Archive for the ‘Kids’ Category

This weekend, get into the swing of things with Addison Oktoberfest.

With more than 60,000 fans of polka, German food and Paulaner Bier will gather in Addison’s spectacular Addison Circle Park for music, folk dancing, sing-alongs, children’s entertainment and more.

This authentic German festival is one of the largest Oktoberfest festivals outside of the famed Munich celebration.

HOURS:
Saturday: Noon – midnight
Sunday: Noon – 6 p.m.
Admission is $5 for ages 4 and up.

With a gorgeous weekend in store, make plans to catch the Plano Balloon Festival.

Saturday, September 20
6:00 AM Gates & Parking Lots Open and Bus Service Begins
6:30 AM Dawn Patrol “Wake up Plano”
7:00 AM Balloon Launch presented by the City of Plano
2:30 PM The Impostles perform on the KLUV Main Stage
3:30 PM Mount Righteous performs on the KLUV Main Stage
4:00 PM KDFW FOX 4 presents “Are you Smarter than Tim Ryan” on the KLUV Main Stage
5:00 PM RE/MAX Parachute Team Exhibition
5:45 PM National Anthem performed by Camille Broker on the KLUV Main Stage
6:00 PM Balloon Launch presented by EDS Credit Union
7:00 PM Beatles Tribute Band “Me & My Monkey” in Concert
on the KLUV Main Stage
8:00 PM “Lite up the Night” with the new 103.7 FM Balloon Glow
9:00 PM Spectacular Fireworks Show presented by Crest Cadillac / Infiniti

Sunday, September 21
6:00 AM Gates & Parking Lots Open and Bus Service Begins
6:30 AM Dawn Patrol “Wake up Plano”
7:00 AM Balloon Launch presented by The Dallas Morning News
8:30 AM The Black Prairie Band performs on the KLUV Main Stage
2:00 PM EDS Jazz Ensemble performs on the KLUV Main Stage
4:00 PM Plano Community Band performs on the KLUV Main Stage
5:00 PM RE/MAX Parachute Team Exhibition
6:00 PM Balloon Launch presented by Allstate Insurance
7:00 PM Festival Closes

The Dallas Arboretum is in the midst of the “Autumn at the Arboretum” festival now through 2 November 08. Special events for this weekend include:

For those that wish to visit during the less busy weekdays, click here for discount coupons.

The great people at the Dallas-based Operation Once In A Lifetime, work hard to assist our military personnel with needs that might not otherwise be met.

The following message was sent out today - if you can help this family in their trying time, it would be appreciated:

“If anyone would like to help this family, please contact me on my email. After talking to this family their biggest want is to see their two little girls again; but they need financial assistance as well for food and gas.” This is the true needs of soldiers.

Patrick Sowers
Founder, Father, Soldier
PO Box 1561
Allen Texas 75013

Hi my name is Antonia Logan, I am a veteran of operation Iraqi Fredom. I am also married to a active duty soldier; SSG. James Logan.
We are stationed in Fort Leaonardwood Mo. We have 3 beautiful daughters, Jamie 4, Adreanna 14 months, and Leila 6 months. We recently moved from belgium, we were stationed at Nato headquarters, My husband is in the Army and has deployed many times before, Bosnia, Panama, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He was in the reserves for 4 years and is now at his 6 year on active duty.
Well we got to Fort Leonard Wood on June 8th, at the time our youngest daughter was 4 months old, on July the 10th she had a fever, we took her in to the Fort Leonard Wood hospital, where they said she needed to be transferred to Columbia Hospital in Columbia MO, about 2 hours away. To make a long story short she had a blood clot in her a vain that ran through her small intestine; they had to remove over 90% of her small intestines, she now has an colostomy bag and also has a central iv line on her chest for feeding nutrients to her veins directly. During this entire process a lot came because of it, seizures, more blood cots on the brain, well at the time they did not know if she was going to make it.
We digged into our saving and sent our other 2 girls away to California, with grandparents. We were also building a home with a local developer at he time and we were right at the closing point when this all happened. We paid for the closing fees on the house leaving us with nothing, we have taken on too much. I am asking for some kind of financial assistant, I cannot send for our daughters to come back because we also have a mortgage to pay and no savings at all. We are over whelmed with bills, we asked the military if we could get pay for our gas to see our daughter and they said we do not qualify because she was sent there on emergency not a referred appointment. I stay in the hospital with her all the time and my husband comes on the weekends after work, we spend to much on gas and food while where there.
Please my daughter is scheduled to come home sometime past the 15 of this month. We will have an 8 hour nurse to help in the beginning, I know we will have a hard time ahead of us. We also miss our girls so much and wish to be all together again, even though we have not purchased anything for our 4 year olds bedroom we know we will be happy together. Plus we know they miss us too.

