The weekend for all things pumpkin is upon us. Pick a pumpkin, decorate a pumpkin, watch an animated show about pumpkins or look at carved pumpkins. And don't forget to check out our Long Island Halloween Guide.

If you're holding off on the Halloween fanfare this weekend, check out a LEGO exhibit in Stony Brook, the Oyster Festival in Oyster Bay or bring Frido to the Nassau Barkfest at Eisenhower Park.

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Welcome to Mommy Poppins. Click here to go directly our virtual food drive.

Confronted with the statistic that one out of every five children in the U.S. is food insecure, a friend expressed incredulity. "How can that be true? I don’t know a single person like that.” That's the tricky thing about hunger today. Not only has the demographic of who suffers from hunger changed, it's a problem happening right under our noses without us realizing it.

Sometimes situations that lead to food insecurity are complicated. And, let’s face it, people don't introduce themselves by saying, “By the way, I don’t have enough money to feed my children” unless they are panhandling on the street. I speak from experience because I was food insecure as a child, and most of the people around me had no idea, outside of one English teacher who frequently bought me a bagel for lunch if I hadn't eaten that day.

That’s why I’m proud to sponsor Unilever Project Sunlight, a program that brings awareness to the issue of hunger in America and encourages supporters to Share A Meal to fight childhood hunger. I hope you’ll consider joining me in our virtual food drive. Our goal is to raise $1500 through Feeding America, and if we reach it, Mommy Poppins will double the amount by adding an additional $1500 donation.

A lot is happening in the world of cinema this weekend in Westchester: the YoFi Fest - Yonkers Film Festival is a weekend-long cinematic sensation, which includes special activities just for kids. In the spirit of Halloween, you can introduce your kids to old-school movies at Cartoon Cereal Party: Halloween Edition and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

The Halloween fun is on the rise this weekend with the addition of Jay Ghoul's House of Curiosities, plus the continuation of The Legend Behind the 'Legend', Horseman's Hollow, Scared by the Sound and Lasdon Park Halloween Haunted House & Train Show (see also our guide to local haunted houses). Many of the ticketed events sell out early, so be sure to pounce on anything you’re dying to do!

The much-anticipated Westchester Children’s Museum is hosting Explore-a-Thon, a big FREE event on Saturday that will surely whet your appetite for when it officially opens in Rye. Also on Saturday are two appealing performances, both in different veins: John Tartaglia's ImaginOcean and Oktoberfest of Music: A Night in Germany. For a different spin on Oktoberfest, try ARToberfest earlier in the day.

Sunday is a big day for fall festivals: There’s Sheldrake's Annual Fall Festival, Autumn Celebration, the Bronxville Children's Halloween Festival and Halloween Carnival and Ragamuffin Parade (see also our roundup of other ragamuffin parades happening in our area).

Believe it or not, that’s not all! Read on for our top weekend picks, visit our Event Calendar and check out our October Go List for our top picks for the rest of the month!

As always, there are lots of activities to keep families busy in Boston this weekend. Pumpkin fans can carve their own and take it to the Frog Pond for the Pumpkin Festival or head down to Providence for the Jack-o-Lantern Spectacular to view thousands of amazing pumpkins. If you are looking for a performance this weekend, the Wheelock Family Theatre is performing Alice, the Puppet Showplace Theatre presents Little Red Rosie and the Dragon of Dumm, AIDA opens at the Strand Theater, and Ben Rudnick and Friends (pictured) are playing at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

Parents can learn more about sleep issues with daylight savings time or raising multi-lingual children at workshops this weekend. In education this weekend, the Fayerweather School has an open house for its pre-K to 8th grade program.

Also on Mommy Poppins this week:

• Want to know more about the Jack-o-Lantern Spectacular? We've got highlights and tips for taking the kids as part of our month-long look at Providence. Keep your eye out for upcoming posts about Water Fire and the re-opening of the Culinary Arts Museum.
• Mommy Poppins Philadelphia launched this week. It is a great resource for families visiting the Philly area as well as those who live there. 
• What's better than Halloween fun for Boston families? Free Halloween fun!
• If you're thinking about taking the kids to see Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, read Raven's film review first.
• Ally shows us how to make a Fall Leaf Crown as part of our Wee Work series.

For more Boston events in sports, arts, sciences, and more, be sure to check the events calendar. I hope you enjoy the weekend!

Someone file a name change because Philadelphia is about to become the city of Motherly love. That's right, Mommy Poppins is setting up shop in the town William Penn founded. I'm looking forward to cheesesteaks and soft pretzels and runs up the steps of the Art Museum. But that crack in the Liberty Bell? We had nothing to do with it, nothing, you hear? (We were being careful!)

Of course, the real excitement is in our little hometown (which is, for the record, bigger than Philadelphia, not that we're bragging). This weekend we can explore the communities that make LA great, with the Found: LA Festival of Neighborhoods, the Sherman Oaks Street Fair, Taste of Soul LA, the Mar Vista Community Fall Festival; Fall/Harvest/Pumpkin/Halloween festivals at Underwood Farms, the Original Farmers Market, Kidspace, Descanso Gardens, Calabasas, the LA Zoo, Shadow Hills Equestrian Center, and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium - to name a few.

The Read for the Record fun starts this weekend, with high octane readers like Josh Duhamel and kid-favorite locations like Lakeshore Learning. LeVar Burton boldly goes where no one has gone before...scratch that, where a lot of people have gone (the Santa Monica Library), but dudes, he's Geordi, Kunta Kinte, and the Reading Rainbow guy! If you're looking for a theatrical experience, we've got a mouse with no tail, a hungry caterpillar (so hungry it'll take him two days to eat through the Southland), a tree-planting man, a princess with a pea and a newly clad emperor, and a silent Joan of Arc (with choral accompaniment).

And Dan Zanes, pretty much our all-time favorite kids' performer, makes a rare LA appearance for two shows at the Wallis.  Catch that train, Philadelphia!

Keep reading for our favorite picks for the weekend...

Cooler temperatures, falling leaves and front lawns spotted with pumpkins are all indications of this delightful time of year known as autumn. Another sure sign of the season is the Mommy Poppins calendar jam packed with festivals, hayrides and pumpkin patches. Just this weekend, None Such Farm in Buckingham, Linvilla Orchards in Media and Shady Brook Farms in Yardley all host their fall festivals and events.

If your kids want to try out their Halloween costumes before the "Big Day," Saturday's Skippack's Halloween Parade could be the perfect venue. Or put on those costumes and head to Philadelphia Zoo's Boo at the Zoo. 

On the other hand, if you have had enough of the pumpkins, scarecrows, apples and hayrides to fill your entire treat bucket to the top, escape to one of the consignment sales going on this weekend.

We have some weekend highlights below, but be sure to browse our complete event calendar for even more family fun ideas. Sign up for our newsletter as well and have our weekly roundup delivered right to your inbox.

If I’m not hosting Thanksgiving dinner or visiting extended family and friends, cooking a big feast seems completely unnecessary to me. I’d rather go out for dinner and be thankful that someone else is doing the cooking and cleaning.

If you're thinking about dining out for Thanksgiving, here are four Boston restaurants serving Thanksgiving dinners that are both kid-friendly and budget-friendly. Plus, if you want to go all out this Thanksgiving, I’ve included an elegant (but also kid-friendly) Thanksgiving brunch that sounds hard to resist. 

They're here! Halloween and Day of the Dead celebrations abound this weekend, as do some of our favorite annual harvest festivals. Hit Madison Square Park for its activity-packed Fall Kids Fest, dress up your dog for Staten Island's Pooch Parade or go on a spooky procession at El Museo del Barrio's Día de los Muertos party.

If you're already suffering from Halloween fatigue (or just want to save those costumes for the 31st), there's some cool culture on tap as well, like Cirque Alfonse's lumberjack-themed spectacle Timber!, a concert by Grammy-nominated kids' crooner Raffi, a musicalization of popular children's book series Ivy + Bean and an animation-themed Chuck Jones Family Day at the Museum of the Moving Image.

All of our best bets for the weekend are below. You can find additional options in our Event Calendar and our Halloween Fun Guide.