Enjoy the last weeks of summer with a visit to five special area parks to splash, soak and play in their built-in spray pools and splash pads.

There’s plenty to eat and cook this week, from Old World’s delectable Plum Festival, Tanaka Farms’ children’s cooking class and the smorgasbord of kids/teens/family cooking programs in Southern California.

Get to know your community library, create your own kids/teen book club, and see classic stories come to life in their live stage adaptations. Feeling artistic? Drop by Averyboo Arts in Long Beach to encourage your little one’s creativity.

Run away (at least for a few hours) with the Greatest Show on Earth! Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s “Funundrum” hits Orange County for a limited engagement. When you comeback, consider a staycation getaway at Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa.

Cool off at one of three amazing water amusement parks, from La Mirada’s Splash! to Orange County’s Wild Rivers and LEGOLAND’s newest and only water park. After you’ve dried off, you are invited to a month-long birthday party at Pretend City Children’s Museum.

Relive historical turning points such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Musical Theatre West’s “1776″; the heroism and maritime intrigues of World War II aboard the merchant marine vessel S.S. Victory Lane; and celebrate the American cowboy (and cowgirl!) at the Autry.

And boy, do we mean it. Try all manner of deep-fried, sugar-dusted and bacon-garnished eats at the OC Fair; have some finger-lickin’ good fried fish at the 66th Annual Seal Beach Fish Fry; and make confetti fried rice with Cookamation at Pretend City.

We don’t mean to gross you out, but there’s nothing wrong with getting a little muddy, getting mummified or checking out mammal fossils. Get your shivers and thrills at Discovery Cube, where you can learn the good, bad and gassy about the human body.

Happy Independence Day! Take a ride along a scenic ocean route at Long Beach’s Kids’ Bike Parade, or make a day out of celebrating July 4th at Newport Dunes. Discovery Cube also debuts its newest permanent exhibit, the Boeing Rocket Lab; and Pretend City gears up for July by taking guests “camping.”

What are you doing to celebrate the Great American Backyard Campout? Give Mother Nature some extra appreciation this summer with a family campout. Other good stuff: Fullerton’s 4th of July Community Festival and Fireworks Show; and Ron Palmer’s one-of-a-kind basketball camp for athlete-scholars.

It’s Dad’s day! Take him on one of three weekend activities to show him your love: Averyboo Arts’ Daddy Day With Me; Surfrider Foundation’s Surf 24; or Ocean Institute’s Catch and Release Father’s Day Fishing Trip.

Kids have about 100 days of summer vacation, and Kidsguide’s Summer Calendar has more than 1,000 ideas to spend it affordably, enjoyably and memorably. Looking for the spotlight this summer? Check out International City Theatre’s Summer Youth Conservatory and GO-FAME’s Summer Theater Camp 2010 – both enriching experiences with friendly rates.

Everyone jump in! Try a free fishing clinic in Cerritos, splish-splash at the Children’s Museum at La Habra and celebrate Ocean Day at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

Spend a juicy weekend at Garden Grove’s 51st Annual Strawberry Festival, or hit Newport Beach’s Newport Dunes for the annual Hula-Hula Luau. Also: catch a great family flick – “Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs” at Great Park.

Opa! St. John’s hosts the OC Greek Fest, a weekend-long celebration of Greek culture; experience Aztec art first-hand at the Getty Villa’s Family Festival; and briefly visit and live in Old California at Rancho Los Cerrritos’ Spring Festival. Feeling pumped? OC Fun introduces its Shou Ji Martial Arts program.

Hop over to the Muzeo for All Things Frogs; bug out at National History Museum’s Bug Fair 2010; and see what’s quackin’ at the 18th Annual Duck-A-Thon in Huntington Beach.

Show mama your love! Take her on a brunch sail along Dana Point, take her biking in Long Beach, or surprise her with a scenic train ride through Heritage Valley. Also: East West Ice Palace knows how to find and keep your cool.

Launch a rocket at Boeing, dig up some fossils in Buena Park and get a taste of the world at Soka University’s International Festival.

Celebrate Earth Day at the Discovery Cube, Santa Ana Zoo and at Ocean Institute. Also, thinking of summer camps? Consider Cal State Long Beach’s athletics, writing and academic enrichment camps for youth.

Orange County’s Imagination Celebration is here! Get inspired at the Great Park, an otherworldly performance of “Orchestra From Planet X,” and a night with nobility at “Magic Ends at Midnight: A Royal Family Fun Adventure.”

Go fish – really! Check out Fountain Valley’s Fishing in the City Program for families, G.O. Fishing Saturdays in Fullerton, and Dana Wharf’s free fishing clinic for kids.

