By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Paddling a canoe on Beaver Pond at the Chattahoochee Nature Center is just one activity for kids at Earth Day Kids Fest.

Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22, and to celebrate, a lot of Earth Day events will be taking place this next Saturday, April 18. If you live in the Atlanta area, you might want to check out the 7th Annual Earth Day Kids Fest sponsored by the Captain Planet Foundation and held at the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell. A unique hands-on environment education event, Earth Day Kids Fest encourages kids to take the first steps in becoming environmental stewards. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Lively music fills the room, a colorful backdrop encompasses the stage and the commotion begins. It’s a circus of marionettes—literally. Enter circus animals, P.T. Barnum, a not-so-nice Ringmistress with jealous daughters, a handsome prince and, of course, Cinderella—a beautiful and kind circus artist with rather oversized feet, who is made to cook and clean and must practice her tightrope walking skills in the moonlight for an audience of forest critters.

The Center for Puppetry Arts’ Cinderella Della Circus by Jon Ludwig is an original take on a classic fairy tale and just one of the on-going classic tales the Center adopts for the marionette stage each season.

I first visited the Center about 30 years ago—not long after it first opened. Most of those visits were with a full house of school groups. This time around, I took Brianna on a Saturday afternoon where a number of parents like myself were looking for a good inside activity on a hot June day. Seat selection was on a first-come, first-serve basis with the first couple of rows reserved for (more…)