It's Mother's Day this weekend!  Head on over to the Mother’s Day Dinner at the Long Island Aquarium & Exhibition Center in Riverhead for a delicious meal, followed by time to enjoy the aquarium. At the Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery & Aquarium: free admission for moms. Mother's Day At Old Westbury Gardens in Old Westbury is the perfect place to honor mom on her special day, as well as all women, who will receive a complimentary lavender plant. A Mother's Day All You Can Eat Pizza Party is taking place at United Skates of America in Seaford, where you can skate and enjoy unlimited pizza and soda.  Also on tap: St. Mary's Church Family Festival at St. Mary's Church in East Islip, and a Spring Fair at Harbes Family Farm & Vineyard in Mattituck.  As always, check out our events calendar every day for fun activities for the family! Long Island is home to many beautiful parks so please be sure to check out our articles on Suffolk County Parks and Nassau County Parks. Also be sure to check out our article on Great Bike Trails on Long Island.

I don’t like grocery shopping—it's one of my least favorite chores. I usually leave the supermarket feeling like I’ve spent too much money and questioning the quality of my purchases. While I've been slowly making the move to organic food, the prices at big-chain organic retailers can be dizzying plus I'd really like to shop locally. So I started looking into alternative options.

In the past, we've written about joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture groups), shopping at the city's greenmarkets and even growing your own indoor vegetable garden. But you can also consider joining a local food cooperative. There are a number of food coops in New York City (and not just the famous one in Park Slope, either). While currently all food coops are located in Manhattan and Brooklyn, there are efforts to start additional ones in other boroughs. We've got the scoop on how to find and join a NYC food coop, and how your family and your community can benefit.

Mother's Day is the big subject on all of our sites this week. In NYC, we've got Mother's Day brunch suggestions and fun family activities on Sunday and even a few ideas about how to celebrate the holiday without the kids. Since my mother and my mother-in-law live in the city and we always end up at their respective homes, I often forget that Mother's Day is about me, too. This year I'm going to make sure I enjoy myself—and I hope all you moms out there do the same!

We launched two great giveaways this week on the NYC site. First up, we're giving away 100 tickets to the massive New York Baby Show on Saturday, May 18-Sunday May 19 in Midtown West. Right now the odds are pretty good to win! And if you're planning on visiting Long Island's East End this summer, you'll want to check out our brand-new Hamptons and North Fork Family Guide and sign up for our soon-to-launch newsletter. If you subscribe to our Hamptons and North Fork newsletter before Tuesday, May 21, you'll automatically be entered to win one of a host of awesome local prizes, including gift certificates to Dockers Waterside and Studio Art, and tennis lessons at Sportime Quogue.

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

Happy Mother’s Day!

We’re all about Mother’s Day in Boston this week, with a full calendar of special events that kids and families can do together. With events like the One Family Music Festival on Sunday, plus the Watch City Festival, Lilac Sunday and the Duckling Day Parade, families can find plenty of things to do. Read on for weekend highlights, and see our Events Calendar for more events.

Our Mother’s Day weekend coverage continued this week with some ideas for Mother’s Day day trips. We also cover spring Farmers Markets and have rounded up a few great places to have your adventurous child's outdoor birthday party.

We also want to know: What’s your child’s favorite thing about Boston? Is it a diner in your neighborhood? The Frog Pond? How about the Boston Fire Museum? Email us a photo or drawing, and we’ll feature it in our slideshow at the One Family Music Festival this Sunday! Imagine your child’s face when she sees her drawing or photo up on the big screen! If you need some inspiration, check out our 100 Things to Do in Boston with Kids Before They Grow Up.

Enjoy!

You may have already realized this, but I’ll just come out and say it anyway: We want your family to be at the One Family Music Festival. Moms, we get that it’s Mother’s Day, we really do. But the music festival starts at noon, leaving plenty of time in the morning for brunch, whether it’s homemade or chef made. Plus, what better way to celebrate being a mom than to get together with other families, rock out with Boston’s best kids’ bands, reclaim the city for our kids, and do something good for the community?

This is your guide to the festival. There’s lots going on and free stuff galore, and we don’t want you to miss a thing. Read on for the who, what, when, where, and why of the One Family Music Festival. 

Whether Long Island's East End is your go-to getaway spot or just your dream vacation, our new Hamptons and North Fork Family Guide has everything you need to get the most out of your visit this summer. And since we want everyone to be able to experience Long Island's slice of heaven, not only will our guide feature affordable family-friendly activities, day trip ideas and indoor activities, if you sign up for our soon-to-launch Hamptons and North Fork newsletter, you'll automatically be entered to win awesome prizes so you can enjoy a little bit of the beach yourself.

If you need a simple activity as the weather warms up but before swim lessons start, look no further than your own town station. A fun and family-friendly (and wallet-friendly) trip in between a staycation and a vacation, is a traincation! Here are four towns, Summit, Chatham, Madison and Morristown along the Midtown Direct to Penn Station, and some great walkable activities. Ditch your car and shout it with us, “All-aboard!”

This is the eighth year that I am celebrating Mother's Day as a mother in addition to celebrating it as a daughter.  Raising my two children these past eight years has brought me joy, pride and yes, sometimes frustration, and has changed me as a person forever. I've also grown to understand and appreciate my own mother in ways that I never could have before having children of my own.