Boston certainly offers a plethora of family-friendly dining options around the city.  After writing about family-friendly dining in two very specific areas for Mommy Poppins, Charlestown and Fort Point I was asked, "What does Family-Friendly actually mean?".  I told them the answer was two-fold: 1.) No annoyed looks from the hostess, waiters, and patrons when you ask for a highchair and a kid's menu and 2.) The restaurant actually offers highchairs and kids' menus.  But I recently learned the term “family-friendly” can mean so much more.  Enter Aura’s Fine Dining Family Style concept, where you don’t have to give up your discerning palette OR eat at the speed of lighting to keep up with your constantly moving child. 

Aura takes the term “Family-Friendly Dining” to a whole new level, offering kids plenty of opportunities for fun. They provide movies, toys, crafts, and games -  with help from a representative from The Kid's Place in Needham.

Sorry, rest of LA, but the Westside is putting y'all to shame this weekend. The "there's-no-other-way-to-describe-it-besides awesome"  Glow returns to Santa Monica after a three year hiatus, with one-of-a-kind art installations that will blow your mind with the power of light and sound. But don't get too carried away because the next day is the Abbot Kinney Fest, the mile-long street fair and community festival that features a jam-packed KidsQuad, beer gardens for the over 21s, non-stop live music on two stages, local artisans, gourmet food, and approximately 150,000 of your friends and neighbors.

Sure, Hollywood is putting its money where your mouth is, with the Feast of San Gennaro, as Jimmy Kimmel leads the way to some fine Italian feasting and festivity-ing. Plus Disney Junior's Pirate & Princess Adventure makes its enchanted way to the Dolby Theatre, home of the Academy Awards. Are Jake and Sofia soon to find themselves some Oscar gold? Not if Hook gets to it first!

And then there's Moorpark's own Underwood Farms, ushering in autumn with its Fall Harvest Festival, arguably the most talked about pumpkin destination of the season. And Watts has the Day of the Drum, for some serious percussion action. Mustn't forget Costa Mesa's Orange County Children's Book Festival, only the largest children's book festival ...in the country.

Okay, okay, I guess there are some worthy activities to be found in all corners of the Southland this weekend. (Did I mention the garage sale being thrown by the entire city of Santa Monica?)

Keep reading for some of our favorite picks for the weekend, both on the Westside and elsewhere…

This is another one of those weekends when we wish we had the ability to clone ourselves: Three of our favorite FREE annual festivals are all happening at once. There's the super-interactive Dumbo Arts Festival, Brooklyn's largest street fair Atlantic Antic and Fort Tryon Park's Medieval Festival—and those are just our top picks.

Other FREE highlights include sneak peeks at Staten Island's in-progress Freshkills Park and Governors Island's redesigned parkland. Plus: no-cost admission to a host of NYC cultural institutions courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine's annual Museum Day and a big community block party in Battery Park City.

These are just a few of the great things going on this weekend. All of our best bets are below. You can find additional options in our Event Calendar and our Fall Fun Guide.

It’s already the last weekend in September and now’s the time to jump right in and enjoy some awesome fall weather and activities, if you haven’t already! Learn all about autumn animals at the Cora Hartshorn Arboretum’s Fall Festival, make your own family scarecrow at Leonard J. Buck Garden or kick back to some music and browse arts & crafts at the Hoboken Arts & Music Festival. And remember, you can find a full list of weekend activities in our Event Calendar.

So far this month, we've told you about the best museum exhibits for kids and family theater shows debuting this autumn. Now we wrap up our fall culture preview with a roundup of the top 12 kindie rock concerts to catch this season.

Sadly, due to the closing of 92YTribeca last summer, one of our favorite family music series, Bring Your Own Kids, is no more. But don't start singing the blues yet: There are still plenty of cool kids' groups playing NYC this fall, including Grammy nominee Justin Roberts, history-loving crooner Lloyd Miller of the Deedle Deedle Dees and bouncy bilingual band Moona Luna. Bonus: Most of the shows are inexpensive or FREE. In fact eight of our picks don't cost a penny. So put on your dancing shoes and shake your booty at a dozen super-fun family concerts this fall.

Local mom and “Outdoors with Kids Boston” guidebook author, Kim Foley MacKinnon, shares her best family outing tips and picks with you as part of our guest blog series with the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Kids Outdoors Boston free online community.

Lion, tigers and bears are all well and good, but sometimes all kids want to do is play like Old MacDonald and hang out with cows, pigs, and sheep. It makes sense, when you think about it: after all, among the first sounds and words we teach kids are moo, oink and baa. Countless books and songs feature life on the farm. Here are some great spots around New England to visit when the call of the barnyard beckons.

Discovering your child's food allergies can be a frightening experience—whether the reaction is anaphylaxis, projectile vomiting, hives, eczema, or asthma. You will visit doctors, get prescriptions, change your child's diet (and probably that of the whole family as well), work out new recipes and snacks, and finally get in the groove with a system. But every food allergy parent is faced with two situations that must be managed carefully: birthday parties and school. How can you keep your child safe? The severity of a child's allergy is key to the steps you take; but even a non-life-threatening allergy can result in missed school, doctor visits, medications, and embarrassment for your child—all of which you want to avoid.

Just like other Disney properties—errr, princesses before her, Ariel is taking a second swim around the cineplex. However, the current rerelease of The Little Mermaid has a controversial high-tech hook. Subtitled Second Screen Live, it's a two-screen moviegoing experience. You download an app to your iPad that syncs up to the flick and encourages you to engage in a variety of games and activities, from trivia to mazes to sing-alongs.

In parenting circles, the knee-jerk reaction to this concept seems to be overwhelmingly negative. And I get why. As conscientious moms and dads, we're always looking to cut down on our kids' screen time. Also, using mobile devices during movies is pretty much despised by everyone (except for all those rude people who do it! I'm sure you know one or ten). Plus, Second Screen Live is clearly another attempt by Disney to wring even more money out of its already super-lucrative franchises.

But as the mom of an eight-year-old who exclaimed, "That was awesome!" after a recent Little Mermaid Second Screen Live screening, I've got to tell you, I felt the same way. It was like Rocky Horror for families with a digital twist. (As you can see from the photo, my daughter even dressed up.) And since it's very interactive and requires kids to read directions and complete challenges, it's much more stimulating than your average cinema outing.