much as the next girl, but I appreciate how empowering camping feels and I am dismayed at how often I see families shy away from it. Both JavaKids are in scouts and when their organizations have family camping trips, I’m astonished and disheartened by the number of families who choose to come for the day and not stay overnight. We switched JavaGirl from one troop to another and one deciding factor was an insistence of one of the organizer that camping trips be catered. What?!

Most of my camping growing up was done as a Girl Scout, with my church youth group, or at summer camps. Through these experiences I learned:

everything from how to pitch a tent to how to make an emergency lean-to;
not to be afraid of spiders (okay, sometimes I still am, but not as much);
that I can cope with scorpions, leeches and ticks (not that I want to, but I can);
a little bit of rain isn’t going to kill me;
going to the bathroom in the woods is also not going to kill me (even if the cow who snuck up on me and mooed almost gave me a heart attack);
I am capable of paddling a canoe for 20 miles;
I can build a fire;
I can use a pocketknife without ending up in the ER;
you can wrap just about anything in tin foil or put it on a stick and it will taste terrific when cooked on a campfire;
and most importantly — you don’t need electronic gadgets to have a good time and nothing is as beautiful as a starry sky on a cloudless night when you are far away from city lights.

As parents, we hear so much about self-esteem. We are bombarded with media reports with interviews of “experts” telling us what we should be doing to build up our kids’ self-esteem, what tears it down. What causes bullies, what is media doing to this generation’s self-esteem? Are we eating dinner together enough as a family? Are they watching the right shows, the wrong shows? In the right sports? Are we praising them correctly?

And then we refuse to spend a night outdoors with them? And teach them some basic life skills? Really?

It may not seem like much, but give a kid a stick and a marshmallow and watch his face. Why is he so delighted? Do you think it is really just the sugary snack? I mean, yes, I think s’mores are a slice of heaven — the honey-crunchy goodness of the graham cracker and just-right softly melted chocolate with the ooey-gooey marshmallow. Pure bliss! But what your kid is thinking is, “My mom just handed me something pointy! And she is letting me step next to a FIRE! And wow, I can transform this marshmallow! COOL!” Watch how your kid experiments with the different ways to cook the marshmallow — holding it close to the fire, further away from the fire, actually setting it on fire. Call it science if you want to (and indeed, it is!) But part of it is also esteem-building. A sense of control. No, the cavemen didn’t have s’mores, but imagine how they felt, experimenting with fire.

When I’m in charge of the s’mores supplies (and I usually am, because I don’t want to disappoint JavaGirl!) I like to mix things up a bit and prepare a s’mores buffet. For the last camping trip, I brought chocolate marshmallows, jumbo marshmallows as well as the standard ones. I provided chocolate graham crackers and the usual honey ones. Because kids often dive into s’mores like locusts on a fresh crop, I like to prepare plates with the crackers already broken into half (s’mores sized — although now you can also buy some already in squares), the marshmallows in bowls, and the chocolates already portioned in bowls. A trick I’ve learned is that you can also use the snack-sized Hershey’s chocolate bars rather than breaking the large ones — I go with whatever is the best price at the time.

We have amassed a collection of telescoping campfire forks over the years. It began with our wedding registry when I saw some for the first time at Crate & Barrel and just had to have them. People thought we were crazy and they were one of our most remarked-upon registry items (but we received them!) Since then, we’ve managed to acquire more and now bring extras with us to every camping event. For some reason, this “civilized” way of making s’mores appeals to the non-campers and we’ve noticed that the adults are willing to jump in on the s’mores making if handed a telescoping fork.

When everyone is nestled into their seats, munching on their s’mores, I try to engage them in conversation about other campfire foods. Banana boats, hobo hamburgers, hobo omlettes. Recently I’ve acquired some pie irons and am itching to make some mountain pies. My kids started with s’mores, but have now learned to cook other foods as well. It was the food that lured JavaGirl into being willing to try camping even though she wasn’t sure if she wanted to stay in a tent overnight. And now she’s a tent-sleeping, frog-catching, s’mores-cooking camper, just like her brother. Looking forward to the day when she’ll get her own pocketknife so she can try her hand at whittling like he does. It is my hope that by getting other families to see that campfire cooking is fun, they will then be willing to give up a night of air-conditioning to try out sleeping in a tent and discover what else camping has to offer. Frankly, s’mores are the universal lures of campfire cooking — not everyone likes hot dogs!

