Fun & Free Things to Do with LA Kids this Weekend: Big Family Day, Santa Monica Festival, and Flying Fish, June 1 - 2

5/30/13 - By Toby B

June is busting out all over, all over the Valleys and the Hills!*  With Memorial Day come and gone, we are now officially in the summer season, which means an abundance of grade A, E-ticket  activities. We can get you started on filling in your datebook with our June Go List of must-do events. (Spoiler: there's a lot of fun stuff).

If the impending summer break fills you with more dread than anticipation, no worries: we've got you covered with our comprehensive camp guide. We can point you to traditional day camps, but that's just the beginning. LA is a camper's paradise, with science camps, sewing camps,  cooking camps, horse riding camps, art camps and, of course, acting camps and surf camps. To name a few.

Love Mommy Poppins so much you wish you could bring us with you wherever you go? We can make that happen, with your help. Mommy Poppins is launching a mobile app, that can do things like point you towards activities near your current location or help you find free events. That's the good news. The less good news is that it's only starting for the New York site right now, but the hey-it's-still-good news is that one other site will be chosen to launch its app soon after that. The and-this-is-where-you-can-help news is that we need LA Mommy Poppins readers to leave comments on the indiegogo page requesting that LA be the number 2 app to launch. Easy peasy.  You can also contribute a few sheckels to the cause there, but only if you want to.

Keep reading for some of our favorite picks for the weekend (which you would totally already know if you had the Mommy Poppins LA app, just sayin' )....

OUR LATEST VIDEOS

ALL WEEKEND

Pacific Islander Festival - Long Beach
Aquarium of the Pacific celebrates the rich and diverse cultures of the Pacific Islands with song, dance, and food.

Comic Jungle - Griffith Park
Don your finest cape to meet the animal superheroes in residence at the LA Zoo, with their powers of flight, night vision, and super strength.

Flying Fish Festival on Catalina Island - Catalina
Sure, we all know about Capistrano and its swallows, but Catalina has flying fish! The Island celebrates the return of these soaring sea creatures with a weekend of festivities that include a kids' fishing derby, sand sculptures, hands-on science, and crafts.

Circus Vargas - Irvine - Irvine
The animal-free circus sets up its tents at the Irvine Spectrum.

SATURDAY JUNE 1

Santa Monica Festival - Santa Monica
Families can enjoy performances, participate in workshops, join in some active fun, and nosh from gourmet vendors at this popular festival in Clover Park.

LA Sanitation North Central Yard Open House - Los Angeles
Kids and trash trucks go together like pigs and mud, so bring your little piggie to the open house at North Central District Yard.

Home Depot Kids Workshops - Multiple Locations
Participants in this month’s free workshop get a free kids' ticket offer to Legoland. And they can make a cool lawn mower pencil holder.

AMC Theatres Sensory Friendly Films Participating Theatres
Families affected by autism can see a screening of the movie Epic in a safe and accepting environment. The auditoriums dedicated to the program have their lights up, the sound turned down and audience members are invited to get up and dance, walk, shout, or sing.

Barbie is Moving - The Grove
Barbie is hitting the road and bringing some dolltastic fun to the Grove.

Silk Road Story Time - Pasadena
Pacific Asia Museum’s free storytime features animal stories from across Asia.

Hillary George - West LA
Super children's librarian Hillary George brings interactive stories, puppets, and songs on the ukulele to Children's Book World

Groove Kid Nation: Rhythm Bears CD Release & Family Concert - Santa Monica
At the Rhythm Bears CD release party, kids can clap, stomp, play percussion, and vocalize to the beat.

Free Day at the La Habra Children's Museum - La Habra
The Children's Museum at La Habra helps families Jump into Summer, with fun that includes bubble-making, games, and make-your-own hand tossed ice-cream.

Make Music Pasadena - Pasadena
Pasadena hosts a day-long celebration of music on more than 40 stages, and it’s all free.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (G) - Santa Monica
Everyone can get a golden ticket and head down to The Aero, where it will be hard to resist singing along to this family classic.

SUNDAY JUNE 2

The Intergalactic Nemesis - Costa Mesa
Like an old time radio show, The Intergalactic Nemesis brings its story to life using actors standing in front of microphones and ordinary objects to create sound effects. Comic book style graphics are splashed onto the giant screen behind them, as the three voice actors portray a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, an evil hypnotist, a time-traveling librarian, and alien sludge monsters who threaten the future of humanity.

Free Day at the Bowers - Santa Ana
It’s free fun at the Bowers for the Russian White Night Family Festival.  Families can enjoy balalaika performances, folk dances, and crafts projects such as Russian card design and a Faberge jewel box.

Diaper Downpour: An Epic Baby Shower - El  Segundo
Families with kids 5 1/2 and under can enjoy a morning filled with family friendly crafts, games, and songs at this community baby shower.

Lummis Day 2013 - Northeast Los Angeles
Historic Lummis House and Heritage Square Museum host the best of home-grown Northeast LA music, dance, and food.

Justin Roberts & The Not Ready For Naptime Players - Santa Monica
Grammy-nominee Justin Roberts performs at McCabe's biweekly Sunday kids' concert series.

Balboa Island Parade Balboa Island
The 20th annual Balboa Island Parade features Star-spangled floats, festooned tricycles, marching bands, antique cars carrying local dignitaries, fire trucks, Keystone Cops, and gussied-up dogs.

Big Family Day - Downtown
It’s MOCA's largest all-ages program of the year, with fun studio projects outdoors and lively conversations in the galleries with students.

Andell Family Sundays - Architecture is Art - Mid-Wilshire
Participants in this month’s LACMA's Andell Family Sundays can be architects for a day to design and build a new Los Angeles.

American Indian Culture Day for Families - Griffith Park
The Autry celebrates the cultivation of crops. Families can learn how Hopi meals are made, see items used in traditional hunting and fishing and cooking of Tongva food, learn how to make shell necklaces using a hand-pump drill, and play games of stickball.

Target Sundays at CAAM: Jazz in June - Exposition Park
The California African American Museum celebrates America’s home-grown musical style known as Jazz.

Family Jam: Twirl and Swirl, Southeastern European Folk Dancing - Westwood
Fowler Museum visitors can make a dance accessory, learn some steps, and enjoy a performance of dances from Southeastern Europe.

As always, there are many more activities listed on our daily events calendar. Whatever you choose to do this weekend, we hope you have marvelous time!

* Apologies to Rodgers & Hammerstein