This Week: New Park Slope Playground, Kid-Friendly Chelsea Restaurants, It's My Park Day

5/17/12 - By Raven Snook

We were all about cool new destinations and attractions this week. Cooper-Hewitt opened its brand-new Design Center in Harlem, where kids can take free art workshops. After a one-year renovation, Park Slope's J. J. Byrne Playground reopened with state-of-the-art equipment and a Colonial theme. And the Metropolitan Museum of Art debuted an out-of-this-world rooftop installation.

If you're looking for a fun Memorial Day weekend getaway, how about going fruit or vegetable picking? We've updated our pick-your-own guide with roundups of fruit and vegetable farms on Long Island and berry picking spots in Connecticut. Meanwhile our Travel site can help you plan your big summer vacation. We have new posts about things to do with kids in Virginia Beach and a rave review of Disney's new cruise ship, the Fantasy.

Here's what else we shared this week on our NYC site.

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In honor of Mother's Day, we kicked off the week with a roundup of NYC mom groups for parents over 35.

We continued our focus on Chelsea with a list of our favorite kid-friendly restaurants in the neighborhood.

Our coverage of Partners in Preservation sites vying for grants concluded with a profile of the New York Botanical Garden.

Lots of new family destinations to share. First: Creative kids can take free art workshops at the brand-new Cooper-Hewitt Design Center.

Also brand-spanking-new: J. J. Byrne Playground in Park Slope, and we've got the photos to prove how fantastic it is.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art debuted its latest rooftop installation, Tomás Saraceno's Cloud City, an awesome sculpture you can literally climb.

Our biweekly links roundup included a number of sad closings, including Scribble Press on the Upper West Side and the Little Gym of Harlem.

Know someone's who's pregnant with their second child? Then check out our latest Little Lions book list of children's stories about new siblings. They make great gifts.

Best bets for the weekend include concerts by Dan Zanes and Laurie Berkner, the New York Dance Parade and Saturday's It's My Park Day, when families can help spruce up their local green spaces.