Kiddie Pool 24/03/14

Family fun for whenever

The sky is not the limit

• Science educator Jenny Powers will present “Women of the Night Sky” at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road in Londonderry) on Thursday, March 14, at 7 p.m. Jenny Powers, Director of Science at Springfield Museums, invites participants to ponder women’s place among the stars this Women’s History Month as you get a sneak preview of some of the stories Powers is developing for the Seymour Planetarium in Springfield, Mass., which she hopes will spark curiosity in girls and women about what lies beyond Earth’s atmosphere, according to a press release. The program is part of the Aviation Museum’s “Exploring Aviation” lecture series. Admission is $10 per person, free for museum members. Visit aviationmuseumofnh.org or call 669-4877 or email ldearborn@nhahs.org.

One show, two show, kid show, fun show

Seussical The Musical will be presented by the Kids Coop Theatre at the Derry Opera House (29 West Broadway in Derry) Friday, March 15, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 17, at 2 p.m. The Cat in the Hat tells the story of Horton, an elephant who discovers a speck of dust that contains the Whos, including Jojo, a Who child sent off to military school for thinking too many “thinks,” according to a press release. Although Horton faces ridicule, danger, kidnapping and a trial, according to the same release, the intrepid Gertrude McFuzz never loses faith in him as the powers of friendship, loyalty, family and community are challenged and emerge triumphant in this production. All actors are between the ages of 8 and 18. Tickets are $15 plus fees online. Tickets at the door are $20 plus fees for credit cards or $20 with no fees for cash. See kctnh.org.

At the library

• Goffstown Public Library (2 High St. in Goffstown; goffstownlibrary.com) will be hosting a St. Patrick’s Day party on Friday, March 15, at 10 a.m. for kids ages 2 1/2 through kindergarten, celebrating the luck of the Irish with stories, games and activities, according to their website. Registration is required for participants.

• Families are invited to drop by the Winchell Room at Manchester City Library (405 Pine St. in Manchester) on Monday, March 18, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Peep Diorama Day! On this day off from school, according to the city’s website, participants will be given three Peeps and other materials such as construction paper, jewels, pom-poms, glitter and more to create a diorama. The website advises participants to bring in a small box or shoe box from home but there will be a small amount of shoe boxes available for those who do not have one. Call 624-6550, ext. 7628, or visit manchester.lib.nh.us.

• Nashua Public Library (2 Court St. in Nashua) on Tuesday, March 19, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. will be hosting children in grades K through 5 to celebrate the release of the newest Dog Man book, Scarlet Shredder!, according to their website. The website also mentioned that kids will be able to participate in fun activities and games based on the very popular graphic novel series. Call 589-4600 or visit www.nashualibrary.org.

Meet Kitty-Corn creators

LeUyen Pham talks book illustrating, touring

On Friday, March 29, at 6:30 p.m. at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, readers of all ages can meet LeUyen Pham, part of the multiple award-winning writer and illustrator duo of the newest Kitty-Corn story, Bubbly Beautiful Kitty-Corn. The book is the latest in the series illustrated by Pham. and authored by Shannon Hale (who will also be at Gibson’s). Pham, an illustrator and a writer herself, has inked more than 140 stories and received a Caldecott honor in 2020 for her illustration of Bear Came Along. In an interview, she spoke about the partnership, life as an artist, and the connections forged on book tours.

“When we started doing the Kitty-Corn series,” Pham said, “it was kind of an experiment between me and Shannon. We were talking about how writers and illustrators never get to come together to write books, it’s just the way the industry is designed.” Pham and Hale wanted to change that paradigm. “What if we didn’t have the medium of the editor in between and could we still come up with good stories?”

This was the genesis of the first Kitty-Corn book, a New York Times bestseller and Cybil’s Award Finalist.

“I was able to contribute as much to the story as Shannon did,” Pham said, “and vice versa with the illustration.”