Yes, we can make s’mores on forks or in foil packets on the grill. We have an indoor s’mores maker with a sterno pot. Now you can even make them in the microwave. But there’s something to be said about instilling the love of the old-fashioned way – around a campfire with your friends, just before retiring to your tent filled with the memories of a day spent outdoors and the confidence that can only be gained by doing things yourself and knowing that if you ever really did have to rely only on yourself, you could.

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Disclosure: National S’mores Day was Friday, August 10. But who needs a special day to enjoy this awesome treat? My kids’ first experience with s’mores was not on a camping trip, though I highly reccommend that if you can! Find a time this summer or fall to spend some time outdoors with your family around a campfire roasting some marshmallows. I had the pleasure of riding the Hershey’s #CampBondfire sponsored bus home from BlogHer ’12, which inspired this post. Hershey’s and Walmart provided me with a ride home from BlogHer, two scrumptious s’mores kits, and some “welcome home” goodies from Walmart.

Filed Under: Family Fun, From the Heart Tagged With: BlogHer, family, food, Hershey's, Kids, Motherhood, parenting 2 Comments

Giveaway: Four-Pack of BrickFair Tickets for LEGO Fans

July 18, 2012 By JavaMom 36 Comments

Child looking at LEGO airplane at BrickFair

Children visiting the airport diorama at last year’s BrickFair. Photo courtesy of Abe Friedman, provided by BrickFair.

LEGO fans comes in all sizes — from kids to AFOLs (adult fans of LEGO). An estimated 17,000 of them will come to the self-acclaimed largest LEGO fan festival in US at BrickFair ’12 at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA August 4-5 this summer and you can enter a giveaway for a four-pack of tickets!

The fan festival expects to have more than a thousand exhibitors with LEGO creations of all sizes as well as vendors with items such as minifigures, custom-molded weapons, and unique models. If your kids are like mine, all this LEGO-stimulation will leave them eager to get their hands on a few blocks of their own, so fortunately there’s a Stay ‘N Play area filled with bricks where they can unleash their creativity!

BrickFair ’12

August 4 -5, 2012
11 am – 4 pm
Dulles Expo Center
4230 Chantilly Center
Chantilly, VA 20153
Tickets: 3 and under – FREE, everyone else $10 at door
No strollers please

You can buy tickets at the door for $10, but why not try for a four-pack of tickets right here?

Caffeineandaprayer.com’s BrickFair ’12 Ticket Giveaway Rules:

These tickets are good for one day only, at BrickFair ’12 in Chantilly, VA August 4 or 5 from 11 am to 4 pm. In fairness to others, please enter only if you actually plan on using the tickets. They have a total value of $40.
US entrants only, please.
Entrants must be 18 years or older.
Tickets will be physically mailed to you, so if you are the winner, you will need to be willing to provide me a mailing address within 24 hours of being announced as the winner.
To enter: Please comment on THIS blog post with a comment that includes the phrase “BrickFair.” For example, you can say, “My kids have 6 billion tickets and we would LOVE to go to the BrickFair!” or “I am married to an AFOL and would love to surprise my spouse with BrickFair tix” or “Wow, JavaMom, you are the coolest blogger in the world for bringing us this opportunity for BrickFair tickets…” (no, really, what you say has no bearing on who wins, I promise!) If you do not have the phrase “BrickFair” in your comment, you are immediately disqualified!
You can earn EXTRA entries by tweeting about this giveaway as long as you meet the following conditions:
1. Include a link to this post
2. Either include @brickfair or #brickfair
3. Include @caffandaprayer
4. Comment here with a link to your tweet and include “BrickFair” (i.e. “I tweeted about BrickFair and here is my link: _____)
In all your entries, you must include a valid email address so I may contact you if you are the winner.
I must be able to reach you via that email address within 24 hours of the end of the giveaway so I can notify you that you are the winner and get your snail mail address and mail you your tickets. If I am not able to reach you, I will move on to the next person. I am not responsible for email that
Winners will be selected at random from all qualified entrants.
Giveaway ends midnight, Eastern time, Thursday, July 26, 2012.
Have fun and good luck!

UPDATE: We have a winner! Using the sequence generator at Random.org to pick a winner from an Excel spreadsheet list of the names of the qualified entrants, LEGOMOM is the winner. She has been notified and has responded. Thank you, everyone, for your comments! And thank you, BrickFair, for providing tickets for the giveaway.

Tired of stepping on lots of little LEGO pieces at home? You might enjoy my previous blog post about LEGO organization.

