Free Things to Do in Fayetteville This Weekend

 #FayettevilleNCFree

Free events galore this weekend in the Fayetteville area!

Friday, May 15, 2015

*Lollipops Concert (Cape Fear High School Orchestra)
"Let's Go to the Movies"
10-11:30 a.m.
East Regional Library
4809 Clinton Road
Fayetteville, NC 28312-8401

*Meet the Cat in the Hat
Meet The Cat, get story, craft and treat
Barnes and Noble
7:00 pm
Glensford Commons, 121 Glensford Rd, Fayetteville, NC 28314

*Orienteering and Map Reading

Raven Rock State Park

2:00 pm

Meet at Visitor Center

Bring your own compass if you have one.

910-893-4888

Saturday, May 16, 2015

*Stedman Party in the Park
10 a.m.- 10 p.m
192 Euclid Street, Stedman, NC 28391
Kids activities, bands, dancers, street dance, army bands, Airborne chorus, vendors, corn hole tournament.

*Create Your Own Robot

11-12 a.m.

West Regional Library

7469 Century Circle Fayetteville, NC 28306

Registration is required by visiting the library or calling 487-0440. All ages.

*Movie at the Library

"Alexander and the No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day"

11 a.m.-12:30 pm

North Regional Library

855 McArthur Road
Fayetteville, NC 28311

*Sandhills Sankofa Festival

11:00 am-6:00 pm

African American Culture Festival

Music, vendors, art, gospel music

Spring Lake Recreation Center

245 Ruth St
Spring Lake, NC

*Clark Park Nature Hour
"Amphibians"
10:00am-11:00 am
Clark Park
631 Sherman Drive
Fayetteville, NC

Call to register. 910-433-1579

*Movie Under the Stars
"Boxtrolls"
Smith Lake Recreation Area
Open to the Public
Bring Blankets chairs
No outside food or drink allowed.
Door prizes/giveaways

*Senses Hike for National Kids to Parks Day
Carver's Creek
6 p.m.
2505 Long Valley Road, Spring Lake, NC 28390

*Holistic and Wellness Super Expo

10:30am-5:30pm

Demonstrations and seminars on yoga, meditation, herbs, martial arts, acupuncture, etc.
CHARLIE ROSE AGRI-EXPO CENTER
1960 Coliseum Drive
Fayetteville, NC 28306

Register online for seat http://steppress.org/

Donations appreciated

*Lafayette Doll and Toy Club Show

Headquarters Library

10:30 am-5:30 pm

300 Maiden Lane
Fayetteville, NC 28301-5032

Sunday, May 17 2015

*Party for the Pine
Celebrate the birthday of a 467 year old tree
Weymouth Woods
Visitor Center
3:00 pm
1024 Ft. Bragg Road, Southern Pines, NC 28387
Hike to the tree with a park ranger, and then have cake!
http://ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/wewo/events.php

*Sudan Shriner's Parade
11:30am-12:30pmIntersection of Broad Street and Wilson Ave
Dunn, NC

*Family Renaissance Fair

12-4pm

North Carolina Museum of Art

2110 Blue Ridge Rd., Raleigh, NC 27607

Royalty, craftsmen, jugglers, bards,fairies, warriors

Schedule: http://ncartmuseum.org/calendar/event/2015/05/17/family_renaissance_fair1/1200

Bows, Snow, Flying Rats and Dirty Jokes

I haven't written a post about the weekend adventures of Le Kid and I in a while, if you hadn't noticed. There haven't been the normal number of outings because of this....

This what we call a winter storm in the South. My child has missed about four days of school out of the last two weeks for a handful of snow, not that we're complaining. We slept in, played a stupid amount of Just Dance (I finally made it to number in the World Dance Floor!), read over half of The Chamber of Secrets and watched easily 100 YouTube videos on raw food (while eating a block of cheese, of course.) Much fun has been had, but I'm not sharing a picture of me beating nine year olds around the globe at Just Dance no matter how much you beg.

So I had meetups and even a seminar cancelled because of snow! I started writing a blog post about how depressed the weather was making me, but I was too depressed to finish it! But, there was a reprieve in the winter storm this past weekend. It was still cold and gloomy, but I forced Le Kid to come out with me.

Dig those funky threads

Le Kid isn't always a willing participant in the whole arts and culture thing I'm always trying to get her involved in. Really, left to her own devices she would the endless loop of Disney Channel repeats until her eyeballs fell out of their sockets, which is she had been doing on Saturday morning for two hours already when I "strongly encouraged" (nagged and lectured) her to go to the American Girl Doll bow making party at a local library.

I was trying to pitch in, and I guess she didn't want me to so she told everyone my breath smelled like "frozen peas". Meanie.

A master bow-maker had brought really pretty ribbons, needles and thread, hot glue guns and serious bling to the event. Usually with kid crafts, the grown ups do most of the tricky stuff, but this instructor showed them how to make bows from start to finish. We learned a practical skill! She opted for an Angry Birds/ Minions combo. Le Kid was really proud of bow and has been wearing it every day.

"Was Mom right to make you come to the bow party?" I asked. I already knew the answer, but I just wanted to make her say it. I guess I'm a little mean, too!

My daughter didn't want to go to a play because she was watching Dog With a Blog. But the play was free (my favorite word) and had a mostly female cast, which is like Halley's Comet--something you aren't likely to see again in a lifetime. Le Kid didn't take too much coaxing. I told her she could wear one of her party dresses, and we were good to go.

The Odd Couple:The Female Version

Fayetteville Tech does several free plays a year. We went to Meet Me in St. Louis at the school before the holidays, and my daughter couldn't stop talking about it. She begged to see it again and again! You would expect that what is more or less community theater would have some pretty stilted acting, but you'd be wrong. There are some bad ass actors in this little city!

"It looks like our house"- Le Kid

The actresses were so pretty and yet so gritty and funny. Grown up movies and plays often send my child into deep slumber. (We went to see Exodus and my child was snoring when Moses was still in eyeliner and Egyptian panties.) I looked over at her during the second half of the play, and she was laughing;her eyes were glittering. She was into it!

The Odd Couple: The Female Version had some great jokes: "I saw milk standing in the fridge, and it wasn't even in the bottle." There were raunchy ones, too. They went over my kid's head for the most part, but if she caught a few, good for her. There was nothing I loved so much as dirty words and naughty jokes as a kid. Gee, have I changed so little? *Shrug*


Everything is about the kid. I "make" her do things she wants to do but is being lazy. ( I wish I had someone to do that for me.) I also "make" myself do things she wants to do, even when I feel lazy. She wanted to go to the park, even though it was freezing. It turned out to be too cold for her, but we stopped and fed pretzels, which was all we had in the car, to sea gulls at a pond.

They swarmed us and chased us back into the car, but I was clicking the camera button on my phone wildly, and I got some decent shots, despite my running and screaming.

Well, the snow is coming down hard now. A friend just called to tell me the roads were bad. Looks like I'll be house bound with a side of  "wish I were in Jamaica."

Are you under a pile of snow today? What are you doing this weekend?