The financial collapse, unemployment, war...hey, put all that nonsense away and give yourself a few minutes of smiles with our new feature: Friday Afternoon Video Break.

Let me know if this is a feature you'd like to keep and If you have a video to recommend, email me.

Our first entry comes from Katia who says:

So much going on with valentines Day, Presidents Day plus the February Break Vacation Week. I'm dividing the events into separate posts. This one has the best activities just for this weekend. Check out a sword dance festival, a disco dance party, valentines day crafts, movies, a winter festival and more, all free. Click on the links for more information about events and locations.

Do you twitter? Have you figured out what it is or how to make it useful? That's something I've been wondering myself and think we might have come up with one answer: to create a cool tool that will update NYC families with the hottest, most up to the minute news of what's going on in New York for kids.  

Twitter is like "micro-blogging". You can update the world with any news you want to share as long as you can say it in 140 characters or less. Then everyone who is "following" you can see what you've said on their computers or mobile devices.

Now, I'm not a big social media person...I'm actually not a big social person. I don't chit chat, the art of small talk is lost on me and I don't really care what you had for breakfast, so, while I have the obligatory Twitter account, I have been waiting to figure out something cool to do with it before I really decided to use it.

So Karen from A Child Grows in Brooklyn and I put our head's together and figured out how we could use twitter to create a crowdsourcing tool (doesn't that sound cool?) that will let all of us get the word out to other NYC parents about the latest news for kids in New York.

Say hi to KidBuzzNY, The Inside Scoop Written by You. It's our twitter group that will let all of us spread the word about the latest and greatest for kids in New York.

Want a fun outing that your kids will REALLY love? How about a tour of some of the best candy stores in New York City? The Lower East Side is chock full of unique and fun candy stores and you can hit them all in one day for a super treat on Valentines Day or any day you want to be the bestest parent EVER! Find your inner child, turn off that parenting voice and have fun going crazy for candy with your kids, if only for one day.

Before we get to the links, I want to announce the winner of our Valentine's Day Giveaway. Alysia and her family will be enjoying a sweet dinner four four delivered to their home thanks to Susie's Supper Club. Congrats!

Any family with more than one child will hear the cry “You love him/her more!” often enough to switch our parent guilt into overdrive.  Turns out, you don’t have to worry so much.  The information on that good news, as well as Google's new tool to reduce your energy bill, Macy’s Valentine’s Day snafu, the Holy Grail of giveaways, and sharing breast milk...after the clickity click click.

The other day we wrote about sharing Valentines Day with your children with a Valentines Day living room picnic dinner. In this post we're sharing an idea that lets you turn your children into the sweetest Valentine I can imagine receiving. It's a super easy project you can do in minutes using adorable vintage Valentine images and your even more adorable little sweetheart. Check it out.

How do you handle an ill-behaved, nose-picking younger brother? If anybody should know it's Edwina Spoonapple, a girl from Paw Paw Michigan who performs a musical advice column from her garage. Such is the set-up of the DR2 Kids Theater's production of Dear Edwina. The situation reminds me of my favorite Judy Blume stories from childhood and the storytelling of Dear Edwina is just as vivid and fun as those books are. Add the terrific music and you have the best of childrens' theater.

Our new 2009 Summer Camp Guide is up with over 70 New York City Day Camps, Suburban Day Camps, Sleep Away Camps, and Camp Services. Whether you're looking for a program for your preschooler for a couple of days a week, a week-long program to explore a special interest like science, the arts or a favorite sport, looking to stay in the city, or bus them out for some country air every day, or even a great sleep-away camp, we've got lots of great camps for you to choose from. Check it out.