There is only so much time you can spend at the beach this summer... and when you are looking for a day of instant fun, just head to one of the many fun (and often FREE) kid-friendly festivals across New Jersey.  Who can pass up a day helping determine the best ice cream in New Jersey?  Have you ever seen a dog ride a motorcycle at the county fair?  You will be amazed at the wide variety of chickens that exist in NJ at the NJ State Fair's animal exhibits, while you kids croon over the newly hatched chicks.  And you never know, you may have a champion sand-castle builder in your household! 

We love exploring neighborhoods with our toddler.  It gives you a whole new view of NYC. My 1-and-a-half-year-old and I have been exploring every square inch from Columbus Circle up to 100th Street, coming up with itineraries in 10-block stretches for parents and toddlers. We recenly posted about 10 toddler-friendly spots in the West 60s and this week we've dug up 10 cool finds in the West 70's.

Find out what to do, where to eat and how to have fun on the Upper West Side with your tyke in tow:

Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Also called Midsummer, (as in Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night's Eve), the summer solstice has been celebrated around the world since neolithic times with traditions that are now a mix of Pagan and Christian rituals.

When I was a kid there used to be a Summer Solstice Celebration in Riverside Park that we attended every year which involved staying up all night long making music. It was one of the quirky, artsy things that I was lucky to experience growing up in NYC.

Today there are slightly less out there ways to celebrate the Solstice that still capture the sense of freedom, revelry, and hapenstance of those magical celebrations and truly are only in NYC events and are the types of cool events that your children will remember for the rest of their lives.

June mainly means two things to many parents: Father's Day and the end of the school year. And that means gifts for teachers and dad and sometimes yearbooks and, ugh, what to do with all the priceless artwork that comes home from your child's classroom. Whew. It's a lot.

One thing that won't make your life easier (we're not going to lie to you), but may make it nicer is digital photo book services that let you make great gifts and memory books from your photos, children's artworks or writing. The great thing about photo books is they slide neatly onto a shelf, meaning those piles of artwork and great memories can be easily accessed and shared without creating clutter, something teachers appreciate as much as you do.

Here are some places to make great books including a place you can do it right here in person in NYC. And we've got discount codes too!

This weekend is Father’s Day so Dad is the man of the hour.  It is really important to make sure you do just the right thing with him this weekend (even if that means lounging on the couch!)  We have written about some fun home made gifts to make like barbecue sauce, books and clay handprints as well as the perfect activity in the city for each kind of dad and even places to dine on Fathers’s Day.

This weekend NYC’s neighborhood parks are teeming with live music and theater, not to mention carnivals, parades, fishing, bike racing and craft making.  Plus some of your children’s favorite television personalities can be found trolling the city this weekend.  There is a cool dinosaur event at the main NY public library, an awesome bike pareade in Queens and free concert at the Scholastic Store. And don’t forget that Saturday is the annual Mermaid Parade in Coney Island.

No matter what you do have a great weekend and Happy Father’s Day to all our amazing Dads.

Lots of places in New York City are celebrating Father’s Day with special discounts, deals and freebies. Now it is Dad’s turn to score a deal. Read on to find out how to have a Frugal Father’s Day in the Big Apple.

Sadly, Scribble Press closed its doors on Father's Day 2013. You can now enjoy bookmaking Scribble Press-style at the Upper West Side Make Meaning. Have you been to Scribble Press yet?  It is a brand spanking new drop in creative arts space that just opened on the Upper East Side. What makes Scribble Press so different from the many other drop in art places is that this is the only one in the city where kids can make a book from start to finish which is then professionally bound and printed on site.  The books are beautiful and would make a terrific gift for Father's Day. (My photo doesn't do the finished product any justice.)

The possibilities for creativity are endless at Scribble Press - read on to find out more:

There are hundreds of public playgrounds in NYC and if you spend as much time as I do at yours, the same one can get old quick. Checking out fabulous playgrounds in other neighborhoods can be a great stop off on any excursion to a different part of the city, or it can be a terrific outing in and of itself. We've got the goods on the destination playