Wow. It is quiet here. The comic book store: empty. The midnight screening of the Amazing Spider-man: you could hear a web drop. The Genius Bar at the Apple Store: 30% less smart. In fact, there is nary a fanboy or girl left in the LA Metro area. It's Comic Con weekend, and fans of comics and video games and just about anything sci fi have all made the pilgrimage down to fandom's ultimate gathering. Don't plan on popping down on a whim; the thing has been sold out for months. (Though you could always claim to be Stan Lee's nephew and see where that gets you).

But don't feel bad. There's plenty of fun for the rest of us here in LA. We've got freebies to get the weekend going, wicked cool craft projects, a party on a bridge, and movies and concerts under the stars. (And don't forget our 540 ton rock: got anything like that, Comic Con? Didn't think so).

Really, isn't the greatest sci fi just the science that hasn't been discovered yet? Opening this weekend is the newest expansion (as in mind-expanding) at Kidspace Children's Museum, the Robert & Mary Galvin Physics Forest. A few hours spent tinkering among the bottle rocket, giant lever, and ball bounce may well turn your curious little explorers into tomorrow's Nobel-prize winning astrophysicists.

And speaking of curious, San Diego may be getting a few celebrities this weekend, but we've got Curious George. Game. Set. And Match.

Keep reading for some of our favorite picks for this weekend...

I don't know about you, but as I plan for this weekend, I still have a little bit of a fireworks hangover. You know: echoing booms and elusive flashes of light around the edges of my vision. No worries - the fun that's in store for us this weekend will make all those red, white, and booms a thing of the past.  We've got multi-generational drum circles,  movies for everyone from tots to tweens to polar bears, stories from the Silk Road, magicians, puppeteers, and cowboys.  We've...hold the phone...

Okay,  that's weird. Could have sworn I saw a Jedi in a track suit.  Perhaps those fireworks addled my brain more than I realized. Anyway, did I mention the music festivals?  There's LevittLA and Manhattan Beach; and Santa Monica Pier's Twilight Dance begins this Thursday,  and ...

...There!  On the Pier!  You can't tell me I didn't see that: Jabba the Hut is stretching his hamstrings!  There can only be one explanation: a 5-day light saber relay from Santa Monica down to San Diego. The Course for the Force raises funds for Make-A-Wish Foundation and gives aspiring Jedi a chance to strut their stuff. Now if only the room would stop spinning.

Keep reading for our favorite picks for this weekend...

You can’t blame this weekend for feeling insignificant: it’s being overshadowed by a Wednesday of all things. A Wednesday! Well, in its defense, it is a rather big deal Wednesday. Birth of our country and all that. Fireworks, festivals, parades, Barry Manilow, and more fireworks.  It’s hard for simple weekend to measure up, even if it's got movies under the stars, a super-sized rock and Shakespeare in the park. Maybe a free blowout would help boost its self-esteem. 

But let's keep it real. Independence Day is the main event; you're gonna want to see fireworks. That's why you come to us. Not only do we have well over a dozen fireworks displays listed on our daily events calendar,  we've even compiled them for you in a single handy-dandy post. You're welcome. Guess we've earned that free blowout, too bad it doesn't start until after the 4th...

Keep reading for some of our favorite picks for this weekend, and to find out about that free blowout...

Welcome summer!  It’s finally here!  At last, no more school, adios, homework, we get to play at the beach all day and go to the park and ride our bikes and… oh. Wait a minute. We’re the parents. We still have to go to work. Totally. Bogus. So while our kids are playing at totally awesome water playgrounds, we’re bringing home the bacon. While they’re cooling off at a free kids movie, we’re frying it up in a pan. (At least we have something to munch on while they’re out playing).

Though there are some downsides to the longer days (“Yes, I know the sun is still awake but you need to go to sleep!”) overall the summer provides boatloads of fun that even poor overworked, underappreciated parents can enjoy. Behold: the launch of summer concert season. This weekend alone, you can lay out your blanket or unfold your chair (or where relevant buy a ticket and get an actual seat) at the Hollywood Bowl, the Skirball’s Family Amphitheatre performances, Manhattan Beach’s Concerts in the Park, and the Farmer’s Market’s Family Fun Series, (and those are the mere tip of a very large entertainment iceberg!)  From now until Labor Day, your kids are legally barred from stating they are bored, because there is just that much to do.

Keep reading for some of our favorite picks for this weekend...

Step aside, Dance Moms; out of the way, Soccer Moms: it’s time for Science Moms to take center stage. That’s right, this weekend we are blinding you with science*. We've got astrophysics; we've got oceanography; we’ve got paleontology, environmental sciences, agriculture, and veterinary medicine. We’re looking at the science of celebrity (stretching it too far?) and taking you on a train ride, (cause, you know, engineering). We’ve even thrown in a little culture, just to class up the joint.

Sky’s the limit? Ha! Try the edges of our galaxy, or better yet, the very beginnings of our universe. At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's annual open house, kids can chat with bona fide role models: working scientists. These are the folks who send probes to other planets, who use state-of-the-art technology to peer across the universe. The projects they work on today will inform the textbooks we read tomorrow. And they’re more than happy to talk to your kid about his battery made out of a potato.

If all this science talk has got your head spinning, why not set the rest of your body in motion as well**? Well, not your body exactly, but rather the ones belonging to the prima ballerinas of the renowned Bolshoi Ballet. This weekend the Bolshoi performs the quintessential ballet Swan Lake at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. (Happy now, Dance Moms?)

Keep reading for our utterly scientific list of the most super-fun events this weekend...

The events this week are presented on a need to know basis. For instance, National Doughnut Day was started in 1938 to honor the women who served donuts to servicemen during WWI, but you don’t need to know that. All you need to know is that there’s a free donut in it for you. Do I have your attention now?

Charles Lummis went to school with Teddy Roosevelt; he walked from Cinncinnati to Los Angeles (and wrote a book about it), had a distinguished career as a journalist, and was an activist for Native American rights; but again, that’s neither here nor there. What does matter is that the festival housed in his namesake home is this weekend, with music ranging from tex-mex to hip-hop; dance from Irish step to Brazilian capoeira, and a backdrop of historic buildings.

Remember last week when the moon blocked the sun and we were all pitched into complete blackness and chaos and Cthulhu emerged from the bowels of the earth?  No? Not important. Anyway,  it’s happening again.  Minus the chaos, the blackness, Cthulhu  (though wouldn’t that be something!)  And minus the moon, because this time it’s Venus that’s bogarting our rays. You can read all about the Venus Transit, but here's all you really need to know: no looking at the sun without protective eye gear!

Is it too early to start thinking about Fathers' Day? (It’s on June 17, and yeah, maybe that is one you need to know.)  There are a number of free art projects your kids can do this weekend that would make great gifts:  check out the craftiness going on at the Petersen, Home Depot, Lakeshore Learning, (yes, maybe Dad wants a snazzy garden snail. You get what you get and you'll like what you get, remember?)

Read on for the events you need to know this weekend...

From Bugs to Banjos, Los Angeles has it all this weekend.

Reminding us that LA is just a collection of small towns, locals can celebrate at neighborhood festivals in Santa Monica and Hollywood.

Think you’re alone in your hobby?  Not in this town! We’ve got festivals this weekend that celebrate interests of all kinds!  Whether you’ve got a bee in your bonnet for bugs, or you’re silly for strawberries, there are tons of other eccentrics folks who think they're swell, too. There are hoedowns for those who sing the praises of strings, both the fiddling and puppet-wielding variety.  And if you’re all about getting out and moving, you can find like-minded folk traveling by foot and by sea.

Think your hobby eclipses them all? You might be right, if you’re gazing skyward. We’ve got two places to view this weekend's solar eclipse, (just don’t look directly at it!)

Keep reading for our favorite picks for this weekend.

It’s not til next week and I’m already stressing. I speak of course of Screen Free Week, in which parents are encouraged to turn off (TVs, Blackberries, iPads) and tune in (to the great big world out there).

Luckily, smack dab in the middle of (sensory deprivation) week is Cinco de Mayo, so there are mucho family friendly activities to get you out of the casa. You can find the best of them in our rundown of Cinco de Mayo Celebrations. What is Cinco de Mayo about anyway?  I’ll just look it up on Wikipedia…

There’s perhaps nothing more antithetical to being a couch potato than hanging ten on a bodacious wave. Is that an actual surf term? I haven’t a clue.  But I bet I could find out, if I enrolled my kid in one of the totally rad Summer Surf Camps for LA Kids our intrepid camp reporter has uncovered.  Maybe I’ll get inspired by finding some cool surf footage on YouTube…

…or if that doesn’t work, we could hearken back to a time before screens dominated our every moment. Sure, a couple of decades might suffice, but we at Mommy Poppins like to go all in, so how’s about a trip to the 1500s, as suggested by our editor’s review of ye olde Renaissance Faire.

Regardless of your approach, there’s one screen usage even the most avowed Luddite couldn’t begrudge, and that’s logging onto Mommy Poppins to find the ultimate scoop on family fun activities. So friend us on Facebook, sign up for emails and tweets, or go old school and type in our URL; Mommy Poppins is here to help you through. To get you started, keep reading for our favorite picks for this weekend…