Spring break 2019

12 fun spring break activities in Houston for the whole family

Spring break is upon us, which means schools will be shut down for the week, and oodles and oodles of students will have time to bask in the sun, loaf off, commit felonies — whatever. But it’s also a week where parents will have to deal with their children, in their house, in their face, all the time. (Thank goodness for Fortnite.)

Fortunately, we’ve drawn up a handy list of spring break events for wary and weary parents. Let the break begin!

Family Friendly Spring Break Murder Mystery Event
Got any kids who are amateur sleuths? Take 'em over to Maggiano's for a day of murder, mystery, and food. You can chow down on a lunch of Maggiano's favorites while performers from The Murder Mystery Company entertain and lead you through a fun and exciting mystery tour. 11:30 am to 2:30 pm.

FUNomenal Spring Break at Discovery Green
As you probably guessed by the title, Discovery Green has a heavy bevy of fun, family-friendly activities popping off during spring break. Among them: a daily Mad Science Show, Touch-a-Truck Tuesday, and a day-long foam party on Friday. And don't forget that the Roller Rink is also open. 9:30 am to 4 pm.

Indoor skydiving at iFLY
Parents who occasionally want their kids to take a flying leap are in luck. At the flight school at iFLY (Memorial and The Woodlands), kids ages 4-16 experience the power of flight through one-on-one coaching. Flight school cadets learn flying skills in a fun group setting. Every session is taught by an experienced flight instructor who is highly trained in safety standards and certified by the International Bodyflight Association.

Kids Spring Bowl at Bowl & Barrel
This has already started earlier this month and is a blast for all the kids who love rolling strikes. At Bowl & Barrel, young ones under 12 can score an hour of bowling, shoes, a hot dog and a drink for just $10. This deal happens Sunday through Thursday, and will run through March 31. 11 am to 4 pm.

Momentum Indoor Climbing
The massive rock gym boasts a ton of children's' programming. The gym has special climbing walls for kids as young as 3 years old at its Katy location. The Spring Street location offers kids camps and single-day Learn to Climb classes, which include climbing gear rental and a two-week trial membership.

Paw Patrol Live: The Great Patrol Adventure
Paw Patrol Live sets sail at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on March 15-17. Join Ryder as he and the Paw Patrol discover a secret treasure map, while on a mission to rescue Cap’n Turbot from a mysterious cavern. 11 am and 6 pm Friday; 10 am, 2 pm, and 6 pm Saturday; and noon and 4 pm Sunday.

Pi Day Pi{e} Fight
Celebrating March 14 (aka Pi Day) with the Children’s Museum of Houston’s 9th Annual Shaving Cream Pi(e) Fight, you can create your own art inspired by the circumference of a circle, take a chance and play a hilarious pie in the face game, and make portable pudding pies. 11 am to 5 pm.

Spring Break at the MFAH
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston always has its doors open during spring break, with fun, family stuff at the museum, Bayou Bend and Rienzi. Kids 12 and younger always get in free to the MFAH and Rienzi, and ages 9 and younger get free admission at Bayou Bend. 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 am to 9 pm Thursday, 10 am to 7 pm Friday and Saturday, and 12:15-7 pm Sunday.

Spring Break Bricks 4 Kids Camps
At the Creative Edge Art Studio in Pearland, kids can spend the week touring the world on an adventure of a lifetime as they explore the history and culture of three continents. They'll be able to build famous emblems and structures, as well as explore sports with the aid of motorized Legos. 1-4 pm.

Spring Break Camp in Sugar Land
Riverstone Montessori in Sugar Land will have a week-long spring break camp. Children can take part in such activities as a smart board learning station, arts and crafts, role playing, etc. They can also enhance their math and learning skills and have plenty of free play time with their friends. 6:30 am to 6:30 pm.

Spring Break Escape: Luau Party
Memorial City will be having events and movies all through spring break — but it's the luau party on March 15 that appears to be a can't-miss event. Drums of the Pacific USA is scheduled to put on an exhilarating show, complete with teaching kids hula moves. And, after that, it's a screening of Moana. 5-9 pm.

Spring Break: Journey Through Japan
All week, you can head over to the Asia Society Texas Center — for free — and learn more about Japan and its spring season. Kids can enjoy screenings of Japanese anime movies and even check the "New Cartographies" exhibition, which will be in its final week. Look for an interesting activity each day. Noon to 3 pm.

Get a grip with indoor rock climbing at Momentum.

Houston Silver Street rock gym woman climbing

Chris Noble

Get a grip with indoor rock climbing at Momentum.

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Movie Review

Film sequel Jurassic World Rebirth offers dino mayhem but not much else

Photo by Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment

Scarlett Johannson in Jurassic World Rebirth.

Given how successful the Jurassic Park / Jurassic World franchise has been at the box office, it’s no surprise that Universal Pictures will find any excuse to keep the gravy train rolling. So here comes Jurassic World Rebirth, a film with all new characters that only has a tangential relationship to the stories that have come before.

And, man, does it have a lot of characters. Leading the way is Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johannson), a woman who is known for being able to procure hard-to-get things. She’s hired by Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), who works for a medical company looking to get blood samples from giant dinosaurs to make a life-saving heart medicine. Naturally, they need a dinosaur expert, which they find in Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), whose work at a natural history museum is coming to an end as the public seems to be growing tired of dinosaurs, five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion.

The dinosaurs they need can be found off the coast of Suriname, a subtropical environment that is one of the only hospitable areas left for the creatures. There Zora recruits boat captain Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), who comes with a crew of three mostly anonymous people. And for good measure, Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) happens to be sailing nearby in the middle of an ocean voyage with his two daughters and his older daughter’s extremely lazy boyfriend.

Given the recent pedigree of director Gareth Edwards (The Creator, Rogue One) and original Jurassic Park writer David Koepp (returning to the franchise for the first time since 1997’s The Lost World), the film should be an unmitigated success. Instead, the filmmakers and their team stumble blindly through any kind of character development. The fact that they’re trying to introduce no fewer than 11 different people should be a big flashing red light, but still they persist.

Instead of making us care whether the people in the film live or die (spoiler alert: A lot of them die), Edwards and Koepp seem to lay all of their hopes on audiences being satisfied with yet-more dino mayhem. But dinosaurs rampaging or chomping people in half only works if the human component is compelling, which it is not. They try to gloss over this by having the characters encounter experimental cross-bred creatures, a story device that makes an impact with a monstrous one in the final act, but otherwise fails to land.

The film also yada-yadas a lot of the plot points, including how Krebs’ company knows they need the blood of these particular dinosaurs when they’ve never had it before. They reference events from previous films in oblique ways, but they run into the same issue every Jurassic World film has had: Not being able to properly explain the main premise of their story, given that previous events should have stopped them from ever happening.

Any film with an Oscar winner (Ali) and nominee (Johannson) at the top should be one worth watching, but it almost feels like neither actor knew what kind of film they were actually making. They each get by on charm, but even they can’t sell the nonsense they’re asked to say. Bailey, who played Fiyero in Wicked, is given a weird nothing part, while Friend plays the villain with little verve. We hardly get to know anyone else, but Audrina Miranda, who plays the youngest daughter on the sailboat, is super-cute and gets a couple of decent emotional moments.

As with the Marvel movies, there is bound to come a time when the general moviegoing public gets tired of being served mediocre Jurassic movies. If any of the franchise’s movies deserves to be the stopping point, it’s this one, with a non-starter of a story and little to get excited about when it comes to the dinosaurs.

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Jurassic World Rebirth opens in theaters on July 2.

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