Triangle Mamas

Giveaway: Burn the Floor - Raleigh

Are you often on Twitter talking about #SYTYCD? How about #DWS? If you know that those hashtags stand for 'So You Think You Can Dance' and 'Dancing with the Stars', then this giveaway is for you.

And, even if you don't watch those shows, seeing a LIVE performance right here in Raleigh is sure to spark your interest. Who knows-- maybe next week it will be you who's tweeting all about ballroom dancing.

Burn the Floor, a ballroom dancing spectacular, is coming to Raleigh Memorial Auditorium from November 30 to December 5th. This is your chance to see the Cha-Cha, the Tango, and the Jive performed by professionals who have spent their lives training to be the best.

This is so not your wedding, where the Chicken Dance got the most enthusiastic response. It's also not your college fraternity formal where a few couples swayed back and forth until the kegs arrived. This is REAL dancing -- ballroom dancing.

See for yourself.

Amazing, isn't it?

Lucky for you, Triangle Mamas is giving away TWO pairs of tickets (that means TWO winners) to the November 30th show. All you have to do to enter is share one dancing memory. It can be embarassing, sweet, or simple.

Mine? Well, there was that college fraternity formal where my partner and I were attempting this dance but instead ended up kicking the chandelier loose. Yep, and that was before the kegs arrived.

So what's your dancing memory?

Additional entries (one entry per bullet item):

• Tweet about the contest, being sure to include @trianglemamas in your tweet. (Come back here and leave us a comment with a link to your tweet.)
• Subscribe to Triangle Mamas via RSS through whatever reader you prefer. (Leave us a comment telling us you've subscribed.)

That's it. Contest is open until midnight Friday, November 26th. Winners (because there will be TWO) will be informed via email (so don't forget to provide us with it) and they'll have 24 hours to get back to us.

Good luck!

Hey, even if you don't win, you can still go. Here's where you can purchase tickets (with a reduced price for the 30th and 1st shows). It's going to be an amazing show!

---

The fine print -- Triangle Mamas was provided with two tickets to see the show for ourselves as well as the two pairs for the giveaway. We rarely do giveaways, but we thought this was a great LOCAL experience allowing us to say thank you to our readers. This contest is obviously open only to those who can be in attendance November 30th in Raleigh.

Kid's Summer Stock at the NC Food Bank

*This is a cross-post from Sue's personal blog Motherhood and Me

As my son grows, I find myself looking deeper, wondering how I can change to be a better person in order to teach my son that there is good in the world.

How do you do that?

People can go their whole lives bitter, angry and full of hate. How to you even begin to teach your little wide eyed 3 year old boy about how his place in the world can be a peaceful and kind place?

You start small.

You teach him to share his toys with his friends, you teach him to say please and thank you, you teach him patience, respect and hold your breath when you see him interact with the world around him. Holding your breath in hopes that what you worked so hard to teach him is somewhere deep down inside him.

I was so excited when I decided to take this lesson of kindness and the greater good one step further. I had planned to have a food collection on behalf of the North Carolina Food Bank for his 3^rd and my daughter’s 1^st birthday in lieu of gifts. I told him all about how and why we were doing this and tried to get him excited about going to the food bank to make our donation.

He was excited and everything was set until the dark cloud hit our family and I had to cancel their birthday party. I was so sad that our excitement came to a screeching halt, but glad that I had started to plant the seed of awareness in my little man.

Then the email came.

The North Carolina Food Bank contacted me asking me if I would like to be a Media Sponsor for an event they were having to raise awareness about their facility and hunger in North Carolina. I immediately said yes and was so excited to be a part of something bigger than myself again.

II am proud to announce that Motherhood and Me is a media sponsor for the North Carolina Food Bank’s Kids Summer Stock!

The kid’s Summer Stock is an event to raise awareness about hungry kids who fall short during the school summer breaks. Kids that normally rely on two hot meals per day provided by their school’s lunch program are left on their own. Once the school year ends these kids fall through the cracks and don’t get remembered until the school session resumes in the fall.

Please take the time to come and celebrate the gift of giving at the North Carolina Food Bank Warehouse in Raleigh. Show your support by engaging with your local community and donating what you can personally, monetarily and via canned goods.

I will be there with my kids and my husband, so feel free to tap me on the shoulder and say hello!

 

Thursday, June 3, 2010

6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Food Bank Warehouse in Raleigh

3808 Tarheel Drive
Raleigh, NC (map)

Register now for your free tickets!

Click Here

I hope to see you there!

When Sue isn't trying to change the world with kindness, she can be found at home with her two kids at Motherhood and Me.

Music to His Ears

I cannot wait for Christopher to start singing. I'm beyond excited for him to learn those first few notes on the piano. He is only 8 months old, but I'm ready for the musician inside my little baby to come on out and play.

He does love music. His Music Together class is the highlight of our week. We've been going since he was 7 weeks old, and he has gone from observer to participant in just these few months. It is amazing.

So when I got an email from Lindsey, who I had met at BlogHer, asking me if I would like to take him to the Raggs Dance Party at the Carolina Theatre in Durahm, I took her up on the offer.

We aren't really watching TV with him yet, so Raggs isn't a character he's really that familiar with. We did meet Raggs at BlogHer, but I have to admit, Christopher was much more entranced during his rendezvous with Abby Cadabby. I didn't know what to expect from our little guy at the show.

 I really didn't know if he would love it, hate it, or simply be scared out of his mind by the giant technicolor dogs on stage. 

He loved it. Crazy dancing baby scream with glee loved it.

Of course, he loved it before the dogs even got onstage. He loved the music that was played pre-show, and only got more excited with the addition of the great big dogs onstage after it started.

So what did we do this past weekend? We took him to another concert. This time, we went to Koka Booth Amphitheater to see The Connells and Arrogance. We went armed with his little baby headphones, because I'm super protective of his hearing, and a couple of diaper bags full of extra clothes, diapers , and toys to entertain him if he got bored.

This time? There was no crazy dancing baby. He was content during The Connells, and actually slept through Arrogance.

I am surprised to say, there might just be something to "kids' music" being for kids.

I thought this wo uld bother me. The six CD changer in my Jeep has slowly, but surely replaced my Amy Winehouse with a Music Together CD. My Wilco with They Might Be Giants. My Damien Rice with Elizabeth Mitchell. The children's music is taking over my car.

However, I really don't mind. I actually enjoy most of the music, and I get a big kick out of the responses it garners from my son.

We are still teaching him the basics. Crowded House and U2 and every Paste sampler from the past several years all rot ate through the iPod playlist as Christopher and I make dinner together in the kitchen. He also loves to listen to me and his daddy sing together with daddy's guitar.

Sure. I have three different versions of "Lil' Eliza Jane" in the car right now. It's a little annoying at times.

But honestly? As long as the only large colorful singing animals that Christopher falls for are in the Raggs ba nd and not some big purple dinosaur? I'm considering myself pretty lucky.

An original Triangle Mamas post.

*I can't miss the chance to mention that Raggs is produced a stone's throw away in Charlotte  . You can see it Sunday  mornings at 7:00 AM on UNC-TV.