The Guppy Gala at the National Zoo is Friday May 14 from 6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m, and you can win four free tickets for the little guppies in your family (and their parents too)!

This splish, splash of a bash is an ocean of fun with animal encounters, tasty treats, silly songs, educational learning and dinner provided by Subway!

A swimmingly fun time is waiting for you!

Activities Include:

• A mock construction site
• Rock-climbing walls
• Obstacle courses
• Mazes
• Costumed characters
• Jugglers, gymnasts, and musicians
• Live entertainment
• United Healtchare Veterinary Center – bring your stuffed animal for a check up
• Giant ZOOTRITION – learn about how much animals eat (and about nutrition for humans too)

Free tickets are rad, to be sure, but it’s also an event definitely worth the regular old ticket price of $15 for Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) members, $25 for non-members.  Buy tickets here. Tickets are required for everyone two years of age and older. Members may purchase up to six tickets at the member rate. See parking information here.

Note: If you plan to attend but aren’t FONZ members, if you join the money you save on the discounted tickets for the event will pay for your membership and PARKING at the Zoo for your visits all year long! Oh, they give families when they join all these special goodies like a stuffed animal, a calendar in January, free cookies at every zoo visit, invitations to special events, the ability to have your BIRTHDAY PARTY at the Zoo.  It’s pretty incredible.  We’ve been members for years…way before I started a blog and started bossing people around. Anyways,  join FONZ here.

And of course all the proceeds of the event, and a FONZ membership, go to support animal care, conservation science, education and sustainability at the National Zoo.

To enter to win the four free tickets, leave a comment here with your or your child’s favorite animal exhibit at the Zoo!

I personally love the orangutans that travel the O-Line between the Great Ape House and the Think Tank, and how they make their own hammocks and visors and are learning language!  (My kids?  They like how when the apes are on the O-Line they sometimes unintentionally pee on the people below.)

The winners of the Swamp Stomp Boogie CD giveaway are Diana R., Steve Miller, Mommy Jones, Sonia M., and Whitney W.

But EVERYONE is enthusiastically invited to come hear Ryan Buckle and the Swamp Stomp Boogie Band live in concert at Jammin’ Java on Saturday May 1st at 10:30 a.m! It’s not only a kid concert, but there will be hands-on science stations for kids to do experiments and play, thanks to the Curiosity Zone!

(Also, I’m going to emcee the event and introduce the band.  So excited!)

Please join me and my family as we rock to the beat and explode baking soda volcanoes and stuff.  What better way to spend a spring Saturday?  Tickets are selling fast, so grab yours now.

WHERE: Jammin’ Java, 227 Maple Ave E, Vienna, VA, 22180.

WHEN: Saturday, May 1, at 10:30 a.m.

TICKETS: Tickets are $10 for each person age one and over.  To buy tickets, visit www.EverWonderRecords.com, or call Curiosity Zone at 703-723-9949.

Disclosure: I am such a cheap chick that I will receive no compensation for this post or emceeing the Jammin’ Java event, other than a free CD and free entry to the concert for my family.  But seriously, I live for kids’ events, what else was I going to do on a Saturday?  Can’t wait!

Just a friendly reminder that there are still a few days left in April to win this month’s $50 gift:

A 30-minute facial at Blue Heron Wellness!

Blue Heron Wellness, the integrated wellness center specializing in acupuncture, therapeutic massage, yoga and herbal medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland, is now offering natural skin care services. Their expert estheticians provide safe, effective treatments and products to assist us in meeting our health and wellness goals for our skin.  Skin treatments all begin with a thorough skin analysis, cleansing routine formulated to your needs, exfoliation, extractions, and treatment mask and moisturizer. And each facial treatment includes a shoulder, neck and head massage to relax and revitalize you!

Want to up your chances of winning that blessed half hour of beauty and pampering?  Then go to the Washingtonian’s Best of Washington 2010 and place your votes. While you’re there, you can nominate Blue Heron for best yoga studio #37 (best yoga studio) or best day spa (#40). You could also nominate me for best local blogger (#52) if you want, or any of the other badass bloggers that write about our fair town! Then come back here and leave a comment that you voted, and you’ll be entered five more times in the drawing.

And you can leave comments on all the posts on A Parent in Silver Spring in April 2010 for more entries, and every new subscriber to the A Parent in Silver Spring email feed (in which you receive new posts to the website in your email box, typically 5 times a week) will receive a bonus entry!  Subscribe here.

Here are the rules:

• This monthly giveaway is totally separate to any other giveaways that I may hold on A Parent in Silver Spring or APISS Reviews.
• Leave a comment on any post on A Parent in Silver Spring in April 2010.
• Leave one comment per post – multiple comments on the same post will be counted just once.
• This means if I write 30 posts a month and you leave a comment on each one, you’ll be entered in the drawing 30 times…and um, them’s purty good odds.
• When you leave a comment, please click the FOLLOW button directly below the comment text box.  This way I can notify you that you are a winner.  (I HIGHLY recommend simply clicking the follow button and entering your email for notification of replies to your comment, rather than leaving the text to your email address within your comment – this is how you get gross spam.)
• This month, additional entries can be received for voting in Washingtonian’s Best of Washington 2010 survey and subscribing to the A Parent in Silver Spring email feed, as detailed above.
• Constructive criticism, differences of opinion = completely fine.  Offensive comments or spam = will be deleted.
• Friends and fellow bloggers are eligible.
• All winners will be drawn completely Randomly.
• All winners must reside in the United States.
• Comments sent to me via email are always appreciated, but will not be counted for this monthly giveaway series.

Featured businesses may provide the gift certificates and gift cards and swag.  All giveaways in this series will be worth at least $50 each and require no further purchase of goods or services from the winner.  (Have a business you’d like to promote through giving a gift to gracious A Parent in Silver Spring reading parents?  Send me a line!)

So please leave comments, comments, comments galore!  Write what you like, what you don’t, what you think needs to be changed, events that are happening in your community, your own great finds…whatever!

Calling all Bourdain groupies, Top Chef devotees and general foodies:  The infamously grumpy, sharp-tongued host (and new father, awww) of NO RESERVATIONS, Anthony Bourdain, is coming to the Warner Theatre on Friday, May 21.  He’ll be joined by Eric Ripert, local restaurateur of West End Bistro, Chef and author and host of PBS’ Avec.

The guys will be bantering back and forth about what really goes on behind kitchen doors in the restaurant biz. Through illustrative anecdotes, stories and a Q & A, the night will include highlights and lurid lowlights from Bourdain’s career. The duo has appeared often together on Top Chef (which has already begun taping in the District!) and elsewhere, but they have little else in common, other than friendship.

Get your tickets here.

Visit AlliedSatelliteTV.com to get the best deals to watch Anthony on your TV.