Welcome to the brand new Mommy Poppins Philadelphia! Mommy Poppins and Playground Buzz have teamed up to bring you the best of Philadelphia for families. We have just made the site live today, and we are so excited to share all the fun stuff going on this fall. October means our calendar is bursting with fun things to do! There is never a lack of Fall activities in the Philly area, from apple picking and harvest festivals to corn mazes and Halloween parades. 

Take a look around the site at all the great features Mommy Poppins Philadelphia has to offer:

• A robust activity directory with advanced search features.
• A event calendar with helpful details such as age recommendations, costs and location filters.
• Frequent editorial posts describing activity ideas, reviews, places to play, local news for families, plus crafts, recipes and more.
• Classes, party, camp and seasonal guides to come soon. Visitors can check out our Halloween and Consignment Sale guides now.
• An easy to use submission form where family-friendly businesses can upload events to our calendar.
• A weekly activity newsletter delivered to your inbox every Thursday with top picks for the weekend. If you are not on our email list, be sure to subscribe here.

Make sure to check out some of this weekend's event highlights below. You can see all the events listed in our event calendar. And if you aren't already signed up, click to subscribe to get our weekly activities recommendations right in your in-box. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween! This is truly my favorite time of year (old Goth habits die hard). In many ways, I think it's even more magical for families than the holidays. That gloriously ghoulish pic is from Red Hook, Brooklyn, which just happens to be our neighborhood of the month. Looks like a great trick-or-treating destination!

Of course, Halloween was a major theme across all our sites including the brand-new Mommy Poppins Philadelphia. With the long Columbus Day weekend coming up, it's worth browsing all of our regional sites for seasonal day trip inspiration like Halloween trains in New Jersey, corn mazes near Philly, haunted houses in Westchester and pumpkin picking throughout the tri-state area.

In addition to having lots of family fun this three-day weekend, don't forget to enter the lottery for FREE fall swimming lessons courtesy of the NYC Parks Department. And speaking of water, our Los Angeles site has a wonderful list of ten easy ways to save water inspired, sadly, by California's ongoing drought. Even though we're not suffering from one here in the northeast, these ideas help parents teach kids about the importance of conservation, no matter where you live.

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

Fall is here with gorgeous, crisp weather and changing leaves. It's the perfect time of year to take your family on a hike. Hiking is a great weekend activity, especially if you've already picked your pumpkins and want to do something else before it gets too chilly outside. Fairfield County has something for everyone, including countless miles of hiking trails. Whether you're looking for an easy, flat loop or a challenging hike to the top of a ridge, you'll find it here. No matter what, enjoy the fall, unplug the kids, get outside and take a hike!

While my friends who still find time to read grown-up books argue over the merits of the film version of Gone Girl, I've been worried about a completely different page-to-screen adaptation: Disney's live-action take on Judith Viorst's 1972 kids' classic Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (PG). I know from experience that sweet and slim picture books often become stale and bloated family movies. Yet my nine-year-old still insists on seeing pretty much every one of them, especially when they're based on a beloved book like Alexander, which she read so many times its spine finally gave out.

But though the title is tailor-made for bad reviews, Alexander is far from terrible, horrible and all those other negative adjectives. The film cleverly expands on the premise and moral of the book—that we all have bad days—by making every member of Alexander's family suffer the same kind of rotten luck and humiliation he usually does. My daughter and I laughed out loud several times during the brisk 80-minute movie, though often at different things. And looking around the New York International Children's Film Festival preview screening we attended, most families seemed to have a similar experience. The kids were particularly enthusiastic about the movie—afterward, a bunch of them shared their hilarious reactions on video.

Look to the stars, baby!  It’s a truly astronomical weekend in Los Angeles. First we had another one of those blood moon things, (which I’m told was lovely but, you know, late. Momma needs sleep). Then we had all sorts of executive visits (both presidential and vice). I didn’t actually see those either, though I may have heard them (helicopters and Tea Party rants). But I tell you what I wouldn’t miss for all the world: the return of the JPL Open House. Science, dudes! Rockets! Spacecraft! 

If the only star you need to see is your own beaming baby, you might want to check out LA Parent’s cover kids contest. If you can’t say Star without Wars, you can join fellow readers at Barnes and Noble or fellow bricklayers at Toys R Us. The Music Center is the star of its own festivities, as is Marina del Rey.

And as any child will tell you, the real star of October is Halloween.  The trains, mazes, and spook-fests have begun. You have two more weekends to get your spook spirits up, before the most hallowed eve arrives. And possibly the Great Pumpkin.

Keep reading for our most out of this world picks for the weekend...

If you're anything like me, you don't know your aperture from your autofocus. So the holiday season is the perfect time to commission a professional family portrait. Whether your picture ends up on your wall or on your holiday card (or both), sitting for a family photo should be fun and reasonably affordable—let's face it, it's going to be a bit of a splurge unless you go to a department store.

The most stressful part about booking a family photo shoot? Figuring out where to start. There are so many photographers and portrait studios out there, especially in New York City. We've tried to help simplify your research by rounding up some of the best NYC spots specializing in child and family photography. We also included some department store options which, while less personalized, are also less expensive.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Sloboda Photography

If your little one enjoys experimenting, have them concoct a fun and educational celebration at their own hands-on science-themed birthday party. From making goo to chemistry in the kitchen, curious little minds can explore the wonders of science at these party places on Long Island.

For more birthday party ideas, be sure to check out our Long Island Party Guide.

Because we write for and about thoughtful parents, the Metropolitan Water District recently invited Mommy Poppins to an all-day seminar about the drought in California. As a native Californian, I was anxious to attend, because I vividly remember the drought in 1976-1977. Back then, restaurants were not allowed to serve water unless requested, and we barely flushed our toilets. Our mantra was “If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.” Much has changed since the 70s. For one thing, all toilets these days are low flow and consume far less water than they used to. More importantly, the MWD and other water agencies across the state have learned many lessons and as a result have greatly increased our capacity to store water from wet seasons to have it available during dry times. But what else should families be doing, and how can we help our kids to preserve their most important resource?