For nearly two years now, the Walton Arts Center has generously offered tickets to our readers for many of the great shows they’ve attracted to Northwest Arkansas.
Today we’re giving away two sets! The first is for a double-bill adaptation of the beloved bedtime classics Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny. With FOUR FREE TICKETS to the Feb. 6 show this would make the perfect family outing. The second set of tickets is just right for a date night (or girls’ night). We’ve got two tickets to give away for the Tony award-winning show The Drowsy Chaperone on Tuesday, Feb. 2.
And you know the Motherlode mamas never let you go out on an empty stomach! The winner of the Goodnight Moon/Runaway Bunny tickets will also receive a gift certificate to Flying Burrito, right across the street from Walton Arts Center. Yum.
The Drowsy Chaperone winner will be treated to dinner at Bordinos — always a date night favorite!
HOW TO ENTER: If you want to win tickets to the show based on popular board books Goodnight Moon and the Runaway Bunny, just tell us about your child’s favorite bedtime ritual (I bet many of us could say reading one of these books is definitely a favorite!).
If you want a shot at winning The Drowsy Chaperone tickets, we want to hear about a wedding. The Drowsy Chaperone tells the hilarious tale of a celebrity bride on her uproarious wedding day. Do you have a good wedding day story to tell? We’d love to hear it (yours or someone else’s!). Just click on the word “comment” at the bottom of this post and tell us about those bedtime rituals and wedding days!
You can also e-mail your entry to us at giveaways@nwaMotherlode.com.
As always, you can increase your odds of winning by helping us spread the word about the giveaway. Send an e-mail to your friends/family about it and be sure to put us in the CC line of your note so we can give you proper credit. We’ll enter your name in the drawing again for every friend you tell. (10 friends means 10 extra chances to win.)
Please let us know in comments (or e-mail) whether you’d like to be in the running for both sets of tickets or if you’d rather just have one or the other.
About Goodnight Moon/Runaway Bunny: What to say about these two fabulous board books? Of course, both books feature sweet baby bunnies. And I think most adults love to hear the rhythm of Goodnight Moon, a short poem of goodnight wishes, as much as the kids. The pictures are just beautiful.
The Runaway Bunny’s pretend tale of leaving home gives his mother a chance to offer reassuring responses. The pictures in this one are also lovely.
About The Drowsy Chaperone: Appropriate for the whole family, this show is a 1920s musical throwback comedy that won more Tony Awards in 2006 than any other musical on Broadway. It will be on stage at WAC for only three nights (Feb. 2-4) at 7 p.m.
This light-hearted musical is a cleverly constructed homage to the bygone of the Jazz Age. This single-act show begins in a dreary apartment with a cheerless gentleman sitting routinely in a chair. The man, aptly called “Man in Chair,” decides to cope with life’s hardships by listening to his favorite show tunes album; a 1928 smash hit called “The Drowsy Chaperone.” As soon as the first song begins to play, the ordinary quickly turns extraordinary. What follows is a whimsical show-within-a-show that focuses on a newly-engaged narcissistic showgirl and her dashing husband-to-be, an avaricious producer, a know-it-all British butler, a pair of cookie-cutter 1920s gangsters, an over-the-top Casanova and a dotty heroine.
“Surely few productions have ever pulled an audience so immediately and unconditionally on their sides,” said the New York Times.
ABOUT THE FOOD: We love Flying Burrito and Bordinos, who are also generous supporters of Motherlode and the mamas out there.
The Flying Burrito Company is a burrito bar that specializes in large, California-style burritos made to order. You choose the toppings and they have all kinds of tortilla flavors (I like the jalapeno cheddar wrap best. Delish.) Kids eat FREE all day and all night (well, ’til they close!) Mondays through Wednesdays and they also have a program for moms on a budget. It’s a frequent diner program, so for every $100 you spend, you get $10 of in-store credit.
You can also buy a FBC plastic cup for $2.99 and bring it back each time for 69-cent refills!
Flying Burrito began in Fayetteville at the location near the Walton Arts Center, just a block off Dickson Street. It became so popular that they opened new locations in new cities, including locations on North College Avenue in Fayetteville, one in Springdale, one in Little Rock and its most recent addition in Bentonville. They also have a new location at the Northwest Arkansas Mall food court!
