Springtime is full steam ahead and New Jersey has plenty to keep families busy this time of year. Celebrate Earth Day with a festival at the NJ State Botanical Garden or a Native American craft at the Newark Museum. If you’re looking to introduce the kids to a classic, take in a performance of Charlotte’s Web or The Wizard of Oz. Read on for our top picks and find a listing of all NJ activities in our Event Calendar.

With the media focused on the awful events in Boston—our hearts go out to everyone there, especially our friends and family at our Boston site—we're happy to give you a bit of a break from bad news. Every single item in this edition of our biweekly links roundup is good. The long-delayed Asphalt Green Battery Park City is finally opening, a mobile market brings fresh veggies to the Bronx, District 2 residents get to have their say about a new middle school, and free comic books and doughnuts are up for grabs. Plus, we share a very funny (though profanity-laden) reaction to the STFU, Parents blog and book—a must-read for moms and dads who are tired of suffering the gripes of the childless.

Midtown West may not be as chock-full of traditional play spaces as neighboring Chelsea or the Upper West Side, but there are still plenty of places where kids can run around indoors. Times Square has lots of fun interactive megastores like the Disney Store and Dave & Buster's is filled with new and retro arcade games. Plus there are three bowling alleys within blocks of each other, a lovely local library, a couple of kiddie gyms and other offbeat spots to romp or hang out.

Mother’s Day is nearly here, and a getaway just might be your favorite way to be pampered.  Resorts are starting to promote summer discounts too, so it’s not too early to be thinking of your summer holiday.  Deals in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Fort Lauderdale, Puerto Rico, New Orleans, Phoenix,  the Finger Lakes and Cancun provide plenty of options.

While there are a ton of family-friendly NYC boat tours, there are, surprisingly, only a handful of companies that have cruises that cater specifically to kids. Both the Circle Line, which launched its Kids' Cruise series in 2012, and Kiddie Cruises offer regularly scheduled seasonal boat trips in New York Harbor that feature kids' entertainment and activities in addition to stunning views. And a few other companies offer boats for charter, in case you're in the market for a private party on the high seas (a.k.a. the Hudson River).

The pay-per-kid party packages include all of the usual fun like face painting, live music and magicians, plus a couple of extra bells and whistles. All you need to do is book in advance, climb the gangplank with your crew and bring along a cake.

While not quite as glamorous as Earth Day, (see our Earth Day guide as well), the much older holiday Arbor Day, officially arrives this year on April 26th, with tree-friendly events spanning the last two weekends in April. While Earth Day focuses on the health of our entire planet, Arbor Day highlights trees themselves. It is a day to honor, care for, and appreciate the trees in our lives. This year there are plenty of opportunities to get involved and learn about trees while having a whole lot of fun. You can participate in a tree scavenger hunt at Sands Point, protect trees by pulling the invasive garlic mustard plant from Garvies Point, and celebrate trees during the Tree Celebration at Old Westbury Gardens and the Arbor Day Festival at Planting Fields. We've also provided a number of great arboretums where you can see and learn about some of Long Island's oldest, largest and most beautiful trees all year long. 

Are we the only ones who felt like this was a long, slow week? Maybe it has something to do with this being the first full week back after spring break. The awesome spring weather doesn't help either: How can we focus on work when there are parks and playgrounds calling out to us? Not to mention the hypnotic tinkling of the invading ice cream trucks.

Still, we found time to do some work. We launched our NYC Kid-Friendly Restaurant Guide and even added a pair of tasty new posts: Restaurants where kids can make their own food and an international food crawl on Ninth Avenue to go with our Midtown West coverage.

If you're looking to take a seasonal day trip, our Long Island site profiled New York State Parks in Nassau and Suffolk Counties that are filled with all kinds of outdoor fun like boating, fishing, biking, horseback riding and golfing, not to mention the opportunity to commune with nature. Meanwhile, our New Jersey site has a roundup of animal-filled farms where kids can get up close and personal with alpacas, llamas, sheep, goats, ponies, chickens, miniature horses and more.

And those are just a few ways to take advantage of spring now that it's sprung. Here's what else we covered on our NYC site this week: