There's talk of rain this weekend, which is a bummer, since there's so many great outdoor activities. Here they are - in case things look a little clearer, along with some indoor alternatives.

Saturday is LET'S EAT Charles Street, the rare even that appeals to grown-ups and kids in equal measure. For the grown-ups, there's food from about 11 great Charles Street restaurants, including Brewer's Art, Ban Thai, Maisy's, Cazbar, and Sofi's Crepes, plus live music and belly dancing performances. For kids, there's a moon bounce, face-painting, and crafts—and the belly dancing. There is also gem mining (pictured) at Clark's Elioak Farm and giraffe-feeding at the Maryland Zoo. If it's raining, go see "How to Eat Like a Child" at the Pumpkin Theater (Sunday and next weekend too) or go to the Museum of Dentistry for Tooth Fairy Day!

As I wrote about yesterday, Sunday is the BCAC Spring Festival - and we're really hoping the weather holds out for that. If not, maybe you're up for the Fancy Nancy event at Tiddlywinks, featuring a class with e Harford Ballet Company.

Of course, there are always the perrenially great-for-kids activities, including the Walters, which, besides the great, often kid-friendly exhibits, has a fantastic play area on the lower level with lots of dress up stuff, puppets, puzzles, and an art room where there are facilitators to help you and are kids make great projects and bonus: FREE; Also, the Marlyland Science Center ($3 off admission before noon on Saturdays, plus the weekly egg-drop contest), Port Discovery Children's Museum, The Zoo, two Storyville locations (we LOVE Storyville), The American Visionary Art Museum (also with kid-friendly exhibits, and the treehouse/sculpture out back), the various nature centers and conservancies (Oregon Ridge, Irvine, Howard County), and—of course!— the Aquarium.

Some Baltimore weekends—they usually happen in springtime or summer—Baltimore has an embarrassment of family-fun riches. This is one of the those weekends and, thank God, it looks like the weather will elevate everything a notch or two, as it sometimes does.

The 100th edition of Flowermart launched today and continues tomorrow in Mt. Vernon Park, with its typically flora-riffic displays, plus all kinds of concerts, contests, crafts, and food—including the classic lemon peppermint sticks (left).

Also tomorrow is the American Visionary Art Museum's Kinetic Sculpture Race, a true Baltimore original which sees amphibious "human-powered works of art" complete a grueling lap around Baltimore's harbor, through sand, mud, water, and concrete. I've never taken the kids but I imagine they'd love it and we just might try this year. If you've taken your kids before, let me know how they liked it and it you have any recommendation of the best perch to watch from.

Saturday is also—see what I mean? packed!—the 34th Annual Steam Show at The Fire Museum of Lutherville, where kid can check out antique water towers and fire trucks—and get sprayed with them extensively (bring a change of clothes). 

Sunday is, of course, for the mom's, so do whatever she wants: Maybe a ride on The Black Eyed Susan, which is serving a special Mother's Day brunch.

Of course, there are always the perrenially great-for-kids activities, including the Walters, which, besides the great, often kid-friendly exhibits, has a fantastic play area on the lower level with lots of dress up stuff, puppets, puzzles, and an art room where there are facilitators to help you and are kids make great projects and bonus: FREE; Also, the Marlyland Science Center ($3 off admission before noon on Saturdays, plus the weekly egg-drop contest), Port Discovery Children's Museum, The Zoo, two Storyville locations (we LOVE Storyville), The American Visionary Art Museum (also with kid-friendly exhibits, and the treehouse/sculpture out back), the various nature centers and conservancies (Oregon Ridge, Irvine, Howard County), and—of course!— the Aquarium.

As regular readers know, I love a festival. And summers in Baltimore are a goldmine for festivals, from big ones like Artscape and Honfest to all the ethnic fests, Ukrainian to African American, and unique treasures like the Baltimore Book Festival (tip: our May issue, which comes out in a couple weeks, is our "Summer in the City" issue, and it runs through all the fests and a million more things to do this summer - check it out).

Well, festival season is finally getting underway this weekend. Let's hope it doesn't rain: There's the ECOFEST (pictured) in Druid Hill Park, a generally unheralded event with lots of vendor booths, a stage of great local, live music, a creative kids' play area, and, of course, food. Two years ago, when Benny was a baby, I took both kids to this solo. There was an awesome drum circle going by one booth (yeah, the fest has a kind of hippie vibe, but I love hippies). I pulled up the stroller where Benny was sleeping and Jack and I shared a drum. A few minutes later, someone sat down next to us and started drumming. I looked over and it was none other than now-disgraced former mayor Sheila Dixon. She was great and spent a lot of time cooing over Benny.

Also this weekend is Johns Hopkins' Spring Fair, which actually started today. It's a behemoth with all kinds of activities including several stages of music, a beer garden, an arts and crafts section and a large family/kids area with face painting, a moon bounce, story-telling with the ladies of Kappa Kappa Gamma, airbrush tattoos, clowns, animal visits, magic shows, and lots more.

In non-festival news, the BSO will perform the score to Charlie Chaplin's classic silent film The Gold Rush, along with a screening. I really love this movie and I was debating whether or not to take Jack, who is 4 years old—the Friday and Saturday night shows are at 8 p.m., but there's a Sunday one at 3 p.m. I spoke to someone at the BSO, who recommended only taking kids 8 and up, so I decided not to go, but I suspect the show could entrance kids much younger. They're also offered deep-discount $20 tickets.

Of course, there are always the perrenially great-for-kids activities, including the Walters Art Museum, which, besides the great, often kid-friendly exhibits, has a fantastic play area on the lower level with lots of dress up stuff, puppets, puzzles, and an art room where there are facilitators to help you and are kids make great projects and bonus: FREE; Also, the Marlyland Science Center ($3 off admission before noon on Saturdays, plus the weekly egg-drop contest), Port Discovery Children's Museum, The Zoo, two Storyville locations (we LOVE Storyville), The American Visionary Art Museum (also with kid-friendly exhibits, and the treehouse/sculpture out back), the various nature centers and conservancies (Oregon Ridge, Irvine, Howard County), and—of course!— the Aquarium.

I'm so glad to many people submitted comments for the Cirque Du Soleil ticket give-away. For some reason, people seem reluctant to register with the site to post comments. Hopefully, now that so many of you have, you'll comment regularly here.

And there were some really great jokes too! I gotta admit, I appreciate a pithy one-liner and, when managing editor Max Weiss and I huddled to pick our faves, those are the one we liked. edl17's "How do you get a tissue to dance? Put a little boogie in it!" was a finalist, as was hkmommy25's "Where do you find a dog with no legs?  Right where you left him." But the winner, jb22's 22 joke, was not only funny but was actually about the circus: "Did you hear about the fire at the circus? It was 'in-tents'".

SO, kudos jb22, I've emailed you details on how to claim your prize.

And thanks again, everyone, for playing. I'll start doing more give-aways when I can, not that I see how popular they are. If you want to make sure you hear about them, "Like" Learning to Crawl on Facebook (there's a button on the right side of this page).

Have a great weekend!