Bordinos. Well, we love this place for its food, atmosphere and overall rating as a great date place — or a fun girls’ night out stop. We also love the beautiful art boxes designed by Kathy Thompson. It always feels like a special occasion when we eat at Bordinos. That’s why we like to send NWA mamas there!
Good luck!
My kids think they have to have the TV on to go to bed. I can turn the volume down to a 2 and they won’t budge, but if i turn it off, they spring up and say WAIT, I can’t sleep with it off!
I really want to see the Drowsy Chaperone! It looks hilarious! I really don’t have a funny Wedding story. Sorry!
I would love to go to either! Goodnight Moon is my daughter’s bedtime story, so it would be a treat to take her. I don’t have a funny wedding story, but it would be nice to have a date night with my hubby.
I would love to go to both of these shows! I love Broadway Musicals and wanted to see this. I know my little girls would love to see Goodnight Moon b/c that is their favorite bedtime book! And, those are 2 of my favorite restaurants!
When Jack was little, Goodnight Moon was one of his favorites. He can now recite the entire thing without even opening the book. Now that he is getting bigger, our bedtime ritual consists of a bath and then a book of choice (usually The Gingerbread Man, Where the Wild Things Are, or a Curious George Book). Whatever the story is, it is always followed up by the rhyme of Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod.
Every night we sing a good night song with our almost 3 year old daughter while helping her put on her pjs and brush her teeth. Then either her dad or I will snuggle up in her bed with a stack of library books and read outloud. We then turn off the light, say bedtime prayers and tiptoe out. We love sweet nighttime’s with her. It’s her most snuggly time of day!
And the wedding day went off without a hitch…except that our wedding bands (identical)accidently got switched during the ceremony and I couldn’t get the ring on my hubby during the exchange of rings because it was acutally MY ring. I kept trying to jam it on his finger!
Goodnight Moon Giveaway – We just started a new ritual on Friday nights. We call it ‘backwards’ night. So we give kisses and hugs first, then read books, then put on pajamas, then walk backwards to the bathroom to brush teeth and wash hands and face. 🙂 Its been a big hit and just a fun thing to do!
Drowsy Chaperone – Well, I hope my friend isn’t reading this but this but I was the maid of honor in a wedding and as we exchanged the ring from me to her, she dropped it and it bounced, bounced, bounced on the hardwood floor and then rolled underneath the piano. It was so funny but no one wanted to laugh until the bride did. 🙂 Thankfully, the best man went to get it and all was well!
Would love to see the show with my grand daughter. she loves books as Good night moon and Balto and many others.
a funny wedding story…… Well my husband was in the shower at a friends house where we got married. everyone was outside all ready and he was in the bathroom with none of his wedding clothes. Lucky somoene was still in the house to get his clothes to him
my son loves to read and then rock before bed. we’ve read goodnight moon so many times it is falling apart!
All my kids love the story Goodnight Moon and it’s been part of our night time routine for eight years. Also, my husband changed the words to twinkle twinkle to make a “night night” song for each of our kids with their name in it… we’ve sang that every night after story time for ages! I love it. :o)
i think there may be too many crazy stories related to my wedding to tell! let’s see, a prominant member of the church we were getting married in died and the family insisted on having the funeral the day of my wedding…so our rehearsal was rushed the night before so they could hold his rosary and then we only had about an hour before the ceremony to get dressed because of the funeral. we did get some free flowers out of it though since my florist was also did the funeral…she left us some really pretty bouquets! that is only one of the many stories i can tell!
Going to either show would be real treat for my family! My son loves good night moon and every night we have to look out the window and sing “I see the moon and moon sees me God bless the moon and God bless me” before going to bed.
Funny wedding story… Has my husband I walked down the aisle after beening married I had the DJ play Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” everyone thought it was hilarious and a great way to end a wedding.
My kiddos love to lay in bed with their Daddy for Bible time and a song. It is their precious time together.
I would love tickets for Goodnight Moon. Ever since my son was a baby, his bedtime ritual has been the same. First, we pray then he picks a few books for us to read together. When he was younger, we read Goodnight Moon every day. Now that he’s three, we read other books but sometimes he reads Goodnight Moon to his daddy and me!
Our bedtime ritual is usually to take a bath and read Good Night Moon. JL likes to try and find the mouse in every picture and loves the MOON! After his prayers he loves to say Amen…althought is sounds like “oh man”.