Bubbly Beautiful Kitty-Corn, the fourth installment of the series, came about through a conversation during travel.

“I do believe we were running through an airport,” Pham recalled, “and I had mentioned how I really wished I could do a mermaid story. I don’t want to do just a typical mermaid story because I don’t know how to swim, and so it would have to be something where it was a mermaid, maybe, that couldn’t swim, and that was the seed for this particular story.”

Their friendship over the years through multiple collaborations allowed Hale to pen their newest story.

“She knew what I was trying to do or what my fear was behind that story, the fear of the water, and because she understood me so well … she pretty much wrote that one on her own and brought it back and I remember laughing, thinking that’s exactly the story I wanted to do, and that’s where Bubbly Beautiful came from.”

“You gotta be excited about what’s on the horizon and not where you currently are. You’re constantly trying to agitate the pool that you’re in because if you’re comfortable then you are doing something that you have already done before. Like, you always have to be slightly uncomfortable to be growing in some way.”

Pham enjoys the challenge of expanding a story through images from what an author has put into words. “I think that is why I like to illustrate manuscripts so much … because I really enjoy that process of picking a manuscript apart and figuring out why it works and what’s the story that’s being told and the alternate story being told.”

For Kitty-Corn, “I do everything digitally,” Pham said. “I made this specifically digital because it was a lot easier to communicate with Shannon that way.” Although computer-based illustration works perfectly for the series with Hale, who is based in Utah, Pham is partial to other forms. “My favorite medium is watercolor. If I could do every book in watercolor, I absolutely would,” and added, “I love to ink. I love, love, love, to ink.”

Most of her work is completed inside her home studio in California. While Pham shares the studio space with her husband, artist Alexandre Puvilland, who has worked on such feature films as Prince of Egypt and Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Pham looks forward to the promotional journey. “The part of the tour I like the best is actually spending time with the writer because they are usually my friend.” Pham is also a big fan of “going to bookstores and meeting with owners.”

“I always like to remember that at the end of my pen, that’s what’s happening. Every piece of art that gets created goes into the hands of one of these people,” whether it is a bookstore owner, librarian or teacher. “It makes me want to make sure I appreciate that process and that what they’re getting is the best of what I can offer.”

Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham
What: book launch author visit for Bubbly Beautiful Kitty-Corn
When: Friday, March 29, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord
More: gibsonsbookstore.com

Featured Photo: Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham. Photo by Alex Puvilland.

Pruning fruit trees: Now is a good time

Stick to the 25 percent rule and enjoy the work

March, April and May are good months to prune your fruit trees. Traditionally farmers pruned their fruit trees in March. I think they did so because they had less other work they could do at this time of year — it was too early to plant, weed or harvest. You can prune fruit trees any time of year without harming the trees, but since the snow is gone now, pruning on a sunny afternoon will give you a good excuse to be outside. Let’s take a look at how to do it.

First, you need good sharp tools: hand pruners, a pair of loppers, and a pruning saw. A pole pruner is also helpful, and you may want to use a 4- or 5-foot stepladder. Don’t buy cheap tools; they will not do a good job for long. Buy the best you can afford, and take good care of them. Pruners and loppers can be sharpened with a simple and inexpensive diamond-studded sharpener, but most pruning saws are not suitable for sharpening.

Pruning fruit trees is not complicated. Your goal is to thin out branches that clutter up the tree and shade out other branches. Every leaf should get direct sun at some point during the day. My pruning mentor told me that a robin should be able to fly through a mature apple tree without getting hurt.

The biggest culprits, and the most commonly ignored, are the water sprouts that pop up vertically from bigger branches. They are, by far, the most numerous new branches each year; they shoot straight up and new ones are just the thickness of a pencil. But ignored for a few years, they gain mass and produce lots of leaves. Get rid of them.

