Are we the only ones who felt like this was a long, slow week? Maybe it has something to do with this being the first full week back after spring break. The awesome spring weather doesn't help either: How can we focus on work when there are parks and playgrounds calling out to us? Not to mention the hypnotic tinkling of the invading ice cream trucks.

Still, we found time to do some work. We launched our NYC Kid-Friendly Restaurant Guide and even added a pair of tasty new posts: Restaurants where kids can make their own food and an international food crawl on Ninth Avenue to go with our Midtown West coverage.

If you're looking to take a seasonal day trip, our Long Island site profiled New York State Parks in Nassau and Suffolk Counties that are filled with all kinds of outdoor fun like boating, fishing, biking, horseback riding and golfing, not to mention the opportunity to commune with nature. Meanwhile, our New Jersey site has a roundup of animal-filled farms where kids can get up close and personal with alpacas, llamas, sheep, goats, ponies, chickens, miniature horses and more.

And those are just a few ways to take advantage of spring now that it's sprung. Here's what else we covered on our NYC site this week:

We enjoyed our first no coat day this week so hopefully spring is here to stay. There are certainly lots of great ways to enjoy the season this weekend including the Queens County Farm Museum's annual Children's Carnival, hands-on gardening for kids at the New York Botanical Garden and the shearing of the heather in Fort Tryon Park.

Worried the weather won't cooperate? That's okay because there are plenty of awesome indoor activities, too, like the gloriously geeky The Intergalactic Nemesis at the New Victory Theater, BAMcinématek's Hayao Miyazaki animated movie retrospective and a few really cool FREE events at local public libraries and parks.

These are just a few of the great things going on this weekend. All of our best bets are below. You can find additional options in our Event Calendar and our Spring Fun Guide.

Our month-long focus on Midtown West continues with a look at some of the culturally diverse restaurants you'll find on Ninth Avenue. While we've covered other places to eat with kids in the neighborhood in the past—notably family-friendly eateries near hot spots Times Square and Rockefeller Center—a stroll down Ninth Avenue can feel like taking a trip around the world. Unlike other foodie strips that focus on a specific ethnicity (see Chinatown, the Bronx's Little Italy and Little Tokyo in the East Village), Ninth Avenue is filled with eclectic eateries—there's a reason it hosts NYC's annual International Food Festival every spring.

No children's menus or chicken fingers at these spots. Instead, Ninth Avenue is a great place to introduce your brood to delicacies from Thailand, Greece, Turkey, Brazil and others—way more options than we could ever list here. Our top ten picks are all casual and kid-friendly, and located on a 12-block strip. You could even grab takeout from a few of them and throw your own international family food fest in nearby Hell's Kitchen Park.