Now that it's almost officially summer, many of the best offerings on our calendar take place outdoors. Welcome, warm weather! This weekend's picks include several great festivals that celebrate fine and performing arts, including the Salem Arts Festival (pictured). This is also a good time to attend a summer camp open house. Even if you've already decided on a program for the kids, an open house offers a great opportunity to visit the actual site and meet the staff. Other weekend picks include a fishing festival, a painting workshop, and some family-friendly outdoor theater.

Also on Mommy Poppins Boston this week:

• Now that June is upon us, use our GoList to plan out your family's must-do activities for the month.
• Check out our list of 25 things to do with kids in Harvard Square to see why it's one of our favorite neighborhoods for family activities.
• Even little kids can help with this Easy No-Wax Batik craft project.
• If you're still searching for the perfect camp for your child, peruse our list of Boston summer camps with availability.

Enjoy your weekend and don't forget to check out our full Event Calendar!

Behold the beautiful month of June! The days are longer and warmer but not yet scorching, and nature is dressed in a bright shade of green. Opportunities to explore our state's great outdoors abound at Connecticut Trails Weekend, part of the National Trails Day celebration. So put on your hiking boots and make a day of it.

Literary-minded families can enjoy a book sale or all the adventures planned for Tom Sawyer Day at The Mark Twain House. In New London County, you can let loose at the four-day Cajun Zydeco Festival at Strawberry Park.

If you'd rather stay indoors, you can get crafty at Home Depot's Kids' Workshop. Or peruse our jam-packed Connecticut Summer Fun Guide and let your kids plan a few family outings.

Whatever you decide to do, we hope you have a wonderful weekend. Be sure to check out our Event Calendar for more kid-friendly activities throughout the state. And if you're still figuring out summer, see our list of camps that still have openings. To keep up with everything happening in CT, subscribe to our FREE newsletters, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

A bunch of our top family event picks for June are happening this weekend, and we're trying to figure out how many we can hit since we can't seem to choose. There's Governors Island's Figment Arts Festival, the Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival on the Lower East Side, the debut of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Discovery Garden and Celebrate Brooklyn!'s annual Ezra Jack Keats Family Concert. The best part? They're all FREE.

But wait—there's more! Like a Pokémon concert, Long Island City's annual Bike Parade and the New York Aquarium's World Oceans Celebration.

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

The weekend ahead is brimming with terrific events for families in Westchester and the Hudson Valley, so get ready to make some tough choices!

There’s no shortage of fairs and festivals, such as the Bronxville Spring Sidewalk Sale & Street Fair, RiverFest and the Children’s Earth & Water Festival, just to name a few. Other fun includes rocking out to the kindie band Tim Kubart and the Space Cadets and introducing kids to the classic Pink Panther cartoons. And to support a good cause that affects millions of Americans, you and your family can Walk Now for Autism Speaks.

But that’s not all! Read on for our top picks, and check out our Event Calendar and June GoList for even more options. Want to get our posts in your inbox? Subscribe to our FREE weekly newsletters.

How stressful is the end of the school year? Let's count the ways. Oh sure, there's the silver lining of not having to get the kids to school or argue about homework for the blissful weeks of summer; but blissful loses its luster pretty quickly in the face of, "What are we going to do today?"—particularly if you know that what YOU have to do doesn't involve sprinklers or beaches. We know we should have figured out summer camp by now, really we do. We have a stack of flyers for neat-o programs that are probably already filled up with kids whose parents got on this weeks (or months) ago.

Summer vacation may be staring you in the face, but there's no need to panic; every one of the great summer camps listed below still has space available as of this publish date.

As wonderful as New York City is with its slew of museums, theaters and eateries, it can sometimes feel overwhelming. Naturalist Steve Brill (a.k.a. "Wildman") can help slow things down a bit, though. For more than three decades, the famous Wildman has been taking New Yorkers including school-age kids on foraging tours in every borough and beyond. In fact, people come from far and wide to experience his quirky charm.

Locations that piqued my family's interest included Greenwood Cemetery, Inwood Hill Park and Sunken Meadow Park on Long Island. We ended up deciding on an edible plant adventure in Central Park. With about 30 other folks, we set out for a new foodie experience, sans the plate and utensils!

Children are born inventors and explorers; that's why STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, art and math) are so popular. Whether it’s digging through muddy streams to see what lives there, building and battling Lego robots, or writing nature-inspired poetry, the best STEAM-focused camps know how to engage kids by always keeping things fun. (Summer break is no time for worksheets.)

A few weeks ago, we rounded up STEAM classes and camps in Westchester; now we’re examining the offerings in the lower Hudson Valley area. Don’t forget to browse our Summer Camp Guide to find out about additional enriching programs.

Keeping kids clean is a constant chore—they seem to be magnets for food, markers, play dough, dirt and other messy things. But it's important to drop the wipes every once in a while and head outdoors for some down and dirty fun. The sensory experience of putting their hands in the mud and dirt (and not getting in trouble for it) is liberating for little ones. And don't worry moms and dads—you can hose them off later.

Here are six places where kids can have a blast getting grimy on Long Island this summer. For more seasonal activities, check out our Summer Fun Guide.