Weekend Plans: World's Toughest Rodeo, improv, skywatching

Happy weekend! Here’s your weekend family fun. As always, check WRAL.com’s Out & About calendar for more weekend ideas.

This is the final weekend for the Chinese Lantern Festival at Booth Amphitheatre in Cary. It closes on Sunday and is absolutely beautiful.

The World’s Toughest Rodeo makes a stop at the PNC Arena for one show at 7:30 p.m., Saturday. Professional cowboys, including a monkey called Whiplash, will be performing. Tickets are half off for kids!

The Carolina Hurricanes will offer one of its Family Night deals at the 7 p.m., Friday, game against the Vancouver Canucks. For $99, families can get four tickets, four drinks, four hot dogs and four popcorns. With your tickets, you also get four vouchers for tickets to Marbles Kids Museum or its IMAX theater.

Wake Forest’s Renaissance Centre will host a special needs family game night from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Friday. It’s free. Enjoy an evening of board games for the whole family. You are welcome to bring your own snacks. Concessions also will be available for purchase.

Marbles Kids Museum's Family Science Olympiad is 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, at the downtown Raleigh museum. Families can take on a series of interactive and hands-on challenges such as building rockets and "secret structures." It's free with admission, which is $5 per person.

The N.C. Museum of Art’s M.C. Escher exhibit continues through next weekend. The museum in west Raleigh has several activities scheduled for families this weekend. During its Family Fun Saturdays, kids and parents, together, can explore and record colors, patterns and other forms found in the natural world, which interested Escher. They are at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., Saturday. Tickets are $5 for museum members and $8 for museum non-members. Tickets are required for this and they can sell out. The museum also will host free family tours at 10:30 a.m., Saturday and Sunday. Participants will be looking for hats and other headwear in the collection.

I’ll have more about this on Friday, but the Museum of Life and Science has some indoor winter fun with its “Frozen Over.” Kids 5 and under, particularly, enjoy this space which includes an indoor skating rink and an “icicle forest” made of 800 pool noodles. It’s free with admission, which is $16 for adults and $11 for kids ages 3 to 12. The exhibit runs through Jan. 31.

Transactors Improv: For Families is 6 p.m., Saturday, at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro. Tickets are $10 and $6 for students. This one is great for grade schoolers and up. They’ll be building hilarious skits around suggestions from the audience.

Northgate Mall’s Discovery Nook will host Durham-based author Deborah Watkins, who will read educational stories and lead kids in a craft. It’s at 12:30 p.m., Saturday and free. Find it in suite 109 in Northgate’s Children’s Alleyway.

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in Chapel Hill has a couple of events this weekend. Star Families, for kids ages 7 to 12 and their parents or caregivers, is 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m., Saturday. Learn more about the stars, constellations and planets found in the winter sky. Advanced registration is required. Morehead also will help lead a free skywatching session from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday, at Jordan Lake State Park. This one is weather dependent. Be sure to check Morehead’s website before you go for updates and directions.

The town of Cary will offer a variety of Martin Luther King Jr. Day events through Monday, including a screening of “Selma” at The Cary Theater and other special performances. I’ll have more information about other MLK Day events on Go Ask Mom on Friday.

Tar Heel student-athletes will mark National Girls and Women in Sports Day with free activities at Fetzer Gym from 10:30 a.m. to noon, Sunday. Girls and boys can meet with the athletes and learn more about their sports. It's designed for preschoolers to eighth graders. After the event, participants (along with their parents or guardians) will get free tickets to the UNC women's basketball game, which is at 12:30 p.m., Sunday. You must register for the event to get the free tickets. My family went to this last year and had a great time. Tickets go fast!