April showers are over and May blooms are finally here. This weekend we're wrapping up Earth Day with a Wild Earth Fest in Mountainside and an Ar-B-Que in Short Hills. Outdoor festivals are all over the Garden State with the NJ Marathon (including kid runs) in Long Branch, Rutgers Day in New Brunswick and Piscataway, and the Hoboken Arts and Musis Festival. A sure sign of spring is that sheep shearing begins this weekend at the Cory Miller House in Westfield and the ponies are out and offering free rides at the stables in Basking Ridge. Finally, the Newark Museum and the Morris Museum both are hosting dinosaur days with fossil digs. Welcome, spring!

Fun, food and festivals describe the events and activities going on this weekend. The weather is much warmer, the sun is due to stay around for a while so why not make this a family festival weekend? From Arbor Day to May Day to a Sheep to Shawl Festival...we’ve got your weekend covered!

Do you enjoy making decisions? We hope so, because there are so many amazing activities this weekend, including highly anticipated annual favorites, you've got some tough choices ahead of you.

Festivals are the big draw. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Sakura Matsuri: Cherry Blossom Festival, the Hippo Playground Spring Fair, the Five Boro Bike Fest and a couple of better-late-than-never Earth Day celebrations are all happening this weekend. For many, the main event is the legendary Tribeca Film Festival Family Street Fair on Saturday. If you attend, make sure you drop by to say hi to the Mommy Poppins team: Our tent will be located on the west side of Greenwich Street at Jay Street.

There are also a lot of rockin' concerts this weekend, including Kindiefest, David Weinstone and Music for Aardvarks, Junior Jam and Recess Monkey. (Check out our Poppins Perk deal for half price tickets to the Junior Jam show)

Speaking of monkeys, you can also check out what's new at the city's six zoos (we're counting the Aquarium), the highlight being the Bronx Zoo's annual Animal Tales Extravaganza fest.

And if that's not enough for you, the Mommy Poppins Events Calendar is full of other options like storytimes, stage shows, exhibits and more. Whatever you end up doing, we wish you a fabulous weekend! 

After many years of attending the Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair, we've decided to join up! Mommy Poppins will be hosting a tent on Greenwich Street at Jay Street, just south of the first stage with lots of fun and big giveaways. 

What will be happening? Lots of cool stuff. Raise your heart rates with fun activities sponsored by eXerBlast, or relax in our BlastDown Zone (you know you'll need it after tromping through the fair). While there, enter for a chance to win one of our great giveaways, including four tickets to Universal Orlando. Plus you get to meet the Mommy Poppins team, and we get to meet you. Read on for details about everything we'll have going on.
 

Now that we've put away the winter coats (tentatively), thoughts of warm weather and the many, many school-less days coming are filling our heads. We hope that we can take the edge off with our New Jersey Summer Camp Guide, chock-full of choices from your basic outdoors swim-and-frolic Day Camps to budding thespian Performing Arts Camps, from cool Museum and Zoo Camps to unusual and creative Indoor Camps, and from see-ya-later-mom-and-dad Sleepaway Camps to wonderful Special Needs Camps. Dig right in and see if you can't find the perfect fit for your potential camper. And enjoy the thoughts of sunblock and watermelon, of pools and sports, of warm nights and long days and... well, you get it. Summer.

RATED P: The Musical” is the new SOPAC musical comedy exploring the wonders and lunacy of raising kids from conception to college drop-off. Starring local Broadway veterans, RATED P brings the audience on a hilarious and touching journey of both the joys and the drama of parenthood. Teresa Sellinger interviewed Sandy Rustin, the book/lyrics writer, whose own parenting experience served as the impetus for Rated P. (And keep on reading for a special giveaway for opening night tickets!)

Don't wait for summer to head to the city's zoos. Spring is the perfect time to visit. The animals are friskier in the cooler weather, and the crowds haven't yet hit.

Plus the zoos are bursting with special spring programming. Visit with new baby animals, like the goats at the Central Park Zoo and two new wallabies at the Prospect Park Zoo's recently reopened Australian Walkabout exhibit. The Bronx Zoo is throwing its fantastic Animal Tales Extravaganza festival, featuring costumed characters and other activities. The New York Aquarium just cut the kelp on its Conservation Hall exhibit, where you can marvel at amazing marine life. The Queens Zoo is hosting its first-ever sleepover and has a new Lynx on view.

And that's just a handful of the things that will make you go wild at the zoo this season.

The Connecticut mommy poppins calendar lists fun things to do each day of the week. However, we've assembled the weekend lowdown so you can get a step ahead on your social calendar. Looking for something fun and different? The 13th Annual Pawcatuck River Duck Race will be held in downtown Westerly-Pawcatuck. The Pawcatuck River will be filled with approximately 20,000 yellow rubber duckies all racing toward the finish line. In Milford, It's everything kites at the 4th annual Milford Living Kite Fly where the ConnectiKiters join in with their dazzling kites and astonishing dips and twirls at Walnut Beach.