Weekly Wrap Up: St. Patrick's Day Celebrations for NYC Kids, Ways to Ring in Spring, Best New NYC Summer Camps

3/15/12 - By Raven Snook

We've been hitting the park every day after school this week, as you can see from our photo. The city really comes alive in spring and it's always thrilling to experience. You can celebrate the new season at home by reading books about nature, and then head out to one of NYC's Destination Playgrounds or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where the cherry blossoms are already starting to bloom. There's also a cool Cherry Blossoms: Japan Fest at the American Museum of Natural History Museum this Saturday.

Spring fever is hitting our regional sites as well. Our New Jersey site is already looking ahead to Easter with an awesome Easter Bunny Train Ride giveaway. And even though the Philadelphia International Flower Show has ended, you can head up to Massachusetts for the Boston Flower & Garden Show, which is on view through Sunday. Of course St. Patrick's Day is the main event this weekend, and we've got roundups of genuinely kid-friendly celebrations all over the tri-state area, including NYC, NJ, Long Island and Connecticut.

If you want to stay on top of everything that's going on in New Jersey, Long Island, Connecticut, Boston or Los Angeles, you can subscribe to our free newsletters. Read on for everything we covered on Mommy Poppins NYC this week.

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New York City

We continued our focus on Harlem with a roundup of the neighborhood's best shops for kids, including toy stores and children's boutiques.

Our new education blogger, Blythe, spotlighted dual language programs at NYC public schools.

Even though spring hasn't officially arrived, we're looking ahead to summer. We shared the 10 best new summer day camps making their debuts in NYC.

If you're looking for a great family day trip destination, check out Long Island's White Post Farms, which has a petting zoo, pony and train rides, and lots of playgrounds.

In our news roundup, we've got the scoop on a new baby-friendly movie screenings, Chinatown restaurant week and a link to an awesome op-ed against testing, with a big assist from late great children's author E.B. White.

Creative Brooklyn families (are their any other kind?) will want to bookmark our roundup of the 12 best craft studios for kids in the borough.

This month's Little Lions book list from the New York Public Library highlights the best kids' book about nature.

Best bets for the weekend include AMNH's Cherry Blossom: Japan Fest, lots of cool kids' shows and so many St. Patrick's Day family celebrations, we did a dedicated post on all of them.