As far as a good wedding story, I think those of you who know my wedding story will vouch for me on this one…it was the best/worst day of my life! My sister, yes my sister, stood me up as my maid of honor…..isnt that precious 🙂
We read a story, sometimes many stories before bed each night. If she has been a good girl, we play the popcorn game where we bounce her stuffed puppy dog on a blanket. Her favorite night time story is The Going To Bed Book.
Wedding Story: My husband had placed our rings in a security deposit box at our hometown bank. On our wedding day (Saturday), he got to the bank too late to get the rings and the vault could not be opened until Monday!!! So a good friend of ours who owns a jewlery store loaned us rings for the ceremony, but we went our whole honeymoon without our rings.
My kids are usually mostly taken care of by Daddy at bedtime! They clean up toys, get changed into PJs, have Bible story/song time, and then brush their teeth before heading to bed. We enjoy the time, too!
I would love to see either show! I don’t have a funny wedding story. 🙁 But my son and I lay in bed and talk about his day, and talk about what we are going to do the next day, until he finally falls asleep.
Good wedding story: mine! (I’m biased, of course). At the last minute before one of my siblings was moving away, and my husband’s sibling, my now husband decided he didn’t want to wait for them to move back to get married (they were moving quite far away and would not be able to make it back for a wedding). So – he asked if I’d want to get married before everyone moved and of course, I said yes! He talked to my dad, then brought me a dozen roses at work and asked me to marry him. The wedding was 6 days later – dresses, suits, flowers, cake and all! 😀
Goodnight moon is one of my son’s favorite books. He has taken it even farther at bedtime by creating his own good night ritual of saying goodnight to all the toys in his room “good night dinosaur, goodnight bear…etc”.
My father is an ordained minister and I’m his youngest daughter so he performed our wedding, he got so emotional during the service that he chocked up several time and got the words wrong. Its a very sweet memory.
Bedtime-the girls like to read stories at night, if they can agree on which one to read 🙂 They also like mom to lay down with them and talk for a little while.
Wedding Day-Nothing too funny happened. We had an outdoor reception during spring and rainy time. There was concern about the rain b/c we didn’t have a back up plan, but it ended up being a beautiful day!
bedtime- we sing and hum “old McDonald” ever night to our 2 1/2 year old. he calls it ” E-I-O”.
wedding- we wanted to leave our reception in a hummer but my MIL insisted we get a different car. So we borrowed a vintage cadillac. it died several times at the wedding and reception- even had a flat tire! We ended up having to get a ride from a cousin who drove a HUMMER! HAHA
Ok, bedtime. Goodnight Moon was a definite favorite for our oldest daughter, only we changed up the words to say “a quiet old lady named ****** whispering hush” after a lady at our church who used to constantly tell all the kids to be quiet!
Wedding – It wasn’t really all that funny, but at our “elopement” when we went to light the unity candle, all the wax from the 2 side candles poured over the wick & we had to wait for help to light it. Luckily, it hasn’t slowed us any as we’re on year 11!
Every night before bedtime, my husband gives our son a bath, then we both read to him. Usually it’s two books, lately he has asked for three. He has a favorite blanket he sleeps with so he grabs that and we snuggle up with him lose ourselves in the same stories our parents read to us when we were little.
I was teaching preschool when we got married (8 years ago Feb 9th) and we invited about 40+ kids to the wedding. We had the Cate Brothers play at the reception. When we walked in the ballroom for our first dance, my mom whispered with a smile on her face that we had a slight problem; the kids did not want to get off the dance floor! Needless to say, for our first dance as a couple we were surrounded by kids, one little girl held my husband’s right hand while I held his left. It was a perfect way to begin our marriage. I have the picture framed, and smile every time I see it.
Goodnight Moon is one of Owen’s favorites!! He often falls asleep cuddled up with the book! So Cute!! I would love to have a mother/son date with him!!!
Favorite bedtime story for us … purplicious!!!
Oooh… a family date! We’d love to win the GM/RB tickets and dinner at FBC. Our bedtime ritual is pretty simple: bath, stories, night prayers with song, and lights out. Our boys just starting sharing a room, so it’s been really neat to see them enjoy bedtime together. Thanks for another great giveaway NWA Motherlode – you gals are the best!