Take a (night) hike in Irvine! Springtime fave Bubblefest XIV will be at Discovery Science Center. Think your kid or teen is a community role model? Visit the California Pageants’ free orientation to see if they’re ready for the crown.

The world’s all a-twitter! The swallows fly back to San Juan Capistrano; “Firebird Fairytale” revisits a Russian tale of romance, dragons and derring-do; and Lakeshore Learning gives a free crafts lesson on homemade bird feeders.

Get out there! Kids in the Kitchen serves up tasty lessons; Tanaka Farms kicks off its Strawberry Tours; and Fullerton Arboretum wants you to feel lucky. Also: Bird’s the word at the OCPAC, where the popular “Pigeon Party” returns for a limited weekend engagement show.

From free admission to special invitations to exclusive events, the rewards for area museum passes is great for families. Also: Make way for the “Lion King” and see what Kids in the Kitchen has cookin’.

Get down and dirty with this week’s slew of nature-themed activities, like ENC’s Terrific Trees!, Fullerton Arboretum’s Worms, Worms, Worms gardening workshop and Kidspace Museum’s Minerals Rock!

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with some grrr-eat activities – downtown LA’s Chinese New Year Family Festival, the 111th Annual Golden Dragon Parade and a meet-and-greet with children’s author Oliver Chin.

What’s your love? Cuddle some farm critters, catch “The Frog Prince” or “The Man Who Planted Trees,” or have a whale of a good time at the Santa Monica Pier.

‘Putt’ your best game attitude forward! Try up to four 18-hole miniature golf courses at Golf N’ Stuff Family Fun Center; put your own spin on “frolf,” the outdoor game combining the best of golf and frisbee; glow-in-the-dark mini-golf at the Howard Hughes Center; and take your tyke to KinderGolf USA for a one-of-a-kind preschool golf experience.

Dinosaurs come to live in Southern California! ECO Station hosts the popular DinoFaire; the Natural History Museum resumes its larger-than-life living “Dinosaur Encounters”; and meet Zed, the woolly mammoth serendipitously unearthed during a parking lot renovation near the La Brea Tarpits. Catch “Annie” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center with a special “bottom-dollar” deal!

The gray whales are coming! See them, learn about them and even watch them from the comfort of your living room: Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro celebrates the annual migration and its 75th birthday with a free festival; Captain Dave’s virtually takes you along for each scheduled boat ride; and the 30th anniversary national tour for “Annie” stops by Orange County.

Seize final skate sessions in downtown Los Angeles ad the Irvine Spectrum; slice across the region’s largest outdoor ice rink; and Cirque du Soleil’s returns to its artistic roots – Big Top traditions, acrobatics and slapstick – in its newest production, “KOOZA.”

Notice anything…different? Three must-do things this week: three hours of trampoline jumps and foam pit dives; celebrate Kwanzaa and the Chinese New Year; and witness a chicken “hatching” at Pretend City’s mini-farm. Counselor Connie Wax invites parents to check out her 10-week workshop, Parenting Gifted Children.

Start a family tradition or invent a new one to heighten holiday cheer; some stories to put the Christmas frenzy in perspective; and Long Beach School of Music helps turn Guitar Hero dreams into reality.

Winter camps aren’t just lifesavers for busy parents, they’re a productive and fun way for kids to spend some of their two-week school vacation; stocking stuffers for nearly every personality type for less than $20; and Bridges Reading & Writing Institute adds a unit to its acclaimed reading and writing tutoring program.

Christmas is coming, and it’s time to get “crafty”; heartfelt gifts for teachers; and Enchanted Fairy Tea Parties knows how to throw fantasy bashes for kids and adults.

How does Santa do it? We help you find your inner Kris Kringle this holiday season with our four-part series, Santa’s Survival Guide; Christmas lists for the modern family; and Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine proves why they’re worthy of the title “Gold Award Recipient.”

Begin the season of giving with a turkey trot benefiting local nonprofits; find your everyday philanthropist without spending a dime; and see how Pretend City rewards those who give to others. Read all about it, along with the upcoming week’s activities in The Buzz!

Walk around our planet at The Discovery Science Center’s ‘Science on a Sphere’; turn your Thanksgiving into an un-stuffy affair; and learn how the anatomy of a story is used to introduce kids to the joys of reading and writing.

There are many ways to say ‘Thanks’ to our men and women in uniform; a Marine and his mutt visit Mission Viejo to share a death-defying tale of war, peace and friendship; and Greater Long Beach YMCA has nature-oriented adventures for families.

Celebrate the autumn harvest, 1920s-style, at Rancho Los Alamitos; stay safe when you go trick-or-treating this weekend; and Kidnastics continues to provide stand-out programs to develop tykes’ motor skills and keep kids at tip-top shape.

