EDIT: It appears that the Aston Rebels are now the Jamestown Rebels, based in Jamestown, NY.

The wife and I have just spent the past week moving in with her 94 year old grandparents.  We had a nice long week of packing our stuff up, trying to move into a fully furnished house, and convincing her grandparents and our kids that this wasn’t the worst idea ever.  So last Saturday, the grandparents came back after spending a week with their daughter.  After a nice afternoon at a baby shower my wife, she had plans to go out.  Again.  Without the kids.  Or the grandparents.
    So dad was alone with the kids.  What was I going to do?  Stay in and enjoy the chaos of the new home, where everything is still in boxes, and which didn’t have our TVs or the internet hooked up yet?  Hells to the no!  Poppa was going out Saturday night as well!
     My son had been asking me to go to a hockey game for a few months now, ever since he got a Flyers hat while we were down the shore.  Flyers games can be expensive, and going with someone who had more interest in foam fingers and cotton candy than the $50 seat he was sitting in didn’t sound like a good use of my money.  The Phantoms moved up to Allentown a few years ago, and that was too far of a jaunt for me to take the kids alone.  So I started looking to see what else I could find.
     Not too far away from where we live is the Aston Ice Works, a skating complex mainly for public skating, high school games and the like.  But they also host a Junior Hockey team called the Aston Rebels.  With $7 tickets and a Groupon deal taking that down to $4, I was in!
     So we pulled up to the Ice Works rink, and I park as near the main entrance as I can, since I need to lug a baby and two other kids with me.  We get inside, and there is a skate shop, and two rinks filled with high school kids either playing or learning to skate.  After walking around for a few minutes, I asked the information desk, and find out the rink I want is on the other side of the complex.   FML.  C’mon kids, lets walk!
     The arena itself wasn’t that big – there isn’t a ticket window, just a card table for getting your tickets.  But there is a bar – which would have been a lot more fun had I been there without children!
     Before we can sit down, the kids were already asking me for food.  Luckily, this is Aston not the Wells Fargo Center, so I didn’t get gouged for snacks.  $8 got the kids hot dogs, soda and a bag of chips.  Now that the kids were fed, we were able to finally sit down.
     I don’t think my daughter was quite prepared for a hockey game.  After someone got hit into the boards right in front of us, she jumped.  But then she was just disgusted when I pointed out the spit the players left on the glass!
     My son was mildly interested in the game, reinforcing my reluctance to spend big money to see the Flyers.  He was more interested in his chips than the action on the ice.  The baby actually seemed to be having the most fun.  He was flapping his arms around all over the place, showing off to all the people sitting near us. 
     This was my first time at a junior hockey game, and it was pretty entertaining.  I am not sure whether the Rebels are that good, or if the other team just sucks, but Aston ended up winning 7-0. 
     Of course you can’t take kids to a sporting event without them expecting to leave with some swag, and my kids are no exception.  My daughter was thrilled when one of the referees tossed her the puck in between periods.  But not as thrilled as me – the t-shirts and other memorabilia they sell is not cheap!  And I managed to bribe my son by giving him one of my hockey pucks at home.  So my memorabilia bill from this game was zero.  Sweet!
     There were three things I learned from this game: 1) I can handle a night out with three kids.  But it is a lot easier when another adult is with you.  Especially for bathroom trips.  2) When you go to a hockey game, bring winter coats, not just sweatshirts!  Otherwise, when they are not asking you for food, they are complaining about how cold they are.  And three periods of hockey with two intermissions feels very long when that happens.  3) Finally, don’t give a four and six year old their own 20 oz. bottles of soda at 7:30.  They were crazier than Robin Williams on cocaine while the game was going on! 
     Overall, between tickets and food, this whole outing cost me about $25-30.  And the kids and I all had a blast doing something different.  So if you have little kids that are big into sports, or just like something to do, make sure you check out the college / junior levels of sports in your area.  You can get some great deals and still get to watch a good game with a professional feel to it!