Happy Wednesday Smarties, welcome to June! This should be a great weekend to head to Discovery Place to check out Crittercam or take a road trip with your little Engineers to visit Tweetsie or the NC Transportation Museum for Rail Days. Celebrate the last weekend before school is out for the summer. Get out and enjoy.
Discovery Place Kids – Fun Fridays
Discovery Place Kids
June 1
Join us each Friday for fun, themed activities throughout the Museum that last throughout the day. This week is Baseball Bonanza: Step up to the plate and get ready to celebrate one of America’s favorite pastimes.
National Geographic Crittercam – NEW!
Discovery Place
May 26 through September 16
What do wild animals do when humans aren’t around? Take a rare peek into the private lives of animals through Crittercams, imaging devices worn safely by wildlife. Designed to help researchers learn how animals live, eat and care for their young, these tools enable us to better understand how to protect the very animals that wear them. Take a wild ride as you experience the world from an entirely new perspective – dive deep with penguins, hunt with lions, lurk with crocodiles and much more.
Family Campfire
McDowell Nature Center
June 1, 7:00pm-8:00pm
Enjoy Stories, eat s’mores, and sing songs around a campfire with family and friends. Groups are welcome to attend, come early to get tickets to the Nature at Night Hayride immediately following the Campfire (May – September). For more information call McDowell Nature Center at 704.588.5224.
Nature at Night Hayride
McDowell Nature Center
June 1, 8:15am-9:45pm
Bring your family and experience McDowell Nature Preserve at night. Weather permitting we will venture into our Prairie in search of coyote, bobcat, deer, and owls while taking in the sights and sounds of the night. Come to the Family Campfire early to take advantage of first-come first-serve seating, contact McDowell Nature Center at 704-588-5224 for more information. Cost is free.
Charlotte in 2012 Youth Event
EpiCentre Charlotte
June 2, 11:00am-3:00pm
Calling all families, parents, guardians, grandparents, aunts, uncles, coaches, babysitters . . . Okay, you get it! The Charlotte in 2012 Convention Host Committee has a really exciting event happening next month for YOU and your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or team members (or whatever you call those younger, shorter people in your life).
On Saturday, June 2, we will host Kids Convention 2012 – a free, family friendly event for local students in Kindergarten through 8th Grade and their parents or guardians. The EpiCentre and GenerationNation are helping us put on a community event where you and yours will have the opportunity to learn more about civic education and the upcoming convention. The event will also feature local youth entertainment acts and a number of different activities for children.
But wait . . . There’s one more thing we need you to do! The Charlotte in 2012 Convention Host Committee and our partners are all about giving back to our community and we hope you are too! Please bring a school supply with you to the event. We will collect all the items and donate them to a local school and to a local youth organization offering summer programs.
Tweetsie Railroad’s Day Out With Thomas: Mystery On The Rails Tour 2012
Tweetsie Railroad
June 1-10, Sat., 8:00am-6:00pm; Sun-Fri., 9:00am-6:00pm
Day Out With Thomas™ is a family event that offers aspiring engineers and their families the unique opportunity to take a ride with the classic storybook engine, Thomas the Tank Engine™. Your ticket for Day Out With Thomas includes:
– One train ride with Thomas the Tank Engine
– Thomas & Friends themed entertainment
– Thomas & Friends Storytelling and Video Viewing, and an Imagination Station with Thomas & Friends coloring sheets, temporary tattoos, stamps, train tables and Mega Blox™!
– All the amusement rides, live shows and attractions at Tweetsie Railroad
– Meet Sir Topham Hatt, the Chairman of the Railway on the Island of Sodor
– Enjoy plenty of opportunities to find great Thomas & Friends merchandise at the Thomas & Friends Gift Shop located in Tweetsie Junction
Cost is $35 for adults; $22 for children age 3-12; Children under 2- free.
2012 Great Southeastern Rail Days Festival
NC Transportation Museum
June 2-3, Sat.9:00am-5:00pm; Sun. noon-5:00pm
The 2012 Great Southeastern Rail Days Festival has great fun for families, rail fans, and anyone with an interest in the golden age of railroading! Featuring three passenger trains, including the steam powered caboose train, the 30th anniversary celebration of the Southern Railway and Norfolk & Western merger, music, magic, railroad artisit Andy Fletcher and much more, this event promises to be bigger and better than ever before! Cost is $15-$20; free ages 2 and younger.
