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.
22:
This Thursday, shop for handmade gifts from local Etsy vendors and listen to Texas-born music at a new concert series at Klyde Warren Park.
Etsy Handmade Gifts & Mini-Market
If you’ve been looking for an excuse to visit West Elm at Mockingbird Station, here’s cause for a trip. The local Etsy vendors will be selling their handmade and vintage wares during a small market inside West Elm from 6–8pm on Thursday. You’ll get refreshments, gift bags and ideas for making your own handmade gifts, and don’t miss the accessory workshop for do-it-yourselfers. Raffle tickets to win a prize package from West Elm are $5, and proceeds will go toward the Genesis Women’s Shelter.
Klyde Warren Park Concert Series
Klyde Warren Park is debuting a new concert series called Music Road Third Thursdays, featuring performances by Texas-based singers and songwriters under the Muse Family Performance Pavilion. Listen to the first performance on May 23, by Garrett Lebeau from 7:30–10pm (yes, tomorrow is the fourth Thursday, but don’t let that confuse you.) Austin-based Music Road Records will present concerts on the third Thursday monthly through October.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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Scarborough Renaissance Festival
