[UPDATED: September 8, 2012]

Spend a Saturday or Sunday visiting small, family-owned farms, no car needed.  You can get back to nature without increasing your carbon footprint.  Metro-North has teamed up with Dutchess County to offer family-friendly daytrips that include stops at a sustainable agriculture farm, a kid-friendly vineyard for tours and tastings, a charming village and an apple orchard for picking and pies.  These trips are super popular with families, so the kids should have lots of company. And it's a great way for kids to gain some first-hand understanding of the farm-to-table connection. Kick back and enjoy the ride, we've got the details for you here.

This Halloween treat your trickster to something a little different than the usual holiday fare. Kids' Night on Broadway, the popular night on the Great White Way just for them, is back, and this year it’s on October 31^st.  Kids can see a free Broadway (or even Off Broadway) play, participate in special Halloween events, plus there are more fun surprises and special deals in store for ticket holders.  Read on to find out what is playing and how to get your ticket (hurry - tickets are going fast!)

Our city’s parks are humming with activity this weekend.  In Central Park visit with live birds of prey or check out the enormous Ultimate Block Party for tons of inspiring fun and games.  In Brooklyn Bridge Park build a sand castle with the playground associates or visit the Botanic Gardens for a fiery festival. Harry Potter fans won’t want to miss the awesome Medieval Festival in Fort Tryon Park! If you want to do that fall thing and want some farm fun, there are plenty of harvest festivals to check out – right here in the city!  

You can also opt for some inside activities, too, there are many to choose from in our events calendar, like the Tom Chapin or Laurie Berkner concerts. It is also the first weekend of October which means many area museums will be offering special periods of free admission - including the Children’s Museum of Manhattan – why not go see the new Wizard of Oz exhibit?

Read on to plan your weekend and we hope it's a great one.

So similar and yet so different… NJ has two tea parties (American Girl and Grandma and Granddaughter) and two ‘stock' events this weekend, not to mention a fitness fair, a self-portrait painting workshop for kids and something marvy called The Ultimate Block Party, which just might make a trip into the Big Apple necessary. Good times, folks, good times…

With fall upon us, I am experiencing seasonal sensory recall and craving candy apples, candy corn and Halloween candy (basically all things candy!). Where better than to embrace all these cravings and more than by attending, one, many, or all of the awesome Fall Harvest Festivals going on here in Westchester. Brisk cool suburban air, scenery and foliage that will have you filling up photo cards faster than you can say “Trick or Treat”.

If the kids are experiencing “museum burnout” from too many weekends dragging (or strollering) around one of NYC’s famed museums, don’t worry, you don’t have to write off these trips just yet.  Instead, plan your visits to take advantage of the many educator led programs our museums have to offer.  These programs can provide a deeper understanding of the subject matter and an enriching experience for kids (and adults) or just help make the same old museum look new again. Last week we wrote about all the cool ancillary programs for families and kids at New York City’s art museums and today we are bringing you the “rest” of them: science, nature, design and history.  Read on to find out more:

We went to World Maker Faire this weekend and it was a blast. Tons of craft activities, science experiments, and weird stuff to look at for both kids and adults alike. Some of the highlights were making marshmallow guns out of pvc piping, the Life-Sized Game of Mousetrap, the coke and mentos rocket demo, free knitting and crocheting lessons, and much much more. I put together this 2 minute video of the highlights of our day.

Fall is more than just back to school and Halloween; it is the start of a brand new theater season in New York City--and not just for the adults. Thanks to a host of actors, musicians, puppeteers and storytellers kids have lots of great theater in this town. Most live shows for kids are about one hour in length, designed just for them and much more affordable than the Great White Way.  Live family theater is a perfect way to engage their young minds--and we are blessed with a lot of it. We happily took on the task of wading through the many, many shows being produced this fall to bring you what we think you and your gang will really enjoy.  Read on for our highlights of the fall 2010 Children’s Theater Season.