Audra Rox

Outside of the Father's Day selections, these are the events that I thought were the most interesting and worth heading out to this weekend:

The Museum of Natural History hosts an Identification Day. Like a natural history Antiques Roadshow, bring in your backyard finds (shells, rocks, insects, arrowheads, feathers, fossils, bones, pottery, textiles) and have museum scientists tell you what it really is. FREE with museum admission.*

New York City Police Museum is hosting its 4th Annual Family Fair, a fun-filled day of activities including visits by members of NYPD Special Units such as the Mounted Unit and the Emergency Services Unit, games and prizes, face painting, and special appearances by McGruff the Crime Dog and PC the Patrol Car. Children and adults can pose for pictures in police uniforms. And, younger children can practice calling 9-1-1 on the Museum’s emergency simulator. Plus balloons, a Super Slide, hot dogs, popcorn, and cotton candy! FREE.

Reader, Brigette, who won our Mother and Child Portrait Session Giveaway and got all spoiled wants us to equally hook her up for Father's Day.

Brigette says:

I need help coming up with ideas of what to do with my kids for my husband on Father's Day. I can come up with gift ideas, but seem to have lost all creative ability to come up with something to do with/for dad that day.

Since I don't know what kind of Baby Daddy Brigette rolls with I figured I'd cover all the bases. Here's our suggestions for Father's Day activities for dads of every stripe. A bunch of these activities are this weekend, in case you actually just want to let dad chill on the day of, as many of our commenters suggested.

Father's Day Activities for NYC Dads of Every Stripe:

Last summer we posted a great list of the best free and cheap swimming pools in New York City for kids and toddlers. That post is one of our all time most popular posts and it's still a great list. But, there are some new pool options this year and we wanted to share them with you. Find out where the floating barge swimming pool will be docked this summer and two other beautiful brand new places to swim in New York this summer:

Experience Random Acts of Fun at this street game festival. Come Out & Play, the all-free event which runs from June 6-8 turns the city into a playground with everything from massive multi-player scavenger hunts to real life video games to competitive picnicking. Their call is to rediscover the city through play and their lineup is wacky and really fun to read.

This would definitely make a memorable early Father's Day activity for any New York City dad. But, since some games start at 9pm and others include skills you may not be ready to have your kid learn, we have some suggestions for the kid friendly games:

Mom in New Nest

This year, as Mother’s Day dawned I awoke with a sense of anxiety. The red-tail hawk babies had not been seen in the nest for 2 days. I received email after email Saturday afternoon and evening from hawk-watching friends that the parents were bringing food into the nest, but no little white heads popped up; no perfect little hawk-shaped beaks opened. I emailed my friends Lincoln Karim and Beth Bergman, both professional photographers and passionate hawk and nature watchers, saying that I would run to the nest early Sunday morning. At 7am I raced out of the boat with my binoculars and up to Riverside Park to the nest tree, a honey locust standing along the on-ramp to the northbound West Side Highway. There I ran into Cal Vornberger, a renowned urban wildlife photographer (The Birds of Central Park). Together we looked up and saw the mother hawk but no babies.

This month we added our Mommy Poppins Slacker Camp Guide to our growing roster of guides including our Camp Guide and Preschool Guide. If you're still looking for a camp for this summer, check out the listing of camp openings and our listings of amazing art camps, which includes performing arts camps as well.

More Top Posts for May were:

Updated Listing of NYC Moms Groups

Luxury Dresses for Old Navy Prices on Etsy

Little Naturalists See Nature All Around

Top Resources for Family Travel

Back when we were doing our Mother's Day Giveaway, we asked our readers what they wanted for Mother's Day and one post totally cracked us up. It was from Kate, who wanted a fake LeSport Sak bag and a Monkey Museum portrait. We are all too familiar with fake bags, but we had to go check out what the Monkey Museum was.

It turns out it's this really awesome art and we immediately wanted some too. So Kate, thanks for sharing this idea with us so now everyone can have the chance of getting a Monkey Museum piece for Father's Day with our Father's Day Giveaway!

Hudson Warehouse's Much Ado About Nothing