24:
Celebrate the renaissance at the festival’s last weekend in Waxahachie, go swimming at Fort Worth’s two new pools, and see the new IMAX and 3-D films inside museum theaters in Dallas and Fort Worth.
Scarborough Renaissance Festival
This is the last weekend to watch the sword fighting, knighting ceremonies, mermaids sitting pretty and the loads of other costumed performers and patrons alike at the festival in Waxahachie. Hours are Saturday–Monday from 10am–7pm, and admission is $24 for adults and $10 for ages 5–12. Have a veteran in the family? Join the parade at 1pm on Monday, and active duty military families will get $4 off adult admission.
Pool openings in Fort Worth
Join the grand opening celebrations on Saturday for two new* swimming pools. Forest Park Pool is actually the city’s oldest public pool, first built in 1922. It was closed in 2010 for budget reasons and has now been refurbished for your aquatic enjoyment. It will officially reopen at 10am on Saturday, and for the summer, will be open from 1–7pm Tuesday–Sunday. Admission is $3 for kids and $4 for adults. Two hours later at noon, follow the bathing suit-clad crowd to the brand new and $3.85 million Marine Park Aquatic Center. Summer hours will be 1–7pm daily and admission is $5 for children and $6 for adults.
New 3-D and IMAX films starting May 25
Saturday is a new day at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. See the return of Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum, the Jim Carrey-narrated Under the Sea and the new Space Junk in the Omni Theater. Want more? The museum’s got it. Stick around to see their two new exhibits: CSI: The Experience and Elvis at 21.
Over in Dallas, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science will begin screenings of Waking the T. Rex 3D: The Story of SUE about the largest and most complete T. rex ever found. The Perot will be open until 9pm Friday–Monday, and on Tuesday, will begin its extended summer hours, open an hour later than usual: 10am–6pm Monday–Saturday, and noon–6pm on Sunday. Get your tickets online in advance to avoid sellouts.
Sign up to receive our Weekend Guide newsletters each Thursday to your inbox, and for more family-friendly events every day, visit the calendar at dfwchild.com/showcalendar.asp.
posted by
Elizabeth on 2013.05.23, under
Around Town: Dallas,
Around Town: Fort Worth,
Around Town: North Texas,
Celebs,
Cool Stuff,
Family Fun,
Kid Fun,
Learning and Growing,
Marketing and Events,
What to do today!23:
This Friday, watch bike stunts in McKinney and two free concerts in Arlington, and celebrate the music, foods and heritage of a Czech community in North Texas.
High Noon on the Courthouse Lawn
Quite large swarm of cyclists – about 500 of them – will be zooming through downtown McKinney on Friday for the Bike the Bricks competition and celebration from 4–11pm. Young cycling enthusiasts can come early to the lawn of the McKinney Performing Arts Center to eat lunch from noon–1pm, get a lesson in bike safety and watch bike stunts by the pros at Cadence Cyclery.
National Polka Festival
The official bluebonnet city of Texas is also known for its Czech ancestry. Ennis will hold its 47th annual festival with a weekend of costumes, polka dancing, 14 live bands including local favorites Brave Combo, and those famous foods and pastries. Join the king and queen dance contest on Friday at 7pm, the parade on Saturdays at 10am and more festivities through Sunday.
Downtown Arlington Center Stage Music Festival
Depending on which stations are on your preset, you’ve likely heard Sarah Jaffe’s Glorified High or Delta Rae’s Bottom of the River all over the radio. See the band and the Texas native singer-songwriter on the same stage this Friday at Levitt Pavilion in downtown Arlington. Bring your lawn chairs, blankets and coolers to find a spot on the lawn. Jaffe takes the stage at 7pm and Delta Rae at 8pm. The Polyphonic Spree and the Old 97’s will follow with performances at the pavilion on Saturday and Sunday, but keep your Wednesdays free for the pavilions upcoming concerts just for the kids.
Sign up to receive our Weekend Guide newsletters each Thursday to your inbox, and for more family-friendly events every day, visit the calendar at dfwchild.com/showcalendar.asp.
22:
They have trained for months and now more than 3,000 athletes will descend upon Arlington for the Special Olympics Summer Games, set for May 23–26. Cheer them on as they compete in gymnastics, track and field, basketball, cycling, soccer and tennis at the University of Texas at Arlington and more venues throughout the city.
Check out the competition schedule for events – all free and open to the public – Thursday–Sunday. The torchbearers will kickoff the weekend with their run into Maverick Stadium at 10am on Friday and opening ceremonies begin at 7pm. For more information about Special Olympics Texas, visit specialolympicstexas.org or call 800/876-5646.
21:
For Memorial Day just around the corner, millions will gather around barbecue grills, listen to orchestral performances of patriotic favorites and pay their respects to the country’s fallen serviceman and servicewomen. As a small thank you, more than 2,000 museums across the country will offer free admission to active duty military personnel and their families – not just for one day but from Memorial Day, May 27, through Labor Day, September 2. Families will get this “star treatment” thanks to a program called Blue Star Museums.
According to program partner the National Endowment for the Arts, participating museums in DFW include:
Dallas
• Dallas Heritage Village
• Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance
• Dallas Museum of Art
• Frontiers of Flight Museum
• Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University
• Nasher Sculpture Center
Fort Worth
• Amon Carter Museum of American Art
• C.R. Smith Museum
• Kimbell Art Museum
• Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
• National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum
• Veterans Memorial Air Park
Frisco
• Frisco Heritage Center
Irving
• National Scouting Museum
McKinney
• Collin County Farm Museum
Plano
• Heritage Farmstead Museum
Want to spend more time in the sun? Here are a few more locations that are offering free admission this weekend.