Water sprouts are partly a tree’s response to a need for more food for the roots. Trees that haven’t been pruned in years have many of these. After a heavy pruning, a tree may produce lots of water sprouts to replace food-producing branches that have been removed.

It is important to know where to make your cuts. Each branch has a “collar” at its base, a swollen area where it attaches to the trunk or a bigger branch. This is where the tree heals best and it should not be removed. Cut just past the collar. But if you cut too far out the branch being removed, you will be leaving a stub that can take years to rot away. Once the stub has rotted and fallen off, it can properly heal — but in the meantime it is a place where infections can occur.

I like to begin work on a tree by walking around it a few times and really looking at it: Are there dead branches? Are there big vertical branches that once were water sprouts? Do some branches head into the center of the tree? All of those culprits need to be removed.

I generally take out the dead branches first. I look for dry, flaking bark. Try bending the branch. A dead branch will crack and break instead of bending. For small branches you can scrape the bark with your thumbnail. If it shows green, it is alive; if not, it’s dead.

Then I look at the overall branching of the tree. It is quicker and easier to remove larger branches first, rather than making 50 small cuts on that same branch.

You should not remove more than 25 percent of the leaves on a tree in any given year. Leaves are the engine of the tree: they make the sugars that feed the roots and the beneficial microorganisms in the soil. They provide the energy that allows the tree to make flowers, fruit and seeds. I once pruned a mature apple with just three cuts. I removed three large problem branches, and each would have had hundreds of leaves, come spring. I had reached my 25 percent limit. The next year I was able to remove lots of smaller branches.

Pruning every year, or at least checking each tree each year, is a good plan. It is much easier to remove a small branch than one that is 5 inches thick. If you do need to remove a big branch, take steps to prevent it from falling prematurely and tearing the bark of the trunk. Do this by first making an under-cut a couple of feet from the trunk, but just go part way through the branch. Then, just past that cut, cut from the top all the way through. Most of the weight of the branch will fall to the ground, allowing you to make a cut through the branch just past the branch collar without risk of tearing the bark.

Other branches that need to be removed? Any branch that heads back through the middle of the tree. If two branches form a tight “V,” remove one of them. Otherwise they will grow together and “include” bark that will rot, and can rot the wood. If two branches parallel each other, one shades the other, so remove the least desirable branch.

Learn to identify “fruit spurs” on fruit trees. These are 2- to 6-inch spurs (branches) with buds on their tips. Each bud should produce several flowers and eventually fruit. Vertical branches have few fruit spurs; branches at a 45-degree angle to the trunk should produce many, at least when the tree is old enough to bear fruit. Newly planted trees might wait five years before producing fruit, so be patient!

Pruning is good for trees. Don’t think of it like surgery that removes an arm or a leg. Think of pruning as creating art: A beautifully pruned tree is a work of art, pleasing to the eye all year, especially in winter. Some fruit trees, like pears, will require lots of work every year if you want them to produce fruit low enough to reach from the ground. But all fruit trees will benefit from at least a little trim every year. Learn to enjoy this work and the benefits it offers.

Henry is writing just one gardening article per month this winter. You may reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

Kiddie Pool 24/03/07

Family fun for whenever

Play pickleball

•. Mini Pickles – Pickleball for Kids is being held at the City-Wide Community Center (14 Canterbury Road in Concord), where kids ages 10 to 14 can learn the fundamentals with coach Mel Crane every Friday from March 8 to March 29, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Fee is $50 per resident, $60 per non-resident. Visit concordparksandrec.com.

Reading & storytime

• Get your reading engines running with Horse Powered Reading at UpReach (153 Paige Hill Road in Goffstown), a program to help kids ages 8 and up build and strengthen reading skills by connecting with horses, according to a press release. Classes start Monday, March 11, and will run through April 15, from 5 to 6 p.m. Space is limited and the cost is $200 per student; financial aid is available. Visit upreachtec.org or reach out to allison@upreachtec.org.

• Get reading and dancing at Water Street Bookstore (125 Water St., Exeter, waterstreetbooks.com) with a book-signing launch party for Mary McCrary The Irish Dance Fairy on Saturday, March 9, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be Irish step dancers and giveaways at the event.


Science time

• Join the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St. in Dover) for Science Fridays. The first session, Friday, March 8, runs from 10:30 to 11 a.m. and the second session runs from 2:30 to 3 p.m. Each week is a new experiment, and your ticket is included with regular Museum admission. Science Friday drop-in programs engage children in experiments and activities that focus on fun and act as a jumping-off point for learning about science concepts, according to a press release. Museum admission is $12.50 for adults & children over 12 months of age, $10.50 for seniors age 65+, and free for Children’s Museum of New Hampshire members as well as children under 12 months of age. Visit childrens-museum.org to sign up for a spot.

All aboard the Maple Express

• Hop on the Maple Express at Charmingfare Farm (774 High St. in Candia) to celebrate Maple Month on Saturday, March 9; Sunday March 10; Saturday, March 16, and Sunday, March 17 (March 8 and March 15 for school groups) with multiple admission times throughout the day starting at 10 a.m. with the last train departing at 2 p.m. The horse-drawn or tractor train ride transports you into the heart of maple sugaring within a thriving farm and is designed for all ages, according to a press release. Participants will stop at an authentic maple syrup shack and learn about the maple trees, and tastings are encouraged. Admission is $29, free for children 23 months and under. Go to www.visitthefarm.com.

Save the date

Kitty-Corn! Author Shannon Hale and illustrator LeUyen Pham visit Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Friday, March 29, at 6:30 p.m. for a storytime with their newest book, Bubbly Beautiful Kitty-Corn. The two also worked together on Real Friends, Best Friends, and Friends Forever, as well as the Princess in Black series. Hale is the author of several YA books as well as the adult novel Austenland. See more about Hale at shannonhale.com and find Pham on Instagram @uyenloseordraw.

Matriarchs of the Queen City

It’s like an artichoke, but with more food per plant

If the city of Manchester could fit inside a mill building, the Millyard Museum at 200 Bedford St. would be the one. Kristy Ellsworth, Director of Education with The Manchester Historical Association, will be hosting an Afternoon Tea with Manchester’s Matriarchs, an American Doll Program, on Sunday, March 10, at noon.

“It is a tea party,” Ellsworth said. “It is a high tea for all ages, really. Not specifically geared toward children.” This tea party will have eight tables celebrating women from Manchester.

“Every one of the eight tables will feature a different Manchester Matriarch from an important time in Manchester’s history, from Molly Stark all the way up to May Gruber, the CEO of Pandora,” Ellsworth said.

“All of the women will have their bios featured but also an American Girl Doll that will replicate their period-correct outfits,” Ellsworth said.

The event is the culmination of funds received from grants and a tradition the Millyard Museum has of putting together similar functions.

“For the last seven years we have been doing American Girl Doll tea parties for young girls as affordable events that focus on history,” Ellsworth said. These get-togethers “have become really popular,” she said. But “every time we had the smaller-scale tea parties we’d always get older women [who would say,] ‘I wish you would do this for adults because I don’t have any children to take.’”

This led to including more women and focusing on specific women from the history of Manchester.

“When we talk about the Revolutionary War doll, Felicity,” Ellsworth said, “on the way up to visit her grandparents in New Hampshire, she stopped in Manchester, and this is what was happening. So that’s kind of where the idea got sparked.”

One of the women showcased is Elizabeth Molly Page Stark, whose waymark in Wilmington, Vermont, described her as “wife of general John Stark, mother of 11 children, homemaker, patriot, and defender of the household.” In addition to Stark and Gruber, the other women included are Elena Crough, Elizabeth Bisbee Hunt, Mary Carpenter Manning, Samantha Plantin, Bernice Blake Perry and Maud Briggs Knowlton.

Stark’s American Girl Doll has been uniquely clothed.

“We have a small piece of Molly Stark’s wedding dress in our collection,” Ellsworth said. “We decided to — the curator and myself — decided to do research as to what her dress actually would have looked like. … so we recreated Molly Stark’s wedding dress based on the information that we had and research we had gathered.”

The tea will be a full-service high tea, catered by the former owners of Roots Café, with petit fours and finger sandwiches. The entire soiree will take place in the Elm Street Gallery and will last around two hours.

“We will have a time for the women to go around and collect … trading cards from each of the tables so that they will leave with a full deck of Manchester Matriarchs,” Ellsworth said. “Then we will just do a short talk about the process of choosing the women and highlighting some of their accomplishments.”

“Manchester is such a women-centric city, starting with the Mill Girls who were half of the workforce of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. So much of the story is female-driven — we just don’t tell it as often,” Ellsworth said. “I think it is really inspiring to young girls and to women to hear about these pioneers who sort of changed the history of Manchester and have kind of been forgotten or swept aside a little bit.”

New discoveries continue to happen.

“We have recently discovered in our collection one of Molly Stark’s dresses,” Ellsworth said. “It is the only one in existence that we know of, and it will be on display during the tea party.” The dress will be part of a new exhibit planned for April.

Afternoon Tea with the Matriarchs
Where: Millyard Museum, 200 Bedford St. in Manchester
Cost: $60 per person ($50 for MHA members)
When: Sunday, March 10, with seatings at noon and 3 p.m.
To register: manchesterhistoric.org

Now showing

Red River Theatres’ Simchik Cinema is open again

After several months of repairs and refurbishment, the Simchik Cinema at Red River Theatres in Concord is showing movies again.

The Simchik, one of three screening rooms that make up the Red River Theatres, has been closed for several months to repair water damage, according to Angie Lane, Red River’s executive director. The 25-seat Simchik shows exclusively digital media and is the smallest of the theater’s cinemas.

Like the Red River’s two larger screens, the Simchik is currently showing Oscar-nominated movies in the lead-up to the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, March 10. The Simchik has been screening The Zone of Interest, a nominee for Best Picture as well as Best Sound and Best Director.

On Friday, March 1, Simchik will start screening Hundreds of Beavers, a surreal independent film. Set in 17th-century Wisconsin, this black-and-white farce tells the story of a man who learns to become a fur trapper after “diabolical beavers destroy his applejack distillery,” according to the description on Red River’s website. In the trailer, the trapper, played by Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, who is also credited as a co-writer, faces off against buck-toothed beavers of the person-sized mascot costume variety. Mike Cheslik wrote and directed.

“I can guarantee that this will be its New Hampshire premier,” Lane said.

“We hope that folks will come in and enjoy it,” she said, referring to Hundreds of Beaver. “It’s totally not what a typical movie viewer in this area is used to seeing.”

Red River has been fighting its way back up to speed after having to close down during Covid.

“It’s been a three-year recovery process,” Lane said. “We only got back to showing movies seven days a week last June.”

Hundreds of Beavers
When: Friday, March 1,- Sunday, March 3, 5;15 & 7:30 p.m.; Monday, March 4, – Thursday, March 7, at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Red River Theatres, 11 S. Main St. in Concord (224-4600, redrivertheatres.org)
More info: See hundredsofbeavers.com for a movie trailer and more on the film.

Kiddie Pool 24/02/29

Family fun for whenever

Lacrosse season

• Catch some Saint Anselm Hawks lacrosse at Grappone Stadium (Saint Anselm College in Manchester). On Saturday, March 2, at 1 p.m. the women’s lacrosse team plays Saint Michael’s College. On Tuesday, March 5, the men’s team plays the Franklin Pierce University Ravens at 4 p.m. Admission to lacrosse games is free.

