The New Hampshire Farm Museum (1305 White Mountain Hwy., Milton) is opening for the season on Saturday, May 29, and to celebrate, it’s hosting Dairy Day, where kids can learn how to make butter, ice cream and cheese, play farm games, go on a tractor-drawn ride and participate in a barn scavenger hunt with prizes. You are welcome to bring a picnic or buy lunch at the museum. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Aug. 31. Admission is $10 for adults, $7.50 for seniors over 65, $5 for kids and teens ages 4 and up, and free for children under 4, museum members and active military service members. The special events for Dairy Day are included with the cost of admission. Visit nhfarmmuseum.org.
Fun with the Peanuts gang
The Derry Opera House (29 W. Broadway, Derry) is reopening this weekend with You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, performed by the Kids Coop Theatre, on Friday, May 28, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, May 29, at 1 and 7 p.m. The Peanuts gang plays baseball, struggles with homework, sings songs and celebrates friendship in this show, based on the “Peanuts” comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. Tickets cost $15 and are available on a first come, first served basis. Visit kids-coop-theatre.org or find the event on Facebook to reserve your tickets.
Ocean celebration
Join Seacoast Science Center (570 Ocean Blvd., Rye) for eight days of fun activities and events created to celebrate World Ocean Day, which is Tuesday, June 8. From Tuesday, June 1, through Tuesday, June 8, take part in a variety of virtual and in-person events, including beach cleanup days, educational programs about marine life, a recycled arts contest, a virtual 5K run, tide pool explorations, trivia challenges and more. The events kick off with a beach cleanup from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; you can download a DIY Cleanup toolkit at seacoastsciencecenter.org, then head to Creek Farm in Portsmouth at 4 p.m. to see the results of the cleanup. Visit seacoastsciencecenter.org for the full schedule and to register for events.
Featured photo: Photo courtesy of the New Hampshire Farm Museum.
Sing and dance your way through fun story songs and jams with Mr. Aaron during a free virtual interactive musical journey hosted by the Stockbridge Theatre in Derry on Saturday, May 22, at 3 p.m. Award-winning musician Mr. Aaron will perform pop favorites, kids’ classics and hits from his latest release, Intergalactic Music Spectacular. You can access the livestream at youtu.be/Yl6vWe31EdY. There is no cost, but a $10 donation is encouraged at stockbridgetheatre.showare.com.
Live festival
Enjoy food, live music and arts vendors during the first installment of the 2021 Exeter Arts & Music Fest, happening Saturday, May 22, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Swasey Parkway. Throughout the day there will be 30 artist vendors, 15 musical acts and eight food vendors. TEAM (Town.Exeter.Arts.Music) has expanded the festival to feature an event each month, June 19, July 17, and Aug. 21, with a final event on Sept. 18 to coincide with its annual Fall Equinox Festival. Food at the May event will include Cafe El Camino, Memories Ice Cream, Sweet Crunch Bakeshop and Vernon Family Farm. Musical acts on the main stage will be Qwill at 11 a.m., Bitter Pill at 12:30 p.m., Red Tail Hawk at 2 p.m., Groove Lounge at 3:30 p.m. and Cold Engines at 4:30 p.m. There is a $10 suggested donation per person and $20 per family (pre-event cashless donations are recommended via TeamExeter.org).
Go fly a kite
On Saturday, May 22, from 1 to 3 p.m., head to the Word Barn (66 Newfields Road, Exeter) for an afternoon of kite-flying, food and live music to support the Beyond the Rainbow Fund, which helps Exeter Hospital cancer patients in need. You can bring your own kite or buy one at the event for $10. The Reconstructed will perform, and there will be a food truck there to serve those who don’t want to pack a picnic. The event is free for kids 10 and under, but registration is required at thewordbarn.com.
Get messy
Get ready for water play and messy art when the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St. in Dover; children’s-museum.org, 742-2002) opens its new outdoor Play Patio exhibit on Thursday, May 20, with features like sensory tables, a water circuit wall, an oversized paint wall and a chalk spinner. The outdoor space is meant to allow kids to get wet and get messy with hands-on activities. There’s the Evaporation Zone, a three-sided wall for brush painting with water, a giant Color Caster sculpture with colorful lenses shading the ground, two sensory tables with materials that will change over time, starting with kinetic sand and tools for molding and creating designs in one, and water beads with hidden sea creatures in the other. For musical fun, Tube Tones is a series of connected PVC tubes that let you pound out a musical beat in the manner of the Blue Man Group. Access to the Play Patio is included with museum admission, which is $11 for adults and children over 1, $9 for seniors 65+, and free for museum members and children under 1. Current hours are Wednesdays and Sundays from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 9 to 11:30 a.m. or 1 to 3:30 p.m.