Movies in the Park
North Mecklenburg Park
June 1, 7:00pm
MOVIES IN THE PARK HUNTERSVILLE is back this summer with more FREE entertainment! Popular family movies displayed on a gigantic 20’x25’ outdoor screen with a concert-grade sound system. All of it takes place on the big soccer fields at the back of North Mecklenburg Park. Radiant Life Fellowship will provide FREE admission, movie, drinks, popcorn and more. Bring your lawn chair or blankets.
Dinner and a Movie – The Muppets
Carolina Place Mall
June 2, 5:00pm-9:00pm
Carolina Place is going Hollywood this summer, as the mall launches “Dinner and a Movie” on Saturday evenings in June and July. The lineup of family-friendly box office hits will air each Saturday from June 2 to July 28 (excluding July 7). The events take place in the grass courtyard directly beside REI, near the parking lot for the food court entrance. All summer long, families can take a break from cooking on the weekends and enjoy special dining offers from 5 – 9 p.m. at participating mall restaurants. On-site service includes meals from Chick-fil-A, cookies and tea from McAlister’s Deli and free popcorn, while supplies last. Pre-show entertainment begins at 7:30 p.m., with Radio Disney on site for two special Disney movie nights. Other nights will feature a variety of performers such as magicians and clowns. Movie pre-shows begin about 20 minutes prior to dusk, with the movies starting at sunset. The outdoor setup will include surround sound and a 23-foot, inflatable movie screen – the same size as a theater screen. Families are encouraged to bring blankets to create a comfortable seating area.
Cowboys: Dust of the Trail
Schiele Museum
Sat., 9:00am-5:00pm; Sun., 1:00pm-5:00pm
Take a ride back in time to the real Wild West. Journey beyond the fiction and beyond the myth, to the real world of the American Cowboy. Retrace their evolution from the Mexican vaqueros of the old Spanish southwest to the hardworking cowhands of today’s Great Basin ranches. Along the way you’ll learn the true story of the historic Texas cattle drives-when men moved thousands of unruly animals north across hundreds of miles of prairie, mountains and desert. As you travel from ranch, to trail camp, to cow town, you’ll discover the tools and techniques necessary for work in the cattle trade. It’s a story of adventurous lives lived in the saddle and under the hat. It’s an epic tale of doggies, drifters and drovers-roundups, reatas and rodeos-bunk houses, bronc busters and buckaroos! Cost is $6-$7.
Matthew’s Summer Concert & Movie Series: Cars II
Stumptown Park
June 2, 7:00pm
Come out to Stumptown Park every Saturday night for free concerts and movies in the park! Concerts begin at 7 PM. This week we feature Cars II. Pre-movie: Colonial Toys, Crafts and activities. Vendors will be on site selling dinner food, treats, and drinks. No pets please.
The Wedding of 1761
Rural Hill Farm
June 2, 11:00am-4:00pm
The Wedding of 1761″ a Historic Rural Hill community history event, will be held on June 2, 2012 at 11:00. This unique experience will portray the 1761 wedding of John Davidson to his bride, Violet Wilson. Come and see the unique traditions of the time, some of which have been passed down to present day! After the “wedding” there will be a community celebration of colonial proportions featuring music, bowl carving, blacksmithing, and presentations of hearth cooking, pre – revolution militiamen, animal feeding, and much more! Cost is free.
SPAFA’s Adoption Expo 2012
Stallings United Methodist Church
June 2, 9:00am-1:00pm
The Adoption Expo offers couples or singles, who want to start a family, the opportunity to talk with adoption professionals from across the country in one convenient trade show setting. The keynote speaker this year is Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family. She will be speaking on “Adoption Works For Kids and Families”. This is a FREE event–bring a friend!
SPAFA goals for the EXPO are to:
Increase adoption awareness in the community, Educate attendees about available adoption options, Introduce our organization as a supportive local resource for prospective adoptive parents and families. The SPAFA Adoption Expo is free and open to the public.
Charlotte, N.C. Gluten/Allergen Free Expo
The Park Expo and Conference Center
June 2, 9:00am-4:00pm
The biggest Gluten/Allergen Free event of the South brings Experts and Researchers along with Mrs. United States 2011, Shannon Ford to the Park Expo Center along with up to 100 vendors of the best Gluten/Allergen Free Foods. Top Chef Demonstrations in Gluten/Allergen Free foods, Kid contests, Raffle prizes & more! Cost is $10.
