In 2008, I read about Gustafer Yellowgold on this very site and was instantly intrigued; I kept it on my short list and waited for the show to come back to town.  Last year my son and I were lucky enough to finally catch the awesome live show (for free no less) in a NYC public library and we were both carried away into the musical animated fantasyland created by the singer/songwriter/artist Morgan Taylor.  Gustafer Yellowgold is back with a brand new show, Gustafer Yellowgold’s Infinity Sock that is enchanting NYC for the next few weeks before heading out on a national tour.  

If you have seen Gustafer before make sure to catch up on his exciting new adventures, and if you haven’t read on to find out what you have been missing!

During the entire month of March, the New Jersey Theater Alliance offers The Stages Festival, an opportunity for young people to enjoy free theater performances, classes and workshops. That also happens to include Family Week at the Theater, which launches this week with FREE (or deeply discounted) fun events for kids. The website has a great search engine so you can find performances based upon your county and the ages of your kids. Here are some of our favorite picks:

You may have known that we had pages for New Jersey and Long Island already. In fact, we even do weekend round ups of activities for those areas, but the sites were not as complete as the New York City site. Well, we're working to correct that and, at the same time, we've added Connecticut to the fold. Now there are 4 Mommy Poppins sites, each with its own event calendar, newsletter and all the features you love about the NYC site.

Some of the sites are a work in progress, but we will be working hard to keep the event calendars full and start adding guides for classes, camps and parties, like we have on the NYC site. Shari is our New Jersey Editor and Marybeth is our Connecticut Editor. Feel free to shoot them tips and comments. We are still looking for a Long island editor if you know of anyone, have them email me.

In order to accommodate the new sites we did a mild redesign. Let me introduce you to our new features:

Look at us! Our own site now, instead of just a page! Fancy, huh? As editor of the “Jersey” version of the popular NYC Mommy P, I wanted to show you around the site a bit. Virtually, of course. Not that I wouldn’t like to come over for cawfee and a donut, but then who would be trying all the activities that the Garden State has to offer and giving you the scoop?

I don’t know where that famous lion from the old weather fable is but the lamb is certainly here, just in time for the weekend, too.  As it is the first of the month there are some awesome free “first” weekend events at many of the cities museums.  One of them is The Brooklyn Museum and families may want to make a beeline to the new Tipi exhibit where they will be offering some pretty cool family programming for free.  The awesome and uber creative Material Lab at MOMA has weekend hours and there are also just a few seats left to the final Broadway Playhouse series of the season this Saturday, where they will be showing off the best of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt.  In addition, this weekend is the annual Armory Show, and they haven’t left out the kids, find out more below the fold.

Maple sugaring is the perfect way to celebrate the season and you don’t have to drive to Vermont to do it, not too far out of town you can visit the Nature Place Day Camp and The Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, both will be tapping their trees this weekend.  You could also be a pinball wizard and take a fun family day trip to the Silverball Museum Arcade in Asbury Park.  

Read on for our best bets for the weekend and be sure to check out the Mommy Poppins Events Calendar for more great weekend events.  Have a great weekend.  

Spring is officially on its way, I know this, because there are sap buckets on the trees. Sap buckets! The true sign that warm days are headed our way. Until then we've got some great events for you here that celebrate the snow, like ice skating and nature night hikes as well as indoor fun, like circus and dance performances. And of course, the sweet stuff, maple sugaring fun. Have a great weekend.

Bring out the beads, masks and music–it’s Mardi Gras Weekend!  No masks? No worries! Make your own at one of the cool events we’ve corralled. Or if you’re ready to get outside and mix it up instead, there’s parks to be cleaned, arboretums to be explored and mountains to be hiked.  If relaxing entertainment is more your thing, take in some classic cartoons, science films or a touching play this weekend.  With the whirlwind of activities, March is certainly coming in like a lion, not a lamb!

In my former life, I sat in on a lot of focus groups for moms and I can say with pretty good authority that one of the top fantasies of most moms is to have a personal chef. Face it, no matter how much you love cooking, making dinner for a family (not to mention lunches and breakfasts) is downright exhausting. Just thinking about what to make every night for the next 18 years is enough to make me start to shake.  

Kate's Carried Away is an in-home, Cordon Bleu trained personal chef who plans your menu, does the shopping, and then comes to your home, prepares 7-8 dishes for you for the week that you just reheat and have dinner on the table any night. Carried Away will customize your family's menu for your tastes and can make all type of dishes that you like, working within any dietary restrictions necessary.

Cheaper than having someone come to your home every day and healthier than take out, Carried Aways services might make sense for some families who don't regularly have time to cook. It is also a great idea for a baby shower gift, a Mother's Day or birthday treat, or for sudden emergencies, like extended business travel. [Or because you got it for 58% off from Poppins Perks. Read to the bottom to find out more.]