Most people who visit Washington Heights or Inwood for the first time will remark to me, "This neighborhood is great! I never knew a place like this existed in Manhattan!" Well, my fellow New Yorkers, if you have never been to the northern part of Manhattan, this Sunday you have no excuses. Besides the beautiful weather, Uptown Treasures is hosting a day of free family activities and events at eight awesome northern Manhattan sites, and to make things super easy for you, it will be complete with complimentary shuttle service that will schlep you between locations.

Some of these sites should already be on your to do list:

We got lots of great reader responses in last week's Time and Money Saving Tips post with more great ideas. There's really too many to recap here, but here are my top 5 favorite, plus our giveaway winner and discount codes for everyone:

(oh, and don't forget to enter our Halloween Kiddie Cruise giveaway by Thursday).

I love three-day weekends, they should all be at least three days in my opinion.  This weeks line-up of news includes a lot of warnings and suggestions from the medical world that all parents should be aware of including a warning about Tylenol for kids.  Also, find out what forecasters are saying about the upcoming NYC winter (dust off your skis), musings on the greatest parenthood taboo of all time (liking one kid more than the other) and the latest Palin buzz (she's doing SNL).

Back in August we did a giveaway for 4 complimentary tickets to the Kiddie Cruise and it was so popular, we are doing it again but this time two lucky Mommy Poppinistas will win 4 tickets to the Halloween Kiddie Cruise.

Setting sail on Oct. 26 at noon, the Halloween Kiddie Cruise will take you on a ghoulishly fun two hour tour of the Hudson. The cruise ship is a 3 level Louisiana-Style paddle-wheel boat that is packed full of Halloween kiddie entertainment. Recommended for kids ages 2 to 8, you can expect face painting, balloon sculpting, arts and crafts, magic shows, performances, story telling, live music, raffles and yummy food for kids and adults.

Keep reading for details on how to enter...

Fall has arrived and it's time to get yourself some pumpkins! Check out our posts on the best pumpkin picking and apple picking in the area if you want to head out of town. Or, you can stock up on pumpkins and fall fun right here in NYC with the top picks of this weekend's local pumpkin events. Plus, did you know that there are lots of free kids cooking classes available this weekend? Keep reading for the full scoop...

Fall brings lots of things with it: cool mornings and chilly nights, great colors and foliage, plenty of Holidays, and, it's a great time of year for getting out of the city to enjoy the crisp Fall air. So we're giving you a couple more reasons to hop on the LIE for some Fall Festivals worth a day trip this Columbus Day Weekend.

For more fall day trip ideas and Long Island fun check out our New York Halloween Guide.

I am terrible at planning in advance for Halloween.   Alright, I admit it, I'm terrible at planning in advance for everything, but in some very rare cases this can be a good thing. Halloween, is all about getting creative. Sometimes being a slacker-mom on Halloween forces you and your kids to be more creative and have more fun since you are left with putting together a costume that you can make with what you already have or what is easy to get.

Keep reading to find out some great toddler and kid Halloween costume ideas that almost entirely use stuff you either already have or can find in a stationary store.  Plus, the best last minute costume ideas on the interweb.

The DOE has left 6000 Pre-K spots vacant this school year and is now scrambling to fill them. With a deadline of October 31st, the city is urging parents to apply for these free public Pre-K spots still available at some of NYC's top public schools. We've got the inside scoop on what's going on and how to get one of these free Pre-K spots.