Theater candy bingo

• Chunky’s Cinema Pub (chunkys.com) has sessions of Theater Candy Bingo on the schedule this week: Thursday, Feb. 29, at 6:30 p.m. in Nashua (151 Coliseum Ave.) and Friday, March 1, at 6:30 p.m. in Manchester (Huse Road). The cost is $10 per person, which gets you a $5 food voucher for use that night, one bingo card and a box of candy to go in the pot, according to the website.

Young scientists

• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St. in Dover; childrens-museum.org) will have a four-week “Junior Science: Shapes & Patterns” class running Tuesdays in March, March 5 through March 26, from 1:30 to 2:15 p.m. The class is geared to ages 3 1/2 to 5 and will feature a story, a fun experiment and a take-home art project, according to the website. The museum is closed to the public on Tuesday afternoons; grownups and siblings can stay in the building during the class. The cost is $60 ($48 for museum members).

Save the date

• Have tea with the Matriarchs of Manchester on Sunday, March 10, at noon at the Millyard Museum (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; manchesterhistoric.org). The event, an American Girl Doll program, will feature refreshments and women from Manchester’s history as portrayed by American Girl Dolls. The cost is $60 per person; purchase tickets in advance online.

Kiddie Pool 24/02/22

Family fun for whenever

Vacation at the museum

School vacation runs Monday, Feb. 26, through Friday, March 1, for many New Hampshire schools and some museums have special hours and activities.

Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road in Londonderry; nhahs.org, 669-4820) will be open Tuesday, Feb. 27, through Thursday, Feb. 29, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as well as its regular hours of Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m., according to a press release. The museum’s Elite Flight Simulator will be operating Tuesday, Feb. 27, and Thursday, Feb. 29, from 1 to 4 p.m.; it simulates the experience of flying a single engine plane and is open to kids ages 12 and up, the release said. For the 12 and unders, there will be a story time on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 10 a.m., the release said. Admission to the museum costs $10 for ages 13 and above, $5 for 65+, veterans/military and kids ages 6 to 12, and is free for ages 5 and under.

• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St. in Dover; childrens-museum.org, 742-2002) has play sessions from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and a session from 9 a.m. to noon on Sundays. Additionally, Friday, March 1, is the “First Friday Play Date” when the museum is also open from 4:15 to 7 p.m. Buy admissions for a time slot online in advance; admission costs $12.50 for adults and children over 12 months, $10.50 for 65+.

The museum will receive visits from the “Tooth Fairy and Furry Friend” (the comfort dog Banks) on Friday, Feb. 23, at 10:30 a.m. and Thursday, Feb. 29, at 10:30 a.m. as part of Dental Health Month.

Friday, March 1, is also Science Friday, with special science-related activities at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

• The Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St. in Manchester; currier.org, 669-6144) is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission costs $20 for adults, $15 for ages 65+, $15 for students and $5 for ages 13 to 17 (children under 13 get in for free).

• The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Dr. in Concord; starhop.com, 271-7827) is open daily through Sunday, March 3, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission costs $12 for adults, $9 for ages 3 to 12, $11 for 65+, and isfree for ages 2 and under, with planetarium shows an additional $6 per person ages 3 and up. Current planetarium shows include 3-2-1 Liftoff, Totality!, The Great Spirit Bear Chase and the Hunt by the Bird People, Tonight’s Sky and CapCom Go! The Apollo Story. See the website for the show schedule.

SEE Science Center (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; see-sciencecenter.org, 669-0400) is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and, for vacation week, Monday, Feb. 26, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets cost $12 for ages 3 and up. Exhibits include the Lego Millyard, “Sun, Earth, Universe,” Physics Fun, Cooking & Chemistry, Dinosaurs, BiologYou and Bubbles, The Ocean and You.

