Here are our picks for great events and activities for children and families this weekend. Find more events for the whole week in Marin and beyond in our new Family Events Calendar.

Friday, April 10

• San Anselmo Parks and Recreation holds an egg hunt on Friday, April 10 from 7:50 pm for kids ages 8 and older at Memorial Park in San Anselmo. Bring your flashlight and basket to collect treats. Please call the San Anselmo Parks & Recreation department for more information at (415) 258-4640.

Saturday, April 11

• Corte Madera Parks & Recreation's Children's Egg Hunt, Saturday, April 11 at 10 am sharp at the Corte Madera Town Park. There will be a magic show and jump house. For more info, call (415) 927-5073.

• Fairfax's annual Easter Egg Hunt will take place in Bolinas Park at 10:00 AM on Saturday, April 11th. Music will be provided by James K. and will take place rain or shine. This event is sponsored by the Fairfax Park and Recreation Commission. For more information please call 456-5652.
• The City of Sausalito holds its annual Easter Parade and Egg Hunt on Saturday April 11, from 10 am–1 pm. The Easter Bunny will lead the parade, which begins at the fire station at the corner of Johnson and Caledonia Streets. Then, after the parade, the festivities will take place at Dunphy Park, and will include an old-fashioned egg hunt, crafts for the kids, live entertainment, and an Easter bonnet contest. So put on your best bonnet (with all the frills upon it) and come join the fun. For more info, go to their website.

• Come to the Spring Faire at the Strawberry Recreation District on Saturday, April 11 at 10:00 am. The Spring Faire is for children ages 1 through 8 and  includes carnival games, prizes and a candy and egg hunt (so bring your basket). Fee is $5 per child. The event will take place in the district gym at 118 E. Strawberry Drive. For information, call 383-6494.

• San Anselmo Parks and Recreation holds a Children's Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 11 at 11 am at Memorial Park for kids ages 7 and younger. The Egg Hunt will include an egg hunt and a chance to take a picture with the Easter Bunny, so bring your cameras. Please call the San Anselmo Parks & Recreation department for more information at (415) 258-4640.
• The Marinwood Community Center will be having Breakfast with Bunny and an egg hunt on Saturday, April 11 at Marinwood Park. The free egg hunt begins at 10 am and the breakfast will follow right after. Breakfast is $4.00 if purchased by April 10 and $6.00 at the door. www.marinwood.org

• The Downtown Novato Business Association will be having a Spring Celebration in downtown Novato, April 11 from 11–2 pm. There will be an egg Hunt at 11:00 am on Sherman Avenue compliments of Comcast Spotlight. Bring your cameras and take pictures with the Easter Bunny.  Meet local Race Car Driver Todd Schneider and sit inside a real Nascar Stock Car. Sponsored by Pini Ace Hardware. More info: www.dnba.net

Advance tickets for this summer's King Tut exhibition at San Francisco's de Young Museum go on sale to the general public today! Tut last made an appearance at the de Young in 1979, and many of you out there probably saw the exhibition as children. The new exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, will be at the de Young from June 27, 2009 through March 28, 2010, and includes over 130 works from the tomb of King Tut and other auspicious ancient Egyptians.

Visit www.tutsanfrancisco.org for more information on ordering tickets and about the exhibition. You can also preview the artifacts on display and send a King Tut e-card.

When it comes to music for small children, sometimes it's refreshing to listen to good old fashioned kids' tunes, the kind that have stood the test of time and remained popular for generations. Not that we don't love some of the edgier, more hip kids' musicians out there, but there are only so many alt-rock style song about cleaning your room that a parent can take. We were pretty happy to get our hands on a review copy of Grammie's Greatest Hits, a CD of classic children's songs performed by a real-life grandmother (Renee Longstreet, the "Grammie" of the CD title) and produced and recorded here in Marin by local producer/songwriter Ken Adams.

