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.
20:
Looking for a way to encourage your kids to continue reading through the summer? Tell them the mayor of Dallas is counting on them.
Mayor Mike Rawlings is kicking off the Mayor’s Summer Reading Club, a free eight-week program from June 15 – August 10 that encourages kids as well as the rest of the family to focus on reading. Do you prefer paperbacks? Perfect. E-books? Excellent. Audiobooks? Awesome. Registration is now open at all 29 Dallas Public Library locations and online at dallaslibrary.org.
To kick off the program on June 15, join other young book lovers at celebrations at one of these eight Dallas library branches:
From 11am–1pm: Timberglen, Bachman Lake, White Rock Hills and Polk Wisdom;
From 2–4pm: Central Children’s Center, North Oak Cliff, Prairie Creek and Bookmarks at NorthPark Center
Kids can earn weekly prizes by reading a set number of hours per week: at least five hours for ages 7 and older, and three hours for ages 6 and younger. They can also enter to win grand prizes by reading extra hours or thinking outside the book: attending library events, writing book reviews or illustrating book characters.
Don’t live in Dallas? Find out about your local library’s summer reading programs – such as Plano’s new Suburban Dare starting June 1, or Fort Worth’s Worth Reading. Or search our directory to find the library nearest to you.
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.
17:
If your child has a severe allergy to peanuts, milk, eggs or other foods, you know how dangerous a run-in with those foods can be. According to the Food Allergy Research & Education, 1 in 13 kids have a food allergy.
So for Food Allergy Awareness Week, help arm your family and friends with knowledge about not only allergies but a new concern – food allergy bullying, read tips on how to talk to your child about being a pal to someone with food allergies, and for your child’s next birthday party, read our recent article about how you can keep your kids and party guests safe from possible allergens in the birthday cake.
And we must share newest fave product. AllerMates are colorful wristbands your child can wear any time to alert adults of their allergies without saying a word.
17:
Walk the streets of Deep Ellum during the district’s monthly market, see the new camp site and bike trail at the Trinity River Audubon Center, and join the grand opening celebration for LLELA’s new pollinator garden.
Deep Ellum Outdoor Market
For one of most unique flea markets around, take a walk through the streets of Deep Ellum at their monthly market on Saturday from 11am–5pm. Listen to local bands play reggae music while you browse jewelry and art vendors, and check out the food vendors too. After all, barbecue followed by ice cream says, “It’s summer in Texas.” – Well, almost.
Forest Fest at the Audubon Center
The Trinity River Audubon Center recently finished a new overnight campsite for groups and a new bike trail that crosses over the Trinity River. Join the free Forest Fest for a family camping clinic with REI instructors, kayaking and canoeing, and more on Saturday from 10am–2pm.
LLELA’s new Pollinator Garden
Also, take your littlest nature lovers to the grand opening of the new pollinator garden at the Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area. Make a “pollinator pal” at the craft station from 9:30–11:30am on Saturday, and join wildflower and butterfly walks through the new lush garden of prairie grasses and wildflowers that boost native pollinators, namely bees and butterflies.
Admission is $5 per person and free for ages 5 and younger. Stick around for the Homestead Open House from nοοn–3pm, and call 972/219-3930 to register for the Star Party from 8:15–9:15pm.
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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