Goodnight Moon/Runaway Bunny… We actually found some really LARGE size board books of both these stories at Sam’s several years back. We read Goodnight Moon every night without fail until my son was almost 4years old. We also read Runaway Bunny,and Guess How Much I love you. Our son is 8 now, but I’m keeping the books because they’re some of my faves!!
The Drowsy Chaperone-
Ooooooooohhh an early Valentine’s date with my hunny! I attended a friend’s wedding many years ago, and she had a little flower girl and ring bearer. They were the bride and groom’s younger brother and sister. The ring bearer caught the garter, and the flower girl caught the bouquet. They actually got married 13 years later!
Our ritual every night involves our 4 year old sitting in front of her bookcase for 10 minutes trying to decide on which book to read before bed. She knows just the right amount time to take before we start to get frustrated! Anything to prolong bedtime. We are actually on our 2nd goodnight moon book. She spilled juice on the 1st one and we had to immediately go out and buy another!
I would love to be considered for both!
My girls’ bedtime routine is to read at least 1 book (many times more), say prayers, and sing “Jesus Loves Me.”
A story from my wedding day…I told my flower girl that when the wedding was over she could keep her basket and any petals that she didn’t drop as she went down the isle. She decided that she wanted to keep all of the petals and didn’t drop a single one!
My husband’s 30th birthday is February 6th and my daughter’s 3rd birthday is February 28th…. I would love to win either one, either a hot date with my birthday boy, or a family outing with the 3 of us (plus a friend for bella)….
We are in the middle of a bedtime ritual change…. Right now it consists of Kisses, stories, getting out of bed, crying, drinks of water, pleading, more getting out of bed, bribery, and eventually a quiet house “where everybody is sleeping”
I would also love to go to either show. My daughter’s favorite bedtime routine is reading 4 books then spraying her sweet dreams spray (water in a spray bottle) before a little snuggle time.
Our wedding was outdoors and it rained the entire day. Then we headed to the carolina’s for a honeymoon and landed 4 days before a hurricane.
Our bedtime ritual is a bath & then each of the girls get to pick out a book for me to read. We do this every night!
It snowed on my wedding day & we had to drive to Tulsa in the snow to catch our flight for our honeymoon. It was a wonderful day though!
I would love tickets to either. Show one would be great for the whole the other would be great for my husband and me. I don’t really have any funny wedding stories.
I would love to have a much needed date night and see the Drowsy Chaperone. Funny wedding story…My nephew-in-law, who was an usher in our wedding, had a motorcycle accident on the Interstate traveling to our wedding. I know that doesn’t sound funny, but it was hilarious when his parents refused to take him to the hospital until after the wedding was over. He cleaned up, got dressed, and performed his duties as usher. Our ceremony lasted close to two hours! When it was over, his parents finally took him to the emergency room and found out that he had a separated shoulder! Now, that is dedication! 🙂
I remember reading Goodnight Moon almost nightly to my now 5 year old and 4 year old. They both loved it at different stages. And they both loved to look for the little hidden mouse on each page.
As for wedding stories the easiest for me is that when they introduced my husband and I as Marion Lee and Marian Leigh ___.
Our bedtime ritual is brushing of the “snags”… her teeth, then lolly gagging down the hall to hope I won’t have to remind her again….”get into bed, my love!..Once nestled under the covers, I come in to turn on the night light and close the closet doors. We say our prayers together softly and if time permits, a quiet song or story. Kisses and more kisses along with Goodnight Moon!!
While at a wedding as a teen, I noticed a rather drunk woman stagger over to a seat to sit upon.The start of the wedding was about to begin and she did not see the seat was leaning back. As she sat down in her dressy,satin suit I could see her from a distance in slow motion tumble backwards. With her cocktail flying out of her hand and then rolling down a hill to a thud.
I was there with my sister and we could not stop laughing hysterically, as many guests were trying to help this situation that stalled the processional. What an event already as I thought, let’s get this party started!
The favorite bedtime ritual of my 23-month old, Brendan, is the story I tell him while he’s drifting off to sleep. One night after he got in bed, I decided to make up a story for him. It was about a little bird that went and visited a farm. The next night as he was laying down, he started doing the sign for bird, and I realized he wanted the story again! Now he wants it every morning, at naptime, and bedtime. The little bird has had all kinds of adventures, and it’s a great way to get Brendan to lie still long enough to drift off to sleep! 🙂