Weekend Plans: Easter Bunny arrivals, Monster Jam, Mickey Mouse, more

The bunny will be popping into most area malls starting this Saturday for visits with kids and photos. See my earlier post for details. An addition: A Sea of Learning store at Northgate Mall in Durham will be offering crafts for a $5 fee from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday as part of the Easter celebration there, which includes the Easter Bunny parade at 10:45 a.m.

And Holly Springs will hold its annual Egg Hunt and Spring Fling event from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at Womble Park, 1201 Grigsby Ave. The annual event includes a community yard sale and other activities including games, inflatables and music. The egg hunt begins at noon on the baseball fields and is for kids ages 8 and under.

Watch giant monster trucks do lots of stuff at the Monster Jam. It takes over the RBC Center at 7:30 p.m. Friday and at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. These trucks can fly up to 125 to 130 feet and up to 35 feet in the air. Tickets start around $20.

And Disney Live! presents Mickey's Magic Show is at the Durham Performing Arts Center with shows at 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Friday. Tickets start at $16. It's a busy week for the DPAC. Shrek: The Musical opens Tuesday and runs through April 10. Tickets start at $24.

The first of three weekends for the North Carolina Renaissance Faire is this weekend at Poplar Creek Village, 7633 Poole Rd., in Knightdale. You'll see brave knights, beautiful princesses and of course the queen, along with jousting and lots of vendors selling their wares. The faire runs Saturday and Sunday and the weekends of April 9-10 and April 16-17. Tickets are $10 general admission and $5 for kids ages 5 to 12 and seniors 65 and up.

In Chapel Hill, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center's Family Science Day is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The event focuses on nutrition, physical fitness and mental and emotional well-being for all ages. There will be hands-on activities, programs and exhibits. Fitness instructors will teach mini-classes. You can try yoga and Tai Chi; participate in the Science LIVE Human Body Test; or talk to scientists who are studying human health and wellness. It's all free.

Cary Ballet Company and The 3D Project will present World Collide Concert: An Explosion of Dance at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday at Green Hope High School in Cary. The performance begins with the classical fairy tale ballet Cinderella followed by jazz and contemporary dance. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for kids. Call 481-6509 for more information.

N.C. Parent Consultants will host one of its regular morning forums from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The topic is discipline tips for older children. It's open to parents with children ages 8 to 13. It's $10 at the door, which is at 4904 Waters Edge Dr., Suite 151, in Raleigh. Registration is not required, but email them to let them know you're coming: enroll@ncparentconsultants.com.

It's the first Friday of the month, which means it's First Friday in downtown Raleigh. Museums and galleries stay open late. Among them is Marbles Kids Museum, which will be open until 8 p.m. Friday. The N.C. Theatre will be there with a sneak preview of its "Hello, Dolly!" (which will star Cybill Shepherd when it opens in May) along with crafts, song and dance. Also at Marbles this weekend, the museum will celebrate NanoDays as part of a nationwide festival about nanoscale science and engineering. That's from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. And the N.C. Forest Service will be there from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday with information about how to keep our environment clean. All of this is free with admission to Marbles, which is $5 per person.

You've got one more opportunity to see Raleigh Little Theatre's youth musical "Really Rosie," which closed last weekend in Raleigh. Halle Cultural Arts Center in Apex will offer one show at 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $7 and $5 for kids 12 and under. The musical, by Maurice Sendak and Carole King, revolves around Rosie, the sassiest kid on her block.

And Raleigh Little Theatre's RLT Players To Go!, made up of kids ages 10 to 13, will perform their take on some of Aesop's fables at 2 p.m. Saturday at Cameron Village Library in Raleigh. The free show is about 45 minutes long.

The Triangle Reuse Alliance is hosting a Reuse Rodeo in cooperation with Orange County Solid Waste Management. It's from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Solid Waste Management administrative offices, 1207 Eubanks Rd. in Chapel Hill. They're looking for specific items to benefit local non-profits. They include yarn, fabric and craft supplies for the Scrap Exchange; used bikes for reCYCLEry; reusable grocery bags for the Interfaith Council for Social Services Food Pantry; and kitchen items for Club Nova. Sounds like a great way to get rid of stuff after a little spring cleaning.

Celebrate the arrival of spring with the first local Baisakhi Mela, an Indian spring festival, from noon to 9 p.m. at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary. There will be dancing, martial artists, ethnic food and goods, arts and crafts and more. Baisakhi is one of the major festivals of Sikhs. The festival celebrates the new solar year, and is traditionally held in April in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. Lawn seats/general admission is free for those who arrive before 5 p.m. After 5 p.m., lawn seats/general admission is $3 for adults; children 2 and under and Punjabi Unlimited members are free. Parking is $5. Of note: Cary’s second largest population is Asian. And Hindi is the town's most predominate foreign language.

In Wake Forest, the D.A.R.E. Carnival for the Kids continues through Sunday at the Wake Forest Home Depot Parking Lot, 11915 Retail Dr. Hours are 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday; and 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. The event, with rides, games, food and more, supports the Wake Forest police department's youth programs. It started Tuesday.

Also in Wake Forest, Saturday is opening day for the Wake Forest Farmers' Market at the Depot Parking Lot, 110 S. White St. It will be open from 8 a.m. to noon. Food writer Debbie Moose will be there with her cookbooks from 9 a.m. to noon. There will be music plus lots of produce, meat, eggs, baked goods, herbs, jams and arts and crafts. Master gardeners from the Wake County Cooperative Extension will be there to help with garden questions.

And over at Duke Gardens in Durham, they'll pull out their Nature Ranger Cart, a traveling cart full of adventures for kids, from 10 a.m. to noon Friday. It's free.