Photo credit: Sam Kittner/Newseum

FRIDAY APRIL 27

On Friday, April 27, the Newseum will open the HP New Media Gallery, an interactive experience that uses the latest technology to allow visitors to physically step into a social network that shows media’s powerful impact on our world. Live Twitter feeds fill touch-screen monitors and connect visitors with trending news stories. The 2,500-square-foot gallery is the first permanent addition to the museum since its grand opening in 2008.

As visitors enter the gallery, they are directed to the “Check-In” area, where they can post photos of themselves to screens in the gallery and comment on events of the day. At two 11-foot-wide interactive touch walls, visitors are encouraged to explore dozens of important news events and viral videos, including the first Twitter reports of the 2008 China earthquake and the Facebook posts that fueled the Egyptian revolution in 2011.

In the “Choose the News” area, visitors can flip through the latest stories and build custom news pages, then publish them to a large video wall. The “Game Zone” features motion-tracking technology that allows visitors to use hand gestures to test their knowledge of social media.

SATURDAY APRIL 28

Fenton Street Market returns to Veterans Plaza in downtown Silver Spring on April 28, from 10:00am – 4:00pm! Every Saturday through October 27, over 60 local vendors a week will showcase their wares: original artwork, handmade and imported crafts, antiques, jewelry, furniture, vintage clothing, unique services such as acupuncture and henna tattoos, and much more. Community programming will include a screen printing demonstration by Pyramid Atlantic, an interactive model train exhibit by the Riverdale Model Train Club, and music by market favorites Snakehead Run and Israel Dempsey. Veterans Plaza is located in front of the Silver Spring Civic Building, at the intersection of Fenton St. and Ellsworth Dr., Silver Spring, MD 20910.

SATURDAY APRIL 28 & SUNDAY APRIL 29

USA Science and Engineering Festival
Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.
April 28: 10:00am-6:00pm
April 29: 10:00am-4:00pm
Admission FREE

This huge and awesome free festival which features over 3,000 hands-on science and engineering activities, and more than 100 stage shows on six stages! It’s a science loving family’s dream! Attendees can operate state-of-the-art robots; converse with astronauts, Nobel Laureates, storm chasers, science celebrities like Bill Nye the Science Guy or the MythBusters and even scientists of the past; fly a fighter jet simulator; enter a virtual reality environment, be a CSI agent and so much more. Students can also leave with information about science and engineering scholarships, internships, mentorship and future jobs.

Before you go, be sure to download the FREE USA Science and Engineering Festival App. It lists all activities, stage shows, 36 Featured Authors, and gives you a map and more. The app is available for both iPhone and Android.

Highlight for Young Kids 

Visit the PBS Kids Sid the Science Kid Booth for fun hands on activities for children all day, a photo opportunity with the Sid the Science Kid costume character, see Sid the Science Kid will perform his “Science is Everywhere” singalong on the Curie Stage on Saturday at 10:50am and 12:50pm and Sunday at 10:00am and 11:50pm, and be entered to win a Sid the Science Kid collection of merchandise drawing each day.

Also, leave a comment on this post to win one of TWO copies of the Sid’s Backyard Campout DVD! The winners will be randomly drawn in one week.

Have a fabulous weekend!

This Saturday April 28 is FAMILY DAY at Glen Echo Park

Glen Echo Park’s Family Day is full of free events abound from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.  including face painting, music and dance performances, magic shows, a youth art exhibition, family dancing, T-Ball Extreme, tours by National Park Service rangers, and more. If you have attended in the past, new to this year’s event is storytelling. There is also cake and lemonade for all.

Family Day marks the opening of the Park’s historic Dentzel Carousel carousel for its 92nd season. Visitors will enjoy many FREE activities, Carousel rides are $1.25/person. The Park’s new Ballroom Café will be open — operated by the Brown Bag — and will serve lots of tasty and healthy fare.

While at Glen Echo Park, head to The Puppet Co. to relax and take in a show!

Pinnochio
Thursday at 10 am
Saturday at 11:30 am and 1 pm
Sunday at 11:30 am and 1 pm
Half life-size rod puppets, performed in the Italian “Commedia del Arte” style, tell Carlo Collodi’s story of what it means to be “real.” Share the trials and tribulations of the little live puppet as he finds in one adventure after another that the “easy way” isn’t always the right way. Deemed, ”One of the most exquisite productions to ever grace our theater,”by the Smithsonian’s Discovery Theater. Running Time: 45 minutes; Recommended: K through Grade 6. Tickets $10.

