We have five inspiring Martin Luther King Jr Day events lined up for kids on this long weekend! Kids can celebrate MLK Day through art, performance, community events and leadership activities at the Newark Museum, Morris Museum, Arts Council of Princeton, Express Yourself Studios, or the Essex Environmental Center. On Saturday and Sunday participate in special zoo programs at the Turtleback Zoo or Jenkinson Aquarium, explore the outdoors maple-sugaring at Great Swamp or learning how to cook outdoors at Plainsboro Preserve, get hands-on at the New Jersey State Museum's new kids workshops, or make some snowflake inspired art work at the Liberty Hall Museum. Or take advantage of the snow and take the kids skiing on NJ's slopes!

Although I don’t think we have stepped foot in a theater on the Great White Way since our son was born almost six years ago, both my husband and I adore musicals. In fact, the very first bit of media we introduced our son to was The Sound of Music movie and I look forward to the day that we can bring him to see a musical on Broadway. He is nearly six so I think we are almost there, but until that day comes, there is Broadway Playhouse; a fantastic three concert series introducing time-honored musicals to kids.  If you have a family that loves musicals (or even just likes them a lot), this is a series you won’t want to miss.

There are so many fantastic opportunities for little ones at NYC's amazing museums, but we have not forgotten about your teens, and neither has The Museum of Modern Art. The MoMA offers free movies and pizza, drop in programs, and even free art classes. Their site is also able to communcate with the future leaders of the world in their own language, using its own Facebook page and Twitter account to give last minute info on teen events. Read on to find out more of what the MoMA has to offer New York City teens.

We often write about music on the site, but usually the pop-rock or kiddie genres.  Young kids don’t know the difference between The Beatles and Beethoven, yet, they just know what they like.  Listening to live classical music can be a fun, educational and enriching experience for your whole family.  And lucky for us, many of the esteemed performing arts organizations in NYC offer special concerts with interactive elements, fanciful costumes, sets, pre-show workshops and other engaging ways to develop a young kid’s musical understanding and taste.

Find out where you can take your kids to these concerts and how to get your tickets.

This play space has changed owners. Find our new review here. While searching for indoor fun this winter, I found the perfect place—for my kids, and me. A place that feels more like a good friend's cool apartment than a play space thanks to a minimalist and modern decor, good music (Smashing Pumpkins and Kings of Leon on my visits), and huge windows that let in a ton of natural light and provide a nice reminder of the cold weather outside. Opened in September 2010 by the down-to-earth and enviably hip couple Wade Groom and Katja Douedari, Play is a place I'd happily hang out at all winter, for these reasons, and many more.

I love lists. So neat, so handy, so easy to read. And I love sharing our lists with you. Sometimes I think I started Mommy Poppins, just so I could share my information organizing manias with other people. And list posts have been some of the most popular posts on Mommy Poppins. Of course, 100 Things to Do with Your Kids Before They Grow Up, my mega-list, is kind of the flagship post of the site, but we have had some other great lists too from where to get the best hot chocolate to what to do on a staycation. Here are my top ten list posts of 2010:

My New Years Resolution is to work more efficiently in 2011, so in an effort to become a lean, mean, mommying machine, I am jumping right into our best bets for this weekend, after I alert you to a few things that are going on that you definitely want to know about.

Firstly, many of the cities museums are offering their monthly free “first” days this weekend since last weekend was the holiday.  Families can check out the goings on at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan for free on Friday or The New Museum on Saturday (read below for the scoop on that).  The fantastic holiday train show at the NY Botanical Garden closes this Sunday, so if you didn’t get a chance to see it yet – this is it, to sweeten the deal- Thomas the Tank Engine will be there greeting the kids and posing for photos.  Tickets are still available to see, The Inflatable Theater Company at Symphony Space, and they are definitely something not to miss, they use these transforming, fabric inflatables in their act and turn boxes into giant dogs and stuff.  Finally, if your Christmas tree is still hanging around, like mine is, have the parks department turn it into mulch that they can use in NYC’s parks this year.

Happy New Year! Read for our best bets and have a great weekend.

Yes, we're all wiped out from the holidays, but instead of couch potato-ing through the rest of the winter, why not venture out and see what New Jersey has to offer this weekend. We have a great contest for four FREE sets of tickets to the awesome Bari Koral Family band, and you can also finally see the holiday lights you missed because you were too busy during the actual holidays or take part in the wonderful winter activity of maple sugaring. Happy New Year, Jerseyites!