Books for the family
The Nashua Public Library (2 Court Street, 589-4610) is hosting a Pop-Up Book Sale Saturday, May 22, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the library plaza. The book sale will include mainly fiction for all ages, and most items will be $1 or $2. The rain date is Saturday, June 5.
New camp for theater-loving kids
The Community Players of Concord and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central New Hampshire have announced that they are offering a new theater camp at the Christa McAuliffe School in Concord. The camp is for any kids in grades K through 5, with or without theater experience. There will be five two-week sessions, and campers can register for one or more: Acting and Intro to Theatre, Improv Theatre, Musical Theatre, Acting (Part 2) and Improv (Bigger and Better!). Each session will be led by camp counselors from the Boys & Girls Club who are skilled in theater, and Community Players volunteers will offer help with everything from acting and singing to set design. There will be opportunities for outdoor recreation and other non-theater fun each day as well. The fee is $320 per session, with financial assistance available. Space is extremely limited. Registration is online at centralnhclubs.org or contact Cady Hickman at 268-9568 or chickman@centralnhclubs.org.
The tipi set up at Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum. Courtesy photo.
Virtual field trips
Watch on-stage performances of Pete the Cat, Dog Man the Musical, We the People: America Rocks and other kid-friendly shows as part of the Theaterworks USA Virtual Field Trip series, available through the Capitol Center for the Arts’ website (ccanh.com). The series was created for schools, home-schooled children and families. Non-school groups can purchase tickets through theaterworksusa.uscreen.io, where there is a full list of productions that are available for in-home rentals. Most shows are $20 per household, and once purchased they are available to view for 48 hours.
Free fun for military families
The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St. in Dover; children’s-museum.org, 742-2002) kicks off its Military Appreciation Summer on Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 15, allowing all current and retired military personnel and their immediate family members free admission. From this Saturday through Sunday, Sept. 5, military members with an ID will receive free admission, plus free admission for dependent children and spouse — up to five family members. The museum’s current hours are Wednesdays and Sundays from 9 to 11:30 a.m., Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 9 to 11:30 a.m. or 1 to 3:30 p.m., and reservations are required. Admission is $9 per person ages 3 and up.
Explore Native cultures
The Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner (18 Highlawn Road, 456-2600, indianmuseum.org) is now open for the season, offering self-guided tours Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. The museum features exhibits that explore Native cultures and encourage respect for nature, including historical and contemporary crafts and customs. Two new exhibits are a scenic mural in the Northeast Region and an 1800s Cree man’s outfit from the Plains Region. Outside, the Medicine Woods Trail features native plants that were commonly used for food, medicine and shelter, the Janeway Arboretum includes 85 species of trees, and there are 20 new birdhouses throughout the property. The cost of admission is $9 for adults, $8 for seniors and students, $7 for kids ages 6 through 12, free for kids under 6 and Native Americans, and $26 for families of two adults and children under 18.
Featured photo: The tipi set up at Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum. Courtesy photo.
New Hampshire Children’s Trust is offering a free download of its Strengthening Families Across NH Activity Book. Courtesy image.
Outdoor circus
Find jugglers, acrobats, aerialists and other circus performers in the great outdoors during Circus in the Woods. Register now to attend one of Flying Gravity Circus’s four performances, taking place at four different nature and arts organizations in New Hampshire for the remaining Sundays in May — at the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock on May 9, the Beaver Brook Association in Hollis on May 16, the Hooper Institute in Walpole on May 23, and the Andres Institute of Art on May 30. Flying Gravity is a nonprofit based at High Mowing School in Wilton and is a circus education organization that promotes artistic expression, physical fitness and positive youth development through circus arts. Circus in the Woods will allow the annual show, which was canceled last year, to return as a fun family activity in a safe environment. Performances are between 2 and 5 p.m. and reservations are required through eventbrite.com. Tickets are $5 (children 2 and under get in free). Reserve a time slot now at flyinggravitycircus.org.
Mission to Mars
Find out what NASA is up to on Mars during Super Stellar Friday at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive, Concord). On Friday, May 7, the discovery center will hold its monthly virtual program at 7 p.m.; this month’s topic is “Robotic Life on Mars.” STEM instructor and senior Discovery Center educator Dave McDonald will share updates on the Perseverance Mars rover and Ingenuity Mars helicopter and talk about what’s next for their missions. The event is free, but registration is required at starhop.com.
New Hampshire Children’s Trust is offering a free download of its Strengthening Families Across NH Activity Book. Courtesy image.
Animal fun
A traveling petting zoo and horse and pony rides will be part of the Power of Angels Kitty Angels Fundraiser, which takes place Saturday, May 1, and Sunday, May 2, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Treasures, Antiques, Collectibles & More (106 Ponemah Road, Amherst, 672-2535, treasuresnh.com). The weekend will also feature artists and artisans, live entertainment, food vendors, flea market and yard sales and a raffle — and of course, adoptable kitties. Proceeds go to Kitty Angels, a no-kill cat shelter that rescues stray and abandoned cats and kittens, treats their injuries or health issues and then places them into new homes.
Explore the live animal exhibit trail, which features a new raptor exhibit, when Squam Lakes Natural Science Center (23 Science Center Road, Holderness, 968-7194) opens for the season on Saturday, May 1. The raptor complex includes nine raptor species in new aviaries, including a bald eagle and great horned owl. At another exhibit, children can imagine themselves as baby birds hatching out of giant eggs, and there’s a new Songbird Feeding Station for visitors to observe wild birds that visit the Science Center. The Hidden Stories Exhibit, which opened in 2020, uses trail cameras to observe red fox, white-tailed deer, coyote and black bear. Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, with the last trail admission in the 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. time slot. Trail admission is $18 for adults and seniors (age 16+), $13 for youth ages 3 to 15, and free to children 2 and younger. Tickets must be purchased in advance at nhnature.org. The center’s Squam Lake Cruises, which feature lake wildlife, will begin in mid-May. Tickets are available online.
Family activity
New Hampshire Children’s Trust is offering a free download of its Strengthening Families Across NH Activity Book, which is designed for young children and early adolescents and features activities like word searches, mazes, coloring pages and drawing pages, all with messages that promote things like resilience and positive relationships. New Hampshire Children’s Trust works to prevent child abuse by strengthening families with basic supports, parenting education and more. Download the activity book at nhchildrenstrust.org/prevention.
Featured photo: New Hampshire Children’s Trust is offering a free download of its Strengthening Families Across NH Activity Book. Courtesy image.
Jason Lindahl bought his first comic book when he was 6 years old. More than 40 years later, he still loves those brightly colored pages and has found a way to surround himself with them: by opening a comic book store in downtown Dover.
Khaotic Comics opened April 17, the location chosen because of the city’s lack of comics.
“There’s been a huge need for it in this area,” he said. “People in the Dover area had to go to Rochester or Newington to buy comic books. … I’ve got customers that used to take buses over to Newington because that was the only place they could get the stuff they wanted to read.”
Lindahl believes that comic books have been and still are making a comeback.
“The industry is building up,” he said. “There’s more and more movies coming out. Comic books are becoming more and more popular.”
The shop’s name is inspired by the nature of comic book stores, with the purposeful misspelling adding to the meaning.
“When you look in a comic book store, it can look kind of chaotic,” he said with a laugh.
Lindahl and his wife already have experience with owning and operating businesses: He runs a generator company and she runs a health care company. Still, opening a new business in these times was nerve-wracking, despite the field’s growing popularity, Lindahl said. Between financial concerns, community interest and finding a location, there was no shortage of stress.
But so far, it’s all been worth it. Opening day was met with great success.
“We had over 400 people show up at the store,” Lindahl said. “My wife served over 200 [free] hot dogs to anybody that wanted them.”
Lindahl hopes that Khaotic Comics can be a meaningful addition to the Dover community.
“I’d like to help out the library and youth groups,” he said. “I can give them free comic books to help with education and reading.”
The shop also plans to offer tabletop gaming, such as Pokemon and Dungeons & Dragons.
“Kids will have a place to come and hang out and relax and be in a safe environment,” he said.
-Sadie Burgess
Khaotic Comics Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., 7 days a week Where: 590 Central Ave., Dover More info: khaoticcomics.com