I thank you for listening to me and for any help you can give us, I am willing to provide you with an y proof , pictures, statements, anything you need. Please…

Sincerely,
The Logan Family

The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) is pleased to announce Dallas’ inaugural Free Night of Theater, to be held from Thursday, October 16 through Monday, November 10, 2008. Presented in conjunction with Theatre Communications Group (TCG), Free Night of Theater offers theatergoers over 3,000 free tickets to more than 26 Dallas-area theaters. Dallas is one of 120 communities across the country participating in the event, which campaigns to attract new audiences to live theatrical performances.

Theatergoers will be able to reserve tickets through the Free Night of Theater website, www.freenightoftheater.net, beginning at noon on Wednesday, October 1, 2008. Tickets can only be reserved online and reservations are handled on a first come, first serve basis. Each participating theatre will set a reservation ticket limit for their productions. Once tickets have been reserved through the website, patrons will be able to pick up their tickets at the will-call window of the individual theater’s box office on the night of the show. Patrons are strongly encouraged to visit a theater that they have never attended.

As of September 1, more than 3,000 tickets (valued at more than $50,500) have been pledged for Free Night of Theater Dallas. Participating theatres include: African American Repertory Theater, Charles W. Eisemann Center, The Company of Rowlett Performers (C.O.R.P.), Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, Dallas Children’s Theater, Dallas Hub Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Echo Theatre, Garland Civic Theatre, ICT MainStage, Jubilee Theatre, Lyric Stage, MBS Productions, One Thirty Productions, Pocket Sandwich Theatre, Repertory Company Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas, Teatro Dallas, TeCo Theatrical Productions, The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, The MET Theatre, Theatre Britain, Theatre Three, Uptown Players, WaterTower Theatre, and WingSpan Theatre Company.

“We are ecstatic that Dallas will join the other national communities offering rich and diverse live theatre opportunities to our citizens free of charge,” said Maria Munoz-Blanco, Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of Dallas. “Free Night is the perfect opportunity for Dallas to celebrate and build upon the contributions the theatre community has made to our cultural landscape.”

In response to the excitement generated by the program, Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG, remarked, “The Free Night of Theater program has provided the theatre community a unique opportunity to open its doors to thousands of new theatergoers and introduce that audience to the joys of live theatre. We are very excited that the program has proven to be so successful in bringing in non-traditional theatre audiences to theatres from coast to coast.”

Free Night of Theater was conceived at TCG’s National Conference in 2003 as a way to remove perceived barriers that have historically prevented audiences from attending not-for-profit theater. The program was piloted in 2005 in three cities; Philadelphia, San Francisco and Austin. That year over 150 theatre companies welcomed nearly 8,000 theatergoers of which an estimated 80 percent were attending the theatre for the first time. Since 2005 the program has grown tremendously. In 2008, the fourth year for Free Night, the program will include over 600 theatre companies in over 120 cities and will provide an estimated 75,000 tickets. Recent attendance research gathered by Shugoll Research reports that 41 percent of last year’s Free Night patrons returned and purchased tickets to another performance at the same theatre following their Free Night experience. In fact, 80 percent of attendees to the 2007 program reported that they had attended live theatre somewhere since Free Night.

Some of the 2008 program participants include the following communities:

Cities: Austin, TX; Baltimore, MD; Charleston, SC; Chicago, IL; Cincinnati, OH; Cleveland, OH; Dallas, TX; Indianapolis, IN; Kansas City, MO; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Portland, OR; Salt Lake City, UT; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; St. Louis, MO; Washington, D.C.; and many more.