It's been a few months now since the new Hamilton Marketplace shopping center was completed, and slowly but surely new tenants are starting to occupy all of the spaces. There are a few restaurants in the mix, notably the recently-opened Sonoma Latina Grill and Toast.

We had a chance to check out Sonoma Latina Grill for lunch the other day. It's kind of a hybrid Mexican/California place and definitely a step up both in price and quality from your typical taqueria. Quality of food is really the emphasis, with fresh organic produce, handmade tortillas, and locally sourced meats and cheeses being the order of the day. Sonoma Latina Grill's other standout feature is their wood-fired grill which they use to cook meats and their signature flatbreads. The restaurant is owned by the Tamayo family who run La Tortilla Factory in Santa Rosa. Apparently this is the first in what they hope is a regional chain of restaurants and has the well thought out design and stylish decor befitting a flagship location.

One of the best and certainly one of the most innovative classical music labels out there is Naxos, the producer of budget price (but definitely not low budget) recordings. I'm a big fan of Naxos—we often play their CDs here at home—as well as a classical music enthusiast who tries to instill an appreciation of it in my children, so when I got ahold of a copy of Naxos' new My First Classical Music Book , I was pretty excited.

In case you're not familiar with Naxos, they issue low priced CDs (and downloads, available via iTunes) of everything from the standard classical music repertoire like Beethoven's symphonies to cutting edge modern music to really arcane but wonderful period instrument performances of baroque and renaissance music. They eschew slick graphic design and fancy marketing campaigns in favor of great recording quality and top notch performances. I like them because you can build a quality basic music library for not much money, and can take a chance and explore new areas of music without investing too much capital.

For a county with a relatively large number of families, Marin has never had a surplus of indoor play spaces for young children. While our weather is usually nice enough for outdoor play, indoor spots are appealing during cold, rainy, or hot weather, and also because of the classes and programs that many of them offer in addition to being a place to play.

Over the last year, we've lost two great resources, Playtime Safari in Novato and San Anselmo's Playdate Café, victims of unfortunate circumstance and the sputtering economy. This week, we've learned that Mill Valley's Gymboree Play & Music, a longtime favorite spot of many Marin parents, will be most likely closing its doors for good at the end of the month! The current owner of the Gymboree Play & Music franchise has decided to close it, but it was apparently bought back by Gymboree itself (which was founded in Mill Valley and is currently headquartered in San Francisco) with the intention of keeping the facility open. Unfortunately, they have not been able to renegotiate a lease with the landlord at Strawberry Village, where it is located.

Thank you to everyone who sent e-mail to the Novato City Council or attended the meeting last Tuesday. The team parents (AKA The Novato Gymnastics Boosters) were able to step forward as a group and commit to the additional funding to spare the center's programs for the current year. Assuming the City Council accepts the proposal, the program should be OK for the remaining part of this year.

If you’re interested in staying apprised of the Gymnastics Center’s budget process or hearing more about the happenings of the Gymnastics Center, please send an e-mail to karynkambur@wans.com and type “Gym Supporter" in the subject line.

If you read our previous post on the subject, you know about the City of Novato's planned elimination of public gymnastics programs at the Novato Gymnastics Center, as well as the likely closure of the center itself. This matter will be addressed at the Novato City Council meeting tomorrow, March 17, 2009, at 6:30 pm in the Police Department Conference Room at 909 Machin Avenue. If your family uses the Novato Gymnastics Center and the many great programs that they offer, and if you can attend the meeting, your support will be greatly appreciated. Over 900 children attend gymnastics classes every month at the Novato Gymnastics Center, and this doesn't even count the hundreds more who attend the center's popular spring break and summer camps.

If you can't make it in person, you can e-mail your opposition to the closure directly to the Novato City Council at novatocouncil@ci.novato.ca.us. Make sure you cc Novato Gymnastics at savenovatogym@yahoo.com.

You can view the streaming video of the March 10 City Council meeting to learn more about the closure plans. (You'll probably want to fast forward the 1:33:00 mark to go directly to the public commentary about the Novato Gymnastics Center.)