School’s Out For the Summer! Reading programs are heating up and Summer Movies are kicking off this week!
We hope you’re enjoying your Memorial Day Weekend! When you’re finished eating your BBQ, sit down and plan out your first full week of Summer with some of these fun events we found happening around the Magic City!
Happy Summer! Have a great week!
It’s Not Our Fault if Your Kids are Bored!
Sunday May 26th:
Alabama Phoenix Festival – Cahaba Grand Conference Center
Second annual festival for creative minds. A Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Gaming, Comic Book, and Costume Convention
Primary programming will take place in 1 hour, 15 minute long blocks with 15 minute breaks between each block. Tracks include: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Media, Comics, Paranormal, Alternate History, Costuming, Star Trek, Star Wars, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Literature, Science and Engineering, Anime and Manga, and Horror, as well as an Art Show, Exhibit, Comics Corner, Gaming Activities, and LEGO® Expo. Members are also encouraged to participate in the Masquerade and Costume Contest.
Primary programming will take place in 1 hour, 15 minute long blocks with 15 minute breaks between each block.
day and weekend memberships will be available at the door.
Children under 8 get in free with an adult membership purchase.
$50 for ages 15+
$30 for ages 8 to 14
1pm – 10pm
Memorial Weekend – Birmingham Zoo
Come celebrate Memorial Day weekend at the Zoo! Experience the Red Diamond Sea Lion Splash Show, which features an even closer look at this aquatic species and showcases new behaviors from the Zoo’s California sea lions like back flips, high jumps and a balancing act. Take a prehistoric journey through time at the Zoo’s new Dino Discovery exhibit*, cool off in the Splash Pads, take a ride on the train*, enjoy the Wildlife Show and experience all the Zoo has to offer.
In honor of Memorial Day weekend, all active, disabled and retired military personnel and their dependents can enjoy FREE admission to the Zoo with proof of military I.D.
*Additional cost applies.
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Monday May 27th:
Happy Memorial Day!
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Tuesday May 28th:
Birmingham Barons – Regions Park
Barons take on the Smokies
50 Cent Hotdog Night
7:05pm
Hippo Adventures – Birmingham Museum of Art
Meet at the Information Desk outside Bart’s ArtVenture! Join us for a new in-gallery family experience! Children aged 3 – 8 and their adult companions are invited to join Museum educators to explore Hip, Hippo, Hooray!, discover activities that make looking at art fun and exciting, and create new family memories about art and hippos.
No reservations required. Hippo Adventures are also available by appointment for groups of 10 or more children aged 3 – 8. For more information or to schedule a tour, call 205.254.2964.
10:30am
Summer Reading Kickoff – Clay Library
Join us for our 4th annual summer library program! This year’s theme is “Dig into Reading,” and we have lots of fun events planned for the whole family, whether you are participating in the reading portion of the program or not! Everyone is invited; we want the whole community to get involved, so help us spread the word! Prizes will be awarded to children, teens, and adults who are checking out library books and reading! Summer events will be held on various days and times in order to give everyone a chance to participate. A schedule of events is available on our facebook page and our web site.
Sign-up BEGINS Tuesday, May 28th, and continues throughout the summer. Feel free to call or e-mail us with questions.
9am – 7pm
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Wednesday May 29th:
Birmingham Barons – Regions Park
Barons take on the Smokies
12:30pm
Storytime – Barnes and Noble Summit
Join us as we read Chick ‘n’ Pug. What will happen when chick tries to get pug to be his friend. We will make something fun and have something delicious to drink from the Cafe.
11am
Family Story Time with Mr Mac – North Shelby Library
Storyteller Extraordinaire – Come join Mr Mac and his musical storytime complete with puppets! All Ages, no registration required.
10:45am
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Thursday May 30th:
Birmingham Barons – Regions Park
Barons take on the Smokies
7:05
Brookwood Live! Colonial Brookwood Village
Live Music On the Street – Featured Band: Fountain City Players
5pm – 9pm
Relax By the Tracks – Railroad Park
Make plans to join us at the next Relax By The Tracks. Free music from Sanyasi and Terry Ohms and food and drinks available for purchase at George’s Boxcar Cafe.
Sponsored by the Railroad Park Foundation Junior Board, American Society of Landscape Architects, B-Metro, Birmingham Mountain Radio, Five Points South Neighborhood Association, and Glen Iris Neighborhood Association.
