I don’t know where that famous lion from the old weather fable is but the lamb is certainly here, just in time for the weekend, too.  As it is the first of the month there are some awesome free “first” weekend events at many of the cities museums.  One of them is The Brooklyn Museum and families may want to make a beeline to the new Tipi exhibit where they will be offering some pretty cool family programming for free.  The awesome and uber creative Material Lab at MOMA has weekend hours and there are also just a few seats left to the final Broadway Playhouse series of the season this Saturday, where they will be showing off the best of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt.  In addition, this weekend is the annual Armory Show, and they haven’t left out the kids, find out more below the fold.

Maple sugaring is the perfect way to celebrate the season and you don’t have to drive to Vermont to do it, not too far out of town you can visit the Nature Place Day Camp and The Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, both will be tapping their trees this weekend.  You could also be a pinball wizard and take a fun family day trip to the Silverball Museum Arcade in Asbury Park.  

Read on for our best bets for the weekend and be sure to check out the Mommy Poppins Events Calendar for more great weekend events.  Have a great weekend.  

Spring is officially on its way, I know this, because there are sap buckets on the trees. Sap buckets! The true sign that warm days are headed our way. Until then we've got some great events for you here that celebrate the snow, like ice skating and nature night hikes as well as indoor fun, like circus and dance performances. And of course, the sweet stuff, maple sugaring fun. Have a great weekend.

Bring out the beads, masks and music–it’s Mardi Gras Weekend!  No masks? No worries! Make your own at one of the cool events we’ve corralled. Or if you’re ready to get outside and mix it up instead, there’s parks to be cleaned, arboretums to be explored and mountains to be hiked.  If relaxing entertainment is more your thing, take in some classic cartoons, science films or a touching play this weekend.  With the whirlwind of activities, March is certainly coming in like a lion, not a lamb!

In my former life, I sat in on a lot of focus groups for moms and I can say with pretty good authority that one of the top fantasies of most moms is to have a personal chef. Face it, no matter how much you love cooking, making dinner for a family (not to mention lunches and breakfasts) is downright exhausting. Just thinking about what to make every night for the next 18 years is enough to make me start to shake.  

Kate's Carried Away is an in-home, Cordon Bleu trained personal chef who plans your menu, does the shopping, and then comes to your home, prepares 7-8 dishes for you for the week that you just reheat and have dinner on the table any night. Carried Away will customize your family's menu for your tastes and can make all type of dishes that you like, working within any dietary restrictions necessary.

Cheaper than having someone come to your home every day and healthier than take out, Carried Aways services might make sense for some families who don't regularly have time to cook. It is also a great idea for a baby shower gift, a Mother's Day or birthday treat, or for sudden emergencies, like extended business travel. [Or because you got it for 58% off from Poppins Perks. Read to the bottom to find out more.]

One of my daughters’ favorite exhibits at The Brooklyn Museum is the historic rooms, with recreated interiors of Dutch Colonial homes. But they were always upset that they couldn’t go inside them to play. At the new exhibit, Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains, kids can go right into a giant tipi. Read on to find out more details about this cool new exhibit.

I am notoriously cheap, I’m sorry, frugal when it comes to children’s clothing. And why shouldn’t I be? Children are messy, destructive and have growth spurts that rival The Hulk’s. They ball up their shorts and T’s and stick them under the bed and you don’t find them until Christmas. Their favorite foods are chocolate, grape juice, and spaghetti sauce. They even have the audacity to bleed on their garments. Why would I spend my hard-earned money on this sort of behavior?

Visiting the MoMA on a weekend morning is one of our family's favorite, free winter-time activities.  Usually after we have finished one of the kids' programs at the MoMA my girls are burned out and ready to go home. Not last weekend. After completing our program, we went to check out the new Material Lab, a hands-on interactive space where kids can explore and play.  During the next hour and a half my girls were so taken with the space that they forgot that they were "dying of hunger" and I practically had to drag them out the museum doors so we could have lunch before 3pm.

You might not think of a casino as a family friendly destination, but Foxwoods, near Hartford, has some surprisingly fun—and wholesome—options for kids. From Ice skating on their brand new outdoor rink, an enormous arcade with current and vintage games and a museum dedicate to Connecticut's native Americans, a trip to Foxwoods has a lot to offer.