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Disclosure: BrickFair provided four tickets for the giveaway and a set of complimentary tickets for my family. All photos are provided by the BrickFair convention. LEGO is a trademark of the LEGO Group.

Filed Under: Family Fun, Giveaway, Local Events Tagged With: BrickFair, family fun, LEGO, Legos, STEM 36 Comments

How To Train Your Dragon Live 25% Off Promo Code

July 6, 2012 By JavaMom 1 Comment

Toothless takes flight in How to Train Your Dragon Live. Photo Credit: Lisa Tomasetti.

This 25% off promo code is good for weekday (including Friday) performances of select seats of the production How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular in all cities. See the end of the post for more details.

One of my favorite parts of being a parent is watching my children and waiting for that eye-widening moment of wonder and astonishment as they experience something for the first time. It’s that moment I can’t wait for when we attend the July 19 show of How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC. I’m already giddy just looking at the photos and videos of the show, I can only imagine their reactions to the enormous, free-roaming animatronic dragons as well as watching Toothless take flight right before their very eyes.

How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular represents the combined effors of DreamWorks Animation, producers of the Academy Award®-nominated film, How to Train Your Dragon, and Global Creatures, the masterminds behind the international phenomenon Walking with Dinosaurs, the number one grossing world tour of 2010. Based on the book by Cressida Cowell, it focuses on a Viking teen (Hiccup) struggling with his tribe’s tradition of heroic dragon slaying, and the conflict that ensues when he encounters a dragon who challenges all he thought he knew about dragons.How To Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular immerses the audience in the story with bigger-than-life fire-breathing state-of-the-art animatronic dragons interacting with actors and trained acrobats in a full-arena live performance.

I can already see that there is going to be something for each of us in this show. JavaGirl will be entranced by the creatures. JavaBoy, of course, will enjoy the action-adventure portions. And JavaDad and I will geek out enjoying all the technology behind it — for example knowing that each of large dragon weighs about 2.6 tons (about the size of an average family car!) and covering the 23 dragons required more than 2 miles of “dragon skin.”

These dragons are massive — the official promotional video clip is gorgeous, but I think the NBC Today Show interview gives you a much better feel for the size of the dragons in comparison to people as well as how they will “behave” — it may be a good way to prepare your children for the show.

You can further enhance the experience with VIP packages that include a Hero’s Welcome from Hiccup and Astrid, backstage tours to meet the dragons and more. Note that the coupon code is not valid for the VIP packages.

How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular will be at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC July 19-22. Regular ticket prices range from a low of $29.50 to a high of $69.50 (excluding fees). A limited number of premium seats and special VIP ticket experiences and family packages are also available. See www.dreamworksdragonslive.com for details on tickets and times. Promo code information is below.

How to Save:

There is currently a Living Social deal for 50% off that runs until the 11th, this information is for the DC area only.
Purchase your tickets online and enter the promo code MOM in the “Mom blogs” promo box. If you are buying tickets for an area other than DC and do not see the “mom blogs” promo box, I have been told that you can enter the code in the general promo box. Please note that not all cities have put their tickets on sale yet. This promo code is good for a 25% off discount on select seats for WEEKDAY (including Friday) shows.

Get a Sneak Preview of a Baby Dragon

See a baby dragon and his Viking trainer at the Gaylord National Resort Saturday, July 7! Kids and their families are invited to a free live performance featuring a seven-foot-tall, 14-foot-long, smoke-breathing Baby Dragon and his brave trainer as they take kids on a magical and humorous journey to learn how to train a dragon. Kids will learn the three important lessons every young dragon trainer should know and will become an “Official Dragon Trainer” for the day. Kids will also receive a special coupon valid for discounted tickets to the DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular show at the Verizon Center.

Schedule:

6:00 – 6:15 pm – DreamWorks Character Parade featuring the Baby Dragon
The Dragon will join the other DreamWorks characters (Shrek, Kung Fun Panda, etc.) as they march thru Gaylord’s Atrium interacting with guests.
7:45 – 8:00 pm – Dragon Training Show
The Baby Dragon and his Viking Trainer will give a live, 15-minute performance that features many fun, interactive moments with the kids in the audience.
9:30 pm – Gaylord National’s Summer Fireworks Show
Afterwards, stick around to enjoy a summertime tradition at Gaylord National – fireworks every Saturday night over the Potomac River. The best view is along the waterfront!