Dallas Arboretum
The Dallas Arboretum is offering free admission for active and retired military personnel (with a valid ID) Friday–Monday, and on Monday, the kids can enjoy a petting zoo, face painting and crafts in between two concerts by children entertainer Eddie Coker on the Martin Rutchik Concert Lawn.
Hawaiian Falls Waterparks
All five locations of Hawaiian Falls – Garland, The Colony, Mansfield, Roanoke and Waco – will offer free admission to active duty military personnel and $19.99 admission for all immediate family members from 10:30am–6pm on Monday.
Sign up to receive our Weekend Guide newsletters each Thursday to your inbox, and for more family-friendly events every day, visit the calendar at dfwchild.com/showcalendar.asp.
posted by
Elizabeth on 2013.05.16, under
Around Town: Dallas,
Around Town: Fort Worth,
Around Town: North Texas,
Celebs,
Cool Stuff,
Family Fun,
Food,
Healthy Families,
Kid Fun,
Learning and Growing,
Marketing and Events,
What to do today!16:
This Friday, jump off your energy at the grand opening of a trampoline park in Fort Worth, get an autograph from your hero at the Dallas Comic Con, and join the campaign for real food on Food Revolution Day.
Dallas Comic Con
Superhero and comic fans will descend upon the Irving Convention Center for Dallas Comic Con Friday–Sunday. Enter the kids costume contest to show off your homemade costumes, and get autographs from the original Captain Kirk and fierce Priceline Negotiator William Shatner, Firefly’s Nathan Fillion, Brandon Routh from 2006’s Superman Returns, Andrew McCarthy for all those Pretty in Pink fans, and more celebs and legendary comic writers and artists. Online registration has closed but you can still get tickets at the center’s box office. Single-day tickets are $25–$40 for adults, and kids tickets are $5 for ages 5–12 and free for ages 4 and younger.
Opening of the new Flight Deck Trampoline Park
Join the grand opening for West Fort Worth’s first indoor trampoline park with more than 90 high performance trampolines and attractions including, a foam pit, basketball dunking lanes, main court, and two dodgeball arenas. The party starts at 5pm on Friday with door prizes and music spun by a DJ, and the grand opening runs through Sunday. Check out their , a frozen yogurt shop with 16 flavors and a full topping bar, and stay tuned for open jump times, scheduled jump times specially for young children, Teen Nights, JumpFit 1000 Classes and dodgeball leagues.
The park has different admission pricing for weekends and weekdays, starting at $8 per hour for kids 6 and younger. Kids 3 and younger are always free with a paying parent. Weekend admission: $12 per hour for ages 7 and older; $10 per hour for ages 6 and younger; free for ages 3 and younger with a paying parent.
Food Revolution Day
Do you know Jamie Oliver? He’s the British chef who’s encouraging families to eat “real food” to avoid the growing obesity rates, and he’s leading the way with the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation, which has declared Friday as Food Revolution Day. Visit foodrevolutionday.com to find an event near you – including the Real Food Picnic at Texas Discovery Gardens in Dallas or the Fort Worth Food Park Party – or gather your kids in your own kitchen to make a great meal from scratch. Check out Oliver’s recipes, and download more free resources, including a coloring sheet for the kids.
Sign up to receive our Weekend Guide newsletters each Thursday to your inbox, and for more family-friendly events every day, visit the calendar at dfwchild.com/showcalendar.asp.
15:
From pizza dough tossing to kids karaoke, here’s what you’ll find inside the children’s activity corners at these five weekend festivals in Dallas, Grapevine, Addison and Richardson.
May 17–19: Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival in Richardson
Listen to a weekend full of musical acts (gospel, punk, rock, blues, country – they’ve got it all) and let your kids get in on the musical action too. The Kidz Korner has a karaoke stage where the kids can sign their heart out their future fan club members. After the vocal cord workout, walk through the butterfly habitat and check out the rock climbing wall, sand pit, trampoline and petting zoo.
May 17–19: Taste Addison
To work up an appetite for samplings from the festival’s 60 featured eateries, take the kids to the Family Fun Zone for a quad bungee jump, bounce house and Spiderman obstacle course as well as face painting, caricatures, old-fashioned photos and sand art. A special entertainment stage just for the kids will be running continuously with clowns, animals presentations, music and musical theater productions.
May 17–19: Main Street Days in Grapevine
Pizza is the main event at the downtown Grapevine festival. Kids 10 and younger can sign up for a session at the Roma’s Pizza Toss Academy and learn how to roll and toss dough like an authentic pizza maker. Get your fill of pizza slices from vendors along the Pizza Piazza, and check out the KidCave for the tricycle riding area, LEGOLAND junior builder competition and SEA LIFE Aquarium’s touch pool. Admission is free until 5pm on Friday.
May 18: Trinity River Wind Festival in Dallas
Our fingers are crossed that Saturday will be a warm and windy day, so you can witness the area’s best show of large kites by the Japanese Kite Makers. Bring your own kites to fly, join the paper plane-making contest and visit the Kroger Kids Fun Zone to see live animals from the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center and the Dallas Zoo and Frisbee-catching dogs.
May 18: Asian Festival at Main Street Garden in Dallas
The world’s largest continent has so many countries and cultures to discover and appreciate. Get a head start on learning about Asian Pacific cultures by watching performances from dance groups representing Japan, Cambodia, the Philippines, Hawaii and more. Make Asian-inspired crafts at the Passport to Asia for Kids area, taste authentic cuisine from food trucks and shop for handcrafted goods.
Sign up to receive our Weekend Guide newsletters each Thursday to your inbox, and for more family-friendly events every day, visit the calendar at dfwchild.com/showcalendar.asp.
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Scarborough Renaissance Festival