Today’s corn mazes are precise works of spatial art; get free hands-on lessons from more than a dozen professional artists at Huntington Beach Art Center’s Free Family Arts Day; and see if your little cook has what it takes to reign as King or Queen Pasta.

Halloween is a different animal at the zoo; altruistic witch Strega Nona rescues a town from a sea of pasta; and learn how word families are used to instill the joys of reading and writing at a young age.

Get your Halloween fix with vintage train rides to a private pumpkin patch or a tour of an Irvine farm before picking your own pumpkin; get BOOed in a good way; and experience a strikingly different way to bowl.

Green Port Fest displays the best of the Port of Long Beach’s green programs; take a breath to battle the back-to-school blues; and learn about the numerous free and low-cost services of the Children’s Home Society of California in Long Beach and Orange County.

Fall/winter Kidsguide is out! Fold an origami butterfly plane invented by British scientist and origami enthusiast David Petty; and see what Norwalk’s premier miniature golf and gaming center, Golf ‘N Stuff, has to offer your family.

You won’t really miss the remote during TV Turnoff Week when there are a ton of family-friendly activities to enjoy at home and outdoors; make your own kiddie abacus; and stop by My Gym’s new facility in Signal Hill.

Free skating and ice hockey lessons; whip up Sloppy Joses, a spicy twist on the all-American fave, Sloppy Joes; and it’s still not too late to register your little one in Bridges Reading & Writing Institute’s popular reading and tutoring class for 1st- to 3rd-graders.

Are you ready for school? In this issue: tips on making that first day super; the month-long Festival of Children celebrates youth and the nonprofit advocacy groups that support and serves them; and make sure to catch the exciting Robots & Us traveling exhibit during its last weekend at the Discovery Science Center.

Five must-do activities to enjoy before the summer ends; two cookbook authors turn the foodie trend into something fun, accessible and quick for families on the go; and Pretend City, Orange County’s newest museum, opens its doors for the first time this Sunday.

Celebrate South Pacific’s many island cultures from sunrise to sundown in Long Beach; lessons on kindness that stick; and a casting call for talented kids and teens for Youth Cultural Arts Foundation’s 10th Annual Talent Show.

One of the nation’s oldest and largest sand sculpture-building competitions comes to Long Beach; understand the science of lightning; and an Irvine-based program offers to give your kids the academic edge this summer.

See how robots can mimic our movements at the Discovery Science Center this weekend; make your kite from scratch; and learn how one Long Beach nonprofit turns old things into new treasures.

Get your share of sun and surf at Long Beach’s annual Dragon Boat Races and Festival; pencil in some good, old-fashioned family time by scheduling a board game night; and take your feet (and paws) for a run and stroll at a 5K, 5K Dog Run/Walk and 1K Kids Fun Run in Fountain Valley.

Tickle your tastebuds at the chili and salsa cookoff at Cypress’ 29th Annual Community Festival; test your tongue with a fun, kid-friendly science experiment; and learn how to be your best on and off the court with Complete Player Basketball Camps.

A Huntington Beach hotel resort and spa proves to be a staycation destination; the circus comes to Orange County; and Rowbics offers an indoor rowing camp for kids.

Orange County Great Park celebrates a milestone; www.kraftfoods.com shows how much fun can be had with snacks; and Irvine’s Bridges Reading & Writing Institute has just the thing for budding writers.

Celebrate our country’s independence with free fireworks shows, a kids-only bike parade on the beach, and the largest July 4th Parade west of the Mississippi. Also in this issue: “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” comes to Orange County.

Sword fights, trail games and a flying car, oh my! In this issue, pirates drop anchor in Long Beach; up the fun factor in your family hikes; and a classic children’s story is adapted for the musical theater stage.

Celebrate at home or take Dad, Gramps and your favorite father figures to a host of Father’s Day events happening Saturday and Sunday. Also happening: the longest day and shortest night of the year. Oh, yeah, it’s a busy weekend.

Ever wonder what races through the mind of your little daydreamer? They may have a story to tell, and Project Ink 2009 knows just how to coax out them out. Also in this week’s Buzz: we help you plot out your summer.

From a Pacific Islander Festival in Long Beach and philanthropic Saturdays, to atypical summer “college” classes for kids, take a sneak peek at what’s hot and happening this weekend.

Making your own ice cream isn’t as tough as you might think. You’ve got this dessert in the bag – literally!

Take a load off this summer at Splash!, La Mirada’s award-winning water park. Fun features include the colorful Buccaneer Bay, party packages and classes for all ages and abilities.

From enjoying a nearby hotel’s amenities to using your city as the backdrop for a scavenger hunt, staycationing options available to families working with tight budgets are plenty.

We termed it “cheap fun,” but don’t be mistaken: we’re talking about quality places and activities for families, kids of all ages, and most importantly, of nearly all interests.