Tiny Tots – Mother Goose Caboose
Saturday at 10 am -Geared towards tots age 0-4. The Tiny Tots program is designed for the youngest theater patrons. The lights stay on, the doors stay open, and everyone has a great time! All individuals must have a ticket, including babes-in-arms. Tickets $5.

The Puppet Co. Playhouse
7300 MacArthur Blvd
Glen Echo, MD 20812
Phone: (301) 634-5380
Website: www.thepuppetco.org
E-Mail: boxoffice@thepuppetco.org
Please visit www.thepuppetco.org/directions/ for directions to the venue.

Disclosure: The Puppet Co. and Creative MoCo, of which both Glen Echo Park Partnership of the Arts and The Puppet Co. are members, are advertising partners of this website. However, in support of these performing arts non-profits in which I believe and which enrich local families’ lives, they receive a highly reduced advertising rate as well as whatever promotional support I can give.

Listen to Your Mother makes its Washington, DC debut on May 6, 2012 from 2 – 3:30 p.m.

Listen to Your Mother DC is live readings by local writers on the beauty, the beast and the barely-rested life of mothers. In celebration of Mothers Day, 14 women will read their personal stories about the humor and the heartbreak that go hand in hand with motherhood.

This production is dear to my heart, not only because it features so many of close personal friends, but a portion of proceeds from theticket sales will benefit our beloved late friend Susan Niebur‘s personally-designated charity, the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Produced by Kate Coveny Hood and directed by Stephanie Stearns Dulli, the cast includes hilarious and poignant pieces by DC’s most accomplished writing mothers:

Chrissy Boylan
Sarah Braesch
Nicole Crowley
Anna Whiston-Donaldson
Stephanie Stearns Dulli
Lindsay Felix
Lis Fogt
Devra Gordon
Cindy Green
Kate Coveny Hood
Monica Sakala
Elena Sonnino
Sue Wagner
Jean Winegardner

May 6, 2012

2-3:30 PM

The Synetic Theater at Crysal City

1800 South Bell Street

Arlington, VA 22202

(click here for driving directions)

Tickets are $18 and available for purchase online.

Children welcome, but please be advised that a small amount of subject matter or language may be unsuitable for all ages. Please email us listentoyourmotherdc@gmail.com with questions or concerns.

On Saturday afternoon, the Maryland Youth Ballet presents a special matinee, geared especially towards children, Caroline Goes to the Seashore. Proving that young children have more ballet viewing options than simply the winter cracking of nuts, dancing candy and fighting mice, the Maryland Youth Ballet’s young dancers present this delightful spring production.

The story tells of young Caroline’s fantastic adventure at the seashore where she and her friends encounter characters such as friendly octopuses (octopi?), sea horses, angel fish, crabs, even King Neptune.

Caroline Goes to the Seashore by Maryland Youth Ballet
Saturday, April 28, 2012, 3:00-4:00 pm
Cultural Arts Center, Montgomery College, Silver Spring/Takoma Park
(Georgia Avenue at East-West Hwy)
Children: 12 & under: $10; Adults: $15
Tickets available in advance from Maryland Youth Ballet
926 Ellsworth Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20910 and day-of at the Cultural Arts Center if tickets remain (as of Tuesday morning, there are still tickets)
Note: Tickets may only be purchased using cash or check.

For more information: call 301-608-2232 or www.marylandyouthballet.org.

Disclosure: MYB is an advertiser on this website. My daughter is a student of the MYB, however all tuition and extras are paid entirely by me.

FYI, GNO = Girls’ Night Out, no “y”. Although as my friend K. has remarked, often an annual women’s exam can be relaxing as it a guaranteed hour or so without children.

Except for those times when we do have to take the kids to our pap smears and pregnancy check-ups with the kids in tow. (“Sweetie, stay behind the screen, ‘k? Look at your Leapster. No really, look at your Leapster, now!!”)

Sorry. Digression.

This women’s night out event at St. Raphael’s school in Rockville is a good time. It is free, for all women in the area and has been providing a fabulous annual night off for local moms for the last five years.  On Wednesday night, grab your keys, grab your girls, and get out of the house for drinks, luxe prizes and Mother’s Day shopping.