5pm – 8pm
Summer Reading Kickoff – Irondale Public Library
Read Along with Irondale Public Library this Summer! Registration is underway. Join us for our kick off party.
You can register (if you haven’t already) for summer reading, enjoy crafts, snacks and a short film.
5pm
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Friday May 31st:
Birmingham Barons – Regions Park
Barons take on the Smokies
Friday Fireworks
7:05
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Saturday June 1st:
Bob Sykes Blues and BBQ – DeBardeleben Park located in downtown historic Bessemer
The entire family can enjoy a variety of blues musicians from local to national talent. Free giveaways, children’s corner, activities for kids and adults, delicious food, drinks and desserts will be available. Bring a chair or blanket and set up your spot for the day.
1pm – 9pm
Admission Info – $8 before event, $12 at the gate, 12 and under are free
Ross Bridge Spring Market
Come out to the Ross Bridge Village Green and enjoy the day shoping with the Craft, Art, Produce, Handmade, Retail Item, and Pet Vendors! Live Music all day. Kid’s Activities. Leashed, Friendly Pets are welcome.
9am – 2pm
SliceFest – Slice Pizza Lakeview
SliceFest offers non-stop family fun from noon to 4:00 pm and a jammin’ party on through the night. Kids can have their own fun by playing on the moon bounce, getting their faces painted and choosing a balloon animal, while the adults enjoy beer samplings paired with Slice’s unique pizzas at ‘The Beer Experience.’ The aroma of fresh stone pizzas will be floatin’ around and the beer will be flowin’ all day as guests can purchase Slice’s mouth-watering pies, paired perfectly with local brews.
This Slice-tastic celebration will feature a full line up of musical entertainment from 1:00 pm – midnight, including Ponderosa, Rollin’ in the Hay, Kristy Lee, Banditos, Bad Brad & the Sipsey Slims, Wildflowers, Ophelia Festival, Expressions and the ‘impassioned singing, riff-based Southern rock’ of JJ Grey & Mofro as headliner.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to SliceFest’s partnering charities, Alabama Forever and Suki Foundation.
Noon – Midnight
Hippo Adventures – Birmingham Museum of Art
Meet at the Information Desk outside Bart’s ArtVenture! Join us for a new in-gallery family experience! Children aged 3 – 8 and their adult companions are invited to join Museum educators to explore Hip, Hippo, Hooray!, discover activities that make looking at art fun and exciting, and create new family memories about art and hippos.
No reservations required. Hippo Adventures are also available by appointment for groups of 10 or more children aged 3 – 8. For more information or to schedule a tour, call 205.254.2964.
10:30am
Bart’s Art Cart – Birmingham Museum of Art
This drop-in art program for kids and families features a different theme from our galleries and art activity each month. Stop by to make art with Bart! June is for Animals // Hippo mania is still going on at the BMA!
11am
Family Storytime – Emmet O’Neal Library
Bring the entire family and join Mr. Mac for stories and music each Saturday morning.
10:30 a.m.
Storytime – Barnes and Noble Summit
Join us as we read Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae. Come have fun! It’s never too late to learn something new!
11am
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Sunday June 2nd:
Vulcan’s Birthday Bash
Make plans to attend the BIGGEST birthday bash in Birmingham! Vulcan may be the world’s largest cast iron statue, but he still needs help blowing out his birthday candles! On Sunday, June 2, Vulcan Park and Museum will host a festive outdoor community celebration offering fun activities for the whole family! Admission will be charged and includes admission to the party, Vulcan’s Observation Tower, Museum and a special exhibition in the Linn-Henley Gallery. Log on to www.visitvulcan.com for additional party details.
$3 all ages 5+.
4 and under and Vulcan Members are FREE!
noon – 4pm
Summer Reading Kickoff – Vestavia Library
The “Dig Into Reading” program in the Children’s Department at the Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest will begin with a huge Kick-off party at the library. There will be face painting, ice cream, an Egyptian Mummy Tomb Mystery, digging for gold and gemstones, and Dr. Magical Balloons, a zany storyteller who uses balloon sculptures – and willing audience members – as his story props. Everyone who signs up for the summer reading program that day will get a special goodie bag filled with coupons and treats courtesy of the generous merchants in the area.
2pm – 4pm
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Local Attractions Open Daily!
McWane Science Center:
IMAX
McWane Science Center’s IMAX® Dome Theater puts you in the center of the action by projecting breathtaking quality images onto the 5-story-tall dome screen and delivering intense surround sound through almost 3 tons of speakers and subwoofers.
Now Showing: Flight of the Butterflies, Titians of the Ice Age
Unearthing Alabama’s Ice Age – through December 31st, 2013
McWane Science Center is home to Alabama’s second largest natural history collection. Made up of over 500,000 specimens and objects pertaining to the natural history of the state, this important collection focuses on the preservation, education, and research of Alabama’s rich biodiversity and paleobiodiversity. One of the more significant subsets of the collection is Alabama’s largest collection of Late Pleistocene faunal remains – or Ice Age fossils.
Made up of nearly 10,000 cataloged specimens, the McWSC Pleistocene collection contains a unique diversity of fauna that not only includes those native to North America, but migrants to the state from both South America and the Old World. This collection includes mammals, both extant and extinct, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fishes, and botanical remains collected from both cave and stream localities in the state. Extinct mammals represented in the McWSC collection include mammoths, mastodons, giant beavers, saber-toothed cats, giant armadillos, tapirs, peccaries, and giant ground sloths.
This spring, visitors will have an opportunity to view some of the fossils in the collection with a new exhibit titled — “Unearthing Alabama’s Ice Age.” This exhibit will not only highlight many of the Ice Age animals from the McWane Science Center Collection, but will highlight and dispel many of the common misconceptions surrounding the Ice Age in the state. The goal is for visitors to have a better understanding and appreciation for this time in Alabama. For example, guests might learn that Alabama was on average only five degrees colder than today, glaciers did not reach farther south than southern Illinois or that all the Ice Age animals did not go extinct at the end of the Ice Age. While the largest animals, such as mastodons, giant ground sloths, and saber-tooth cats died out, nearly all the animals that are living in Alabama today were also around in the Ice Age.
The Unearthing Alabama’s Ice Age Alabama display is located in the City Gallery on Level 2 of the museum. It is included in the cost of admission to the museum and free to members.
Birmingham Zoo:
Lorikeet Aviary – Our Lorikeet Aviary has more birds than ever! Zoo guests can feed these exotic birds every day. You and your family will see these birds’ behavior as they eat nectar out of your hand.
Weekends 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
PELICAN FEEDING – A great way to see our pelicans in action is to witness them eating their favorite treats near the pelican boardwalk.
RHINO ENCOUNTER – Embark on an African adventure and experience one of the world’s most extraordinary animals, the Southern White Rhino. Watch from only feet away as our zookeepers engage in hands-on interaction with the animals inside their African-themed exhibit. Don’t miss this exciting encounter with one of the largest mammals on the planet!
Weekdays: 3pm – 3:30pm
Weekends: 11:30am – Noon & 3pm – 3:30 pm
GIRAFFE FEEDING – This up close and personal animal encounter is a memory you and your family will have for a lifetime.
Weekday: 11am – Noon
Weekends: 10am – 11am & 2pm – 3pm
Vulcan Park and Museum:
Vulcan is the world’s largest cast iron statue; made of 100,000 pounds of iron and 56 feet tall, he stands at the top of Red Mountain overlooking the city of Birmingham. But, Vulcan is more than a statue. Vulcan Park and Museum features spectacular views of Birmingham, an interactive history museum that examines Vulcan and Birmingham’s story, and a beautiful public park for visitors and locals to enjoy. With an official information center that is operated by the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau, Vulcan Park and Museum serves as the first stop for visitors to the Birmingham area!
Railroad Park:
Railroad Park is a 19 acre green space in downtown Birmingham that celebrates the industrial and artistic heritage of our great city. Situated along 1st Avenue South, between 14th and 18th Streets, the park is a joint effort between the City of Birmingham and the Railroad Park Foundation. Hailed as “Birmingham’s Living Room,” Railroad Park provides a historically rich venue for local recreation, family activities, concerts, and cultural events, while connecting Birmingham’s downtown area with Southside and UAB’s campus.
Southern Museum of Flight:
Earn Your Wings – Bring your little pilot and soar above the clouds in our little pilots room. Kids enjoy building aircrafts, flying kites, and more.
Museum Open Tuesday – Thursday
9:30am – 4:30pm
Do you have or know of an event you would like to have added to our weekly calendar? Please email us at contact@birminghammommy.com, subject line “Events Calendar” – We would love to hear from you!
** All information listed on our calendar is subject to change without notice to us or you… We do our best to keep the information accurate and will always update as soon as we learn that something has changed. It’s always best to double check with the event via their website or a quick call, especially when weather can impact the event.
