This Week: Best May Family Events in NYC & Beyond, Win a Full Summer of Camp, Coding for NYC Kids

5/1/14 - By Raven Snook

The one upside to the torrential rain this week were all the impressive pics of NYC rainbows I saw on Instagram. I took my rainbow shot down on Delancey Street and it was quite a hit on our Facebook page. But now that May is here, all of the April showers should be behind us. We certainly hope so since many of our top family event picks for May in NYC take place outdoors, like the iconic Dance Parade New York and the Memorial Day weekend opening of the newly expanded Governors Island.

If you're thinking about going on a quick spring getaway, look to our May Go Lists in New Jersey, Westchester, Long Island and beyond for inspiration. There are some truly day-trip-worthy happenings coming up, including Historic Hudson Valley's brand-new glow-in-the-dark installation Lightscapes and the annual Hoboken Spring Arts and Music Festival, which are both happening this weekend. Thinking of taking a longer trip? Over on our Travel site, Mommy Poppins founder, Anna, talks about the benefits of extended travel with kids and recalls the transformative experience of spending a month in Spain as a child.

And we have an amazing giveaway going on this week: Enter to win an entire summer session of camp at the JCC Day Camp at Pearl River—a $3,500 value. Since I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my eight-year-old this summer, I wish I were eligible to enter!

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

OUR LATEST VIDEOS

We kicked off the week with our carefully curated roundup of the absolute best things to do with kids in NYC throughout May, including the Kings County Fair in Brooklyn and Spring Kids Fest in Madison Square Park.

Spring festival season has arrived! We found 30 fun (and mostly free) street fairs, fests and carnivals taking place in May.

Our month-long focus on Astoria, Queens finished up with a list of our favorite family-friendly restaurants in the neighborhood.

Want to take a day trip without leaving Manhattan? Head to Waterside Plaza, a secluded neighborhood with a playground, an indoor play space and stunning East River views.

Our biweekly news post included info on a FREE intergenerational playwriting workshop for teens, the scoop on the brand-new Lego Store coming to the Flatiron District and a new parenting confession website

If you weren't able to snag a spot to our sold-out coding for kids workshops coming up this weekend, don't worry: We found 10 computer programming classes and camps for children in NYC.

This week's WeeWork projects included an easy recipe for homemade butter and how to make a cool bottle rocket.

Think your baby is too young for the theater? Think again. We profiled five shows aimed at extremely young audiences—even infants.

Best bets for the weekend include FREE Comic Book Day, Holi, the Festival of Colors and a bunch of bouncy house-filled spring fairs.