Yesterday, the lovely people at NY Family Magazine gave Mommy Poppins a terrific shout out. So if you are new to the site because of that, welcome. You've come at a great time because we just happen to be doing a giveaway today.

Before we get to the giveaway, I'd like to give newcomers a brief introduction to the site. Besides our Summer Fun Guide and Free Activity a Day for every single day of the summer, our mos popular post is A NYC Kids' Life List: 100 Things to Do with Your Kids in NYC Before they Grow Up. To dig deeper into the site use our search function at the top of the page or scroll down to the categories on the left. And as my readers know, you can always email me if you have a question or are looking for something in particular.

To find out more about our site and some of it's regular content, take a look at our about page. And if you like what you see, you might want to subscribe to our free email updates. 

By the way, for my readers who are looking for preschools this year, NY Family has put together a truly impressive panel of experts for a preschool admissions seminar. Get more info in our events calendar.

But without further ado, let's get to the giveaway. Shea went to see this play, Exit Cuckoo, and here's what she thought:

We have been getting lots of great tips from readers in our in box and in the comment section of the site. It's been hard for me to keep up with it all on top of our regular posting. Some of them I've been able to slip into regular posts, but the tips are all too good to let go, so this week and next week I set aside some days that I am going to be posting the great ideas for things to do with kids in New York that you have been sharing.

If you have some tips you'd like to share with us please send them to me.

Thanks to Sharon Kleinhandler, Tricia Gillespie and Neeta Vallab for these tips:

I just returned from the BlogHer conference, where approximately 1000 bloggers descended on San Francisco to meet, learn, discuss and recreate blogging. Although I have very little stamina for conferences and was BlogHurting pretty bad by Saturday, I had a great time and was really pleased to finally meet some of the fantastic bloggers that I have been reading, emailing, trading posts with and linking to for the last couple years, but had never so much as spoken to before.

I also had the opportunity to become acquainted with many new bloggers and blogs that I had never read before. This week, instead of our usual linkin' b'logs, I thought I would share some of the wonderful blogs that I read or will start reading now that I know about them. These are some of todays' best writers, who share their intimate, passionate, unique and truthful takes on parenting.

The Ciao Bella Gelato Mobile will be in New York over the next week, giving out free scoops of gelato and sorbet, beginning with the Park Avenue Summerfest this weekend. The flavor options are: Tahitian vanilla gelato, pistachio gelato, maple ginger snap gelato, blood orange sorbet, blackberry cabernet sorbet and coconut sorbet. Yum.

You'll find the gelato mobile at the Park Avenue Summerfest on Saturday July 12th between 17^th and 23^rd streets, from 11am-6 pm.

On Tuesday, July 15th, you get a second chance at the Flatiron Chefs event when the truck will be parked on Madison and 24th from 5:30 to 8:30pm.

And then in Tribeca on Friday, 7/18 at the Civic Community Day Fair from 11am-6pm (Murray Street from Broadway to Church Streets).

The truck will also be at the following locations in New Jersey:

It sounds like a lot of you are sticking around for the summer and it was great to read all the interesting ideas people have for what they will do this summer in the city. Sounds pretty chill to me actually. Lots of just cruising around the city. I like Neeta's suggestion of letting the kids play in the rain.

I was recently thinking how much I used to enjoy that and how my kids have never had the opportunity to do it. I was actually just telling my son how we used to play in rain storms in the city. We used to build paper boats and launch them in the gutter and watch them float down toward the sewer. It sounds absurd now, but that was NYC in the 70s.

I loved the city after the rain because it looked so clean (the rain washed the litter and grim away) and also you'd see rainbows in the streets made by oil residue in the gutters. Again, not sure why we don't see those any more. Maybe the oils used in cars has changed.

But I digress. What you really want to know is not what a street urchin I was as a child, but whether you will soon be riding the shark boat past those Waterfalls. So here are our winners:

We've been having a lot of problems with our emails lately. I know that the subscription form was not working for a couple of weeks. So if you tried to subscribe and never got any emails, I'm sorry. We just switched to a new email program and the subscribe by email form is fixed. If you had trouble subscribing in the past or have not been receiving emails, please try to subscribe again. And if you have any problems please feel free to email me at: mommy@mommypoppins.com .

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You read our post about free outdoor movie series this summer, but there are also some regular indoor movies in theaters that kids can see for free or for just $1.

The top tip for this weekend is the Governor's Island Figment 28 Festival , an incredible sounding three-day outdoor art festival with just a wild array of really fun sounding events for adults and kids.

Bring your bikes, your picnics and all your senses for a unique outdoor art experience. Hop on the free 15 minute ferry ride and it's as though you've arrived in the Berkshires at the other end, with the picturesque environment and wonderful art festival that feels a world away from NYC. I think we'll be sorry if we miss this one.

Figment 2008 Kid-Friendly highlights: