Craving chocolate-covered crickets? Up for petting a hissing cockroach? How about catching the heftiest roach in sight and entering it in a biggest roach contest? No, these aren't double dog dares. At least not on Bug Day at the Dallas Museum of Natural History, featuring the museum's live and dead insect collections, presentations about bugs and arthropod arts and crafts. Also featured: a cockroach Grand Prix consisting of a miniature racetrack and special remote-controlled cars equipped with bug seats. Not enough insect for you? Hit Texas Discovery Gardens on Saturday morning for a "bug safari" to learn about the little critters' favorite hiding places. A menagerie of live, exotic insects are also on hand--for looking only. No snacking. The Dallas Museum of Natural History's Bug Day is Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 3535 Grand Ave., Fair Park. Admission is $6.50 for adults and $4 for children 3-12. Members, all children under 3 and children under 12 who bring a live cockroach enter free. Call 214-421-DINO, ext. 200. Texas Discovery Gardens' Bug Safari is 10 a.m. Saturday at 3601 Martin Luther King Blvd., Fair Park. Admission is $3 for adults, $1.50 for children 3-11 and free for members and children under 3. Call 214-428-7476. --Cheryl Smith
4/19
Bo Knows Oboes
Orchestrate an outing to Peter and the Wolf
By now, you're scrambling to ignite your little kids' imaginations with another time-tested tale of a benevolent holiday home invader--the Easter bunny. Cultivating childhood wonder isn't what it used to be, what with the public schools scrapping art and music in favor of remedial reading and real-world math. Cling to culture and magic, harried parents. Gather your nestlings for a free performance of a classic story, set to classical music, and a clever introduction to a symphony orchestra. Fine Arts Chamber Players are presenting Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf at the Dallas Museum of Art's Horchow Auditorium at 3 p.m. Saturday. The free concert features FACP's storyteller Bo Gerard with Dallas Symphony musicians. Get there when the doors open at 2:30 p.m., since no tickets means no guaranteed seating. The DMA is downtown at 1717 N. Harwood St.; for more info, call 214-520-2219. --Annabelle Massey Helber
4/17
Scarry Stories
Get Busy with science and history
While perusing Proust during lunch, we here at the Observer often reflect on our formative years. You know, the time before journalistic excellence was a way of life. Anyway, many of us came to know author/illustrator Richard Scarry during our vital pupa stage, and his indelible characters and ideals come to The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History for a limited time with Busytown, an interactive (and bilingual) exhibit that promises to be as challenging as it is fun...providing you're between the ages of 2 and 10. Take your young ones, and maybe, just maybe, he/she will turn out just like us! What's so funny? The museum is located at 1501 Montgomery St. Admission is $13 for adults, $10 for kids. Call 817-255-9300. --Matt Hursh
Ongoing
Egg Donations
Sure, the Garland Easter Egg Hunt is for children 1 to 10, but you can still watch, right? Afterward, the tykes will be welcomed inside the recreation center for punch and cookies, giving you a chance to go and get verklempt all over again. The free hunt begins at 5 p.m. at the Gale Fields Recreation Center on April 17 and April 19 at the Holford Recreation Center at 11 a.m. Call 972-205-2772. --Leah Gerchario
