This Week: Halloween Fun for NYC Kids, Bronx Zoo Boo at the Zoo Giveaway, Free Swimming Lessons

10/11/12 - By Raven Snook

This week we were all about Halloween. Not only have we updated most of the posts in our NYC Halloween Fun Guide, our New Jersey and Connecticut sites launched their own guides filled with the kind of holiday fun you can only find outside the city, like haunted train rides and massive corn mazes.

If the Bronx Zoo's Boo at the Zoo is on your must-do list this month, you'll want to enter our Boo at the Zoo giveaway—we'll be posting the winners on our Facebook page on Saturday, so make sure you enter by Friday! It's also the time to sign up for FREE fall swimming lessons for kids. The Parks Department is holding an online lottery for spots through Tuesday, October 16.

Finally, since we often look to our readers for inspiration, information and new ideas, we'd like to hear your thoughts about some exceptional events Mommy Poppins is planning on hosting in NYC. Please take our very short survey so we can find out what kinds of activities you're interested in and what neighborhoods are most convenient for your family.

Here's what we covered on the NYC this week:

OUR LATEST VIDEOS

Why wait until October 31 to put on your costumes? We've rounded up 32 FREE Halloween events for families so you can celebrate all month long.

We added two new posts to our jam-packed Halloween Fun Guide: a roundup of Day of the Dead celebrations and a review of the Bronx Zoo's fabulous Boo at the Zoo festivities.

Our month-long focus on Greenpoint continued with a look at places to play indoors in the Brooklyn nabe.

We added a roundup of sensory gyms in Manhattan to our Special Needs Guide.

It was a big week for children's theater: We reviewed Vital Children's Theatre's new page-to-stage show Fancy Nancy the Musical and also posted about Urban Stages' FREE family theater festival going on throughout October.

Best bets for the weekend include the opening of the Ascarium at the New York Aquarium, Madison Square Park's annual Fall Kids Fest and a slew of harvest festivals and cool kiddie concerts.