This Week: Best July Events for NYC Kids, July 4th Weekend Fun, Focus on Washington Heights & Inwood

7/4/13 - By Raven Snook

You know the worst thing you can do to someone right in the middle of a four-day holiday weekend? Give them a really long post to read. But don't worry: We'll be brief today since it's been a pretty quiet week for all of us at Mommy Poppins as we transition from school to summer, and enjoy our four-day 4th of July weekend.

Since it's a new month, we posted a new NYC Go List, highlighting the absolute best things to do with kids throughout July, including three awesome picks for this weekend. If you're going out of town for the holiday, be sure to visit our regional sites since Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut and Westchester all published July Go Lists, too. Even if you're planning a 4th of July holiday staycation, you may want to check the posts out: After reading about the Hudson Valley Balloon Festival on our Westchester site, I'm thinking of taking a last-minute day trip with my family. And if you're on the hunt for a proper vacation, our Travel site rounded up a bunch of midsummer getaway deals.

We're also giving away four tickets to one of our July Go List recommendations: Monkey: Journey to the West. The multimedia show is best for tweens and up so consider your child's age before you enter.

Here's what else we covered on the NYC site this week:

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Our July NYC Go List is truly spectacular, and includes lots of cool things to do with kids of all ages, even hard-to-please teens like rock 'n' roll circus Monkey: Journey to the West , a vintage carnival ride festival on Governors Island and City of Water Day featuring FREE boat rides.

We also rounded up the best family festivals in July and August and almost all of them are FREE.

For a while now, many of our readers have been begging us to write more about Upper Manhattan.  Well we have good news: Our month-long focus on Washington Heights and Inwood kicked off this week with a list of the top 35 things to do in the area with kids

Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Display isn't the only thing that will give you a big bang for no bucks this holiday. Our best bets for the four-day weekend include lots of free fun including Wave Hill's Welcome Home Weekend, SummerStage Kids' Family Day in Central Park and no-cost admission to the Children's Museum of Manhattan.