Weekend Plans Easter Edition: Egg hunts, strawberries, what's open

We still have many Easter events on our Easter events database. They include egg hunts in Chapel Hill, Morrisville and Clayton. There are events at Crossroads Plaza in Cary and North Hills in Raleigh. Andrea wrote about Raleigh Easter, the large egg hunt in downtown Raleigh's Halifax Mall on Saturday. And Saturday is the last day for the Easter Bunny at area malls. Check the Easter Events Guide for details.

Strawberry season is really, officially, here. Most of the farms have berries by now. Check our database to find the farm near you. We also have at least two strawberry festivals on Saturday.

Western Wake Farmers Market in Cary will hold its Strawberry Festival with live music, face painting, butterflies and more. The market is open 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays on Morrisville Carpenter Road between Davis Drive and Hwy. 55 in Carpenter Village.

And the 40/42 area Strawberry Festival is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday on Technology Drive in the Cleveland area of Johnston County.

The N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences will say so long to Animal Grossology on Sunday. The special exhibit, which opened in the fall, explores everything that's gross about animal life. The exhibit and museum will be open all weekend, including Easter Sunday. Tickets to the exhibit are $8 for adults; $5 for students and seniors; $4 for children ages 5 to 11. There's no charge to visit the museum.

Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh will be closed on Sunday. But there will be some special events on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, the museum will celebrate the opening of its Power Flower exhibit with an Earth Day celebration. Check my earlier post for details. At 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, Tarheel Tale Tellers, the children's literature performance company from UNC-Chapel Hill, will tell stories. And from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, artist Edwin Gil will bring his Flag of Hope project to Marbles. The project aims to raise cultural awareness by connecting people of different races, backgrounds and life experiences through art. Gil is collecting thousands of handprints and signatures on canvas.

Events in Wake and Wayne counties will be part of an international effort to change the most cloth diapers at the same time. The Great Cloth Diaper Change is at noon Saturday. Check my earlier post for details. Registration is required before the events to participate.

HerbFest 2011 in Wake Forest continues through Sunday. The 12th annual event is one of the largest herb plant sales in the United States. The hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. You'll find it at 525 S. White St. Special activities for kids include face painting and bunnies. Check the schedule for details.

For the budding lacrosse players out there, Cary will host the ACC Women's Lacrosse Championships with games on Thursday, Friday and Sunday at WakeMed Soccer Park. All-session packages are $20 for adults, $10 for seniors/students/youth ages 3 and up. Individual-session prices are $8 for adults and $5 for seniors/students/youth. Parking is free and all seating is first come, first serve. Games are at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday. The championship is at 1 p.m. Sunday. We've been to several different kinds of games at the soccer park. Depending on the weather, it's a great venue for kids.

Duke Gardens in Durham has several events. The Nature Ranger Cart will be open for business from 10 a.m. to noon Friday. The traveling cart is full of free activities for visiting children. Nature for Sprouts, a program for kids ages 3 to 5, is from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturday. It's $6 per class. Registration is required for this one. Click here for details. And Sunday Science, a simple drop-in program featuring science or crafts for kids, is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. It's free. No registration is necessary.

If you're up for a day trip, the N.C. Zoo in Asheboro is open all weekend and will have its special Egg Stravaganza on Saturday where you can watch animals hunt for  treats.

Check out our museums, historic sites and zoos resource page for details and links to each of these spots.

Happy Easter!