WEEKEND JAM-PACKED WITH FUN FOR KIDS

This year's Riverfest celebration will be jam-packed with activities for kids, including a best-dressed turtle contest and sheet painting with squirt guns.

All activities will take place on the south terrace near the Common Pleas Courthouse, on Friday evening until dark and all day Saturday.

Organized activities include turtle races and a best-dressed turtle contest at 2 p.m. Saturday and children's rides on the riverboat from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday. Registration for the turtle races begins at 11 a.m.

Kaye Clemens, owner of Cinnamon Bear Preschool in Cape Girardeau, is organizing this year's kids activities, along with the Family Institute at Southeast Missouri State University.

Clemens said craft making will be a big part of this year's kids activities as well. Sidewalk murals and sheet painting will be just some of the things kids will create themselves.

"For the sheet painting. we hang a sheet over a clothesline and load up some spray guns and squirt bottles," she said. "We just let the kids go at it. You'd be amazed at what it looks like when they're finished."

Kids can also make creatures like turtles and lady bugs using paper plates.

Throughout the two-day celebration, kids can also play in a huge sand pit, engage in bubble blowing, watch Cape Shrine Club clowns, or be entertained by ventriloquists and magicians.

Clemens said the sand pit is about 16 by 20 feet in size. Last year, games and activities were organized for the pit, but kids really preferred just to play in it. This year, free play will be the only activity in the pit.

"Box exploration" will be a new fun activity, she said.

"We just put big furniture boxes out there, and children really have fun exploring the space," she said.

Youngsters are encouraged to bring their parents to the south terrace.

"There will be at least three or four adults on hand at all times, but we encourage parents to do these things with their children," Clemens said.

All children's activities are provided free of charge and are sponsored by Cinnamon Bear, the Riverfest Association and the Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts. Nip Kelley Construction and Cape Sand Company will provide the sand pit. The children's activities will be supervised by volunteers.