Fun Facts about How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular:

THE MOST TECHNICALLY ADVANCED TOUR INTEGRATING ANIMATRONICS, PROJECTIONS, LIVE CAST AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES.

Global Creatures & DreamWorks have partnered to bring the Academy-Award® nominated film to life with real flying, fire-breathing dragons.

The production is four years in the making.

The production has the largest number of animatronics ever to tour the globe.

The Red Death Dragon is the largest animatronic ever built by Creature Technology Company at over 40 feet high and 60 feet wide.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON LIVE SPECTACULAR IS THE LARGEST FAMILY TOUR EVER PRODUCED!

Travels in over 30 18-Wheeler Trucks (52’ each) with a touring cast & crew of 85.

Together the show weighs over 200,000 pounds.

It would take one person over a year to load in the production.

Takes over 160 people to set up the production in each city (the equivalent of one person working 24 hours over 70 days).

If all the cables in the production were laid out end to end, they would stretch from Los Angeles to New York City.

DRAGONS TAKE TO THE SKY WITH GROUND-BREAKING TECHNOLOGY!

The production created the first-ever touring flight track system that weighs over 28 tons.

The flight track uses a proprietary barcode system. The creatures scan a barcode strip as they fly around the track which tells them (and us) where they are at all times.

Toothless weighs over 7,500 pounds and flies over 1.2 miles throughout the performance which is equivalent to a Range Rover soaring through the arena.

There are more automation cues in the opening sequence alone than a Broadway musical has in a night.

The first-ever fully immersive live experience with projection spanning more than 20,000 square feet throughout the entire arena. The back projection wall is equivalent to 9 movie screens combined.

THE DRAGON FACTS & FIGURES.

Produced over a two-year period in Melbourne, Australia.

23 dragons.

12 different dragon species represented.

Dragon wings span up to 46 feet.

Each large dragon weighs over 2.6 tons (the size of a family car).

Over 2 miles of “dragon skin” was created.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON LIVE SPECTACULAR FOLLOWS ON THE HEELS OF THE HUGE SUCCESS OF WALKING WITH DINOSAURS!

Before “Walking With Dinosaurs,” no free-roaming animatronics of this scale existed.

Creature Technology Company has become a world leader in animatronic technology.

“Walking With Dinosaurs” was #1 in Worldwide Ticket Sales in 2010, ahead of Bon Jovi, AC/ DC and Black Eyed Peas with over 6.5 million tickets sold worldwide to date.

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Disclosure: My family has been provided with complimentary tickets in order to review the performance. I am thrilled that the PR company has chosen to reach out to local bloggers to share a promo code so families may save money on special performances. Remember this code is for certain seats so purchase your tickets early, and put “MOM” in the “mom blogs” promo box.

Filed Under: Family Fun, Local Events Tagged With: coupon code, DC, discount, dragon, DreamWorks, family fun, Hiccup, How to Train Your Dragon Live, Kids, performance, promo code, show, Toothless, Washington DC 1 Comment

Quick Giveaway for Celebrate Fairfax Tickets

June 8, 2012 By JavaMom 7 Comments

Looking for something fun to do this weekend? How about 25 acres of fun? Celebrate Fairfax! is Northern Virginia’s largest community-wide event and features concerts, family programs, exhibits on science and green living, thrilling carnival rides and nightly fireworks! Tickets are available online and at the gate, but you could win a four-pack of tickets right here!

Celebrate Fairfax! is this weekend at the Fairfax County Government Center (12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, VA). Event hours are:

Friday, June 8, 2012: 6:00pm – midnight
Saturday, June 9, 2012: 10:00am – midnight
Sunday, June 10, 2012: 11:00am – 7:00pm

For more details including shuttle bus information, see: www.celebratefairfax.com

Since the event is this weekend, this is a very quick and simple giveaway with very simple rules:

Out of fairness to participants, you should actually be able to attend. Please don’t enter if you aren’t going to use the tickets.
You must enter using a legitimate email address, tickets will be delivered electronically.
To enter, simply comment to this post with something you love about Fairfax County.
You may earn an extra entry by tweeting with a link to this post and including @caffandaprayer and @CelebrateFFX and then letting me know you have done so in the comments here. For example you could tweet: @caffandaprayer giving away 4-pack of tix to @CelebrateFFX http://caffeineandaprayer.com/?p=3428
I will pick a winner from qualified commenters at 8:30 pm Friday, June 08, 2012 and will notify them via email.

Filed Under: Family Fun, Giveaway, Local Events Tagged With: giveaway 7 Comments