my children always watch media like this, ha! So serious.

Since B is in school all week long, and his Kindergarten program is full day, we try to make the most of the weekends when he’s off of school and we can spend time as a family. Sometimes we love a low key weekend where we take a walk downtown to grab some brunch, but I try to dedicate least one or two weekends a month to a fun, planned out, and special occasion family day where we can all be together and make some great memories.

This weekend was one of our special occasion weekends (although Philip ended up having to go out of town at the last minute, but still a fun weekend with my boys and me).

I heard about Minimaster a few months ago, which is a program run by Ticketmaster but targeted specifically for families with kids. Sometimes it’s hard to find events in your area that are child-friendly and appropriate, so I’ve loved having an all-in-one place to find out about special events we can go as a family on the weekends. It’s just like Ticketmaster, in that you can sort by location, dates, and types of events, and it’s really easy to check out the deals for events in your area — 2 for 1 tickets, tickets under $40, etc.

At the beginning of the month we planned out our special occasion weekend and found tickets for Veggie Tales Live on Minimaster, and since I just recently introduced the boys to Veggie Tales, we jumped at the chance to go see it. It was super easy to order our tickets through the app, and they arrived in the mail so quickly. The boys have been anxiously awaiting this weekend, finally it arrived, and we had so, so much fun. They both burst out laughing when a giant Bob the Tomato hopped out on stage at the beginning of the show because apparently they were under the impression that we were going to be watching a video!

The rest of the weekend was also fun and eventful with a Saturday morning trip to the library for new books, a few errands, and then the rest of the afternoon was spent in the backyard building props for our church Trunk or Treat.

I originally planned to have the boys join our family costume that we’re doing with my parents next weekend for our annual trip to the Magic Castle, but since Philip was out of town this weekend and my parents weren’t here yet, their individual costumes didn’t make much sense. So we recycled the dress-up box fireman costumes and then decorated our trunk with some burning buildings, a fire truck, and a water hose. I love how it turned out, and the boys had a total blast.

Like I said, most of our weekends are fairly low key, but I love setting aside time for a really special weekend every once in a while where we can make some amazing family memories.

Check out the fun events in your area at Minimaster, or download the app right here (available for both Apple and Android), and discover your next family day out!