States: Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, and Wisconsin.

According to Brad Erickson, executive director of Theatre Bay Area and participant in each of the previous three Free Night of Theater events, “Since the campaign’s pilot year…we have seen an extraordinary response from theatres, audiences and the whole community. The demand for live theatre—when it’s made accessible to all—is overwhelming. We’re bringing in new audiences—young people, people of color, people from all walks of life—and the research tells us they are going back for more. Free Night of Theater has thrown the doors of our theatres open wide.”

For more information on Dallas’ Free Night of Theater, visit the national Free Night website at www.freenightoftheater.net. Information is also available through the Office of Cultural Affairs website at www.dallasculture.org.

Since “Ignite Your Senses!” is the 2008 State Fair of Texas theme, there’s no better place to start than on the Midway, Sept. 26 – Oct. 19, where 75 rides and attractions await.

The biggest news this year is the introduction of game cards, purchased and “loaded” with chosen amounts of credit. The cards are good for games only; no cash will be accepted. Visitors will find a host of new games, and everybody’s a winner at locations posting kid-friendly signs of “Little Tex.” Younger players, 54” tall and under, are guaranteed to win a prize at booths displaying the sign.

New attractions and old favorites join the ’08 Midway lineup: Visitors can – literally – take a spin on the new 24-passenger Viper or, for something a little more intense, the 164-ft. Capriolo may be in order. From a gentle, swinging-action start, this xtreme ride delivers an ever-higher-and-faster experience until its gondola is in a full 360-degree rotation. The Capriolo joins the Slingshot and the Sky Coaster in the Thrillway section of the Midway.

After a much-anticipated debut in 2007, the 34 gondolas of the Texas SkyWay® have become a familiar sight gliding above historic Fair Park. Station-to-station, it covers more than 1,800 feet, soaring 65 feet above ground at its highest point. Each enclosed gondola holds eight passengers for a bird’s-eye view of the State Fair of Texas.

KidsWay, a family-friendly zone within the Midway, is home to tamer rides, scaled down to the smaller set. Big news for the pint-sized and their parents is a drop tower, just like the grown-up kind, except not as tall and not as fast.

Midway mainstays and sentimental favorites include the ornate horses on the historic Dentzel carousel and the 12-story Texas Star Ferris Wheel. The Midway is open seven days a week, but operating hours vary. Please see posted hours at each entrance.

As we mentioned last month, U.S. athlete Nastia Liukin won the gold medal for all-around gymnastics at the Beijing Olympics.

Now it looks like it’s Liukin’s turn to take the spotlight and run with it!.

The young gymnast will soon be all over the place.

First up? She’s set to appear in ads for Cover Girl this fall.

The gymnast will also have her own Nastia Liukin Gold jeans and tops produced by Vanilla Star Jeans. Those will be out for sale this winter.

Liukin will also get her image featured on a Wheaties box!

Looks like Michael Phelps isn’t the only athlete pimping himself out.

And, as if all that weren’t enough, Nastia will also be appearing on a future episode of Gossip Girl.

Oh, and there’s also the possibility of her getting her own line of activewear with GK.

During a recent interview, Liukin said, “You work so hard for this, and you’re getting so many opportunities, and now is the time to take those things because they don’t last forever. Winning the Olympics can change your life, and nothing can prepare you for that. You can go with the flow and enjoy the ride.”

She’s right. Enjoy it now while you can!

As for the fame she’s receiving, Liukin says, “It’s weird. Now anywhere I go everyone notices me. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”

Really????

Don’t get too full of yourself, missu!

But she does want to be a good role model, adding “I always looked up to the older girls, and I feel like the kids look up to me, so I feel I have to set a good example for them. I’ll do anything to inspire them and help them live their dreams.”

As for her futute, Liukin adds, “I feel I have more to do,” she says. “I have nine World Championship medals, and I’m tied with Shannon Miller, so I want to beat that. That’s the competitor in me. And I’d love to do some acting and modeling, but not as my career.”