Kiddie Pool 24/02/15

Family fun for whenever

See a show

• The Londonderry High School Drama Club will present Mamma Mia! Thursday, Feb. 15, through Saturday, Feb. 17, at 7 p.m. daily plus 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Derry Opera House (26 W. Broadway in Derry). Tickets to this show, which they rate as PG-13, cost $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and students. See lancerdramaclub.org.

• The young performers (students in grades 2 through 12) of the Palace Youth Theatre will present Tuck Everlasting, a musical based on the novel by Natalie Babbitt, on Tuesday, Feb. 21, and Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. at the Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St. in Manchester; palacetheatre.org). Tickets cost $15 for adults, $12 for ages 6 to 12.

Museum fun

• The American Independence Museum (independencemuseum.org) will hold open play at the Folsom Tavern (164 Water St. in Exeter) on Tuesdays from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. through April, according to a press release. The Foy Family Library, where the open play takes place, features a coloring station, an 18th-century play kitchen, dress-up clothes and a reading nook, according to a press release. Admission to open play costs $5 per family.

Family fun at the theater

• For this month’s Little Lunch Date at area Chunky’s Cinema Pubs (707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com) the film is Gnomeo & Juliet (G, 2011), which will screen at all three area Chunky’s on Friday, Feb. 16, at 3:45 p.m. Save a seat by purchasing $5 per person food vouchers online.

• At 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16, the Manchester Chunky’s (chunkys.com) will host family-friendly Theater Candy Bingo. Reserve a seat for $10, which includes a $5 food voucher and a box of movie theater candy that goes in the pot, according to the website. Each guest gets one bingo card and the goal is to play about eight rounds, the website said.

• And save the date for all-ages trivia night at the Manchester Chunky’s on Sunday, Feb. 25, at 6:30 p.m., when the theme is Shrek. Save your seats for a team of up to eight people for a $5 food voucher.

Kiddie Pool 24/02/08

Family fun for whenever

Family shows

• Local family entertainer Mr. Aaron throws a Valentine’s Day Party Saturday, Feb. 10, at 11 a.m. at the Bank of NH Stage (16 S. Main St. in Concord; ccanh.com). Tickets cost $15.75. Give a listen to Mr. Aaron’s music at mraaronmusic.com.

• See Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo, an interactive show featuring live dinosaurs (operated by puppeteers) on stage, at the Capitol Center for the Arts’ Chubb Theatre (44 S. Main St. in Concord; ccanh.com) on Saturday, Feb. 10, at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $35.25 to $48.25 (for an additional $28.75, take part in a VIP meet and greet).

Free art

• Saturday, Feb. 10 features free admission for New Hampshire residents to the Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St. in Manchester; currier.org, 669-6144) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., stop in at the Creative Studio for family art fun. Short family tours will be available in the galleries as well, according to the website.

Basketball weekend

• Catch the Saint Anselm Hawks this weekend when both the men’s (3:30 p.m.) and women’s (1:30 p.m) basketball teams take on the teams from Southern Connecticut State University at Stoutenburgh Gymnasium (73 College Road on Saint Anselm College campus in Manchester). Tickets to either game cost $10 (kids 5 and under get in free to regular season games) and are available for purchase starting one hour ahead of game time at the Gymnasium ticket booth. See saintanselmhawks.com. Both teams will also play the teams from the College of Saint Rose on Tuesday, Feb. 13; women’s game starts at 5:30 p.m. and men’s game starts at 7:30 p.m.

• At Southern New Hampshire University, the Penmen take on the Adelphi University Panthers with women’s (1:30 p.m.) and men’s (3:30 p.m.) basketball on Saturday, Feb. 10. The games take place at Stan Spiro Field House (at the Southern New Hampshire University campus, 2500 River Road in Manchester); regular season games are free to attend.

• Catch some mid-week basketball on Tuesday, Feb. 13, when the men’s ( 5 p.m.) and women’s (7 p.m.) Rivier Raiders teams play Mitchell College at Muldoon Fitness Center (440 Main St. in Nashua). See rivierathletics.com.

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