Mid-July already. How did this happen? This weekend features festivals like Artbeat 2012 in Somerville and Festival Betances in Boston, special events at the Franklin Park and Stone Zoos, and performances from Cambridge to Newburyport. And check our round ups of free outdoor movies, free outdoor concerts, and free story times for other ways to enjoy this mid-summer weekend.

"Diary of a Camp Mommy Director" started this week - Tara finds herself at home with the kids all summer, providing daily entertainment for them (and their friends). She’s started a Twitter diary about the joys and frustrations of being a Camp Mommy Director. Follow her on on Twitter, and please share your own joys (and frustrations) using #CampMommy.

Read on for some highlights of the weekend activities, and please visit our Events Calendar for more ideas.

Enjoy!

Worried about cuts to your children's public school art programs? Upstairs—a recently formed group of young artists and educators—is too. That's why the organization is launching a pilot program of FREE art classes on the Lower East Side this August for children ages 7 to 12.

This weekend, the war between North and South plays out in the Los Angeles area. Prepare yourselves for battles, bloodshed (simulated we hope), demonstrations of physical prowess and exceptional elocution, and in the end a resolution that is pleasing to all. No, I'm not talking about the Civil War reenactment in Long Beach, (though by all accounts it will be one for the history books); I am talking about the different communities of Southern California vying for your presence at their extraordinary events this weekend. And its not just North and South; there's some Eastside/ Westside tension to address as well.

We have the battle of the Shakespeares: Griffith Park with Winters Tale for the East, and West LA VA with As You Like It for the West. Outdoor movies: Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center's Movie Mondays vs. Hollywood’s Oscars Outdoors.  Costa Mesa’s Orange County Fair has formidable competition in Thousand Oak’s Tropical Daze Summer Music Festival; the Eastside’s Los Feliz Village Street Fair goes head to head with the Westside’s Montana Avenue Artwalk & Street Fair.

And who will the victors be? Well, that should be clear. With a plethora of choices the clear winners will be: Los Angeles families. 

Keep reading for some of our favorite picks for this weekend...

(Photo: Teatro Yerbabruja)

The oppressive heat we've had this past week is breaking just in time to allow you to get out and enjoy the weekend—and there's some good stuff to enjoy.

The Children's Museum of the East End is having its Great Outdoors Family Fair, the Town of Babylon is holding its Splash Bash at the Phelps Lane Pool in North Babylon, and the Town of Oyster Bay is putting on its Children's Festival and Safety Day. There's also the Laurie Berkner Band at the Tilles Center and Brentwood's Puerto Rican Day Parade. And as always, you'll find lots more events for this weekend and all week long in our events calendar. Have a great weekend!

This is part of a series of posts on the best family travel apps. See other posts in this series on the Best Hotel and Flight Booking Apps and Tools and Apps for Road Trips.

If the romance of road trips hasn't worn off even though you've got kids in the back seat, I get it. The idea of just jumping in the car and driving to see what types of adventures await is definitely appealing, and with a little planning and the right tools road trips can be great family vacations with kids of all ages.

There's no question that the smart phone and tablets have revolutionized long car drives for families if only because their unlimited access to games and videos can keep the backseaters quiet almost indefinitely. But there's a lot more that your digital devices could be doing to make your road trip vacation better in ways that will get everyone in the family engaged in the adventure rather than in their screens.

Here are the best apps for making your family road trip vacation better:

Kidville, Brentwood's new indoor playspace, wants one lucky Mommy Poppins reader to win four free tickets to see the hit musical Mary Poppins at the Ahmanson! The Broadway show comes back to LA in August for a four week run, and Kidville figures that if anyone deserves a night out with Mary Poppins, it's Mommy Poppins. Read on for details of the give-away and a special Mary Poppins celebration at Kidville.

The current heatwave is supposed to break by Friday and that's good news considering all of the fantastic outdoor events coming up this weekend. Get into the Olympic spirit right here in NYC at Aviator Sports' Olympic Sports Festival or get artsy at the annual New Museum Block Party on the Lower East Side. Meanwhile over in Coney Island you can show off your sand castle skills at the annual Sand Sculpting Contest or head to Crown Heights for the neighborhood's annual Children’s Day.

If you just can't survive without air-conditioning, there's lots of indoor fun too like an afternoon of rare Muppet videos in Williamsburg, Dragon Boat Family Day at the New York Hall of Science or an open art studio for families at the Whitney.

Our best bets for the weekend are below. You can find additional options in our Event Calendar and our Summer Fun Guide, including our brand-new list of 50 ways to cool with kids in NYC. Looks like it will come in handy this season.

It's been a scorcher this week, but you can stay cool with a fun-filled family weekend of fairs, fairies and felines here in New Jersey. There's the Passaic County Fair in Woodland Park, the (yum!) State Ice Cream Festival in Toms River, the Cat Expo in Somerset, an Open House at the Watchung Stables and a Fairy Festival in Pennington to keep your crew entertained. Read on for all our top picks and remember, you can find a listing of all NJ activities for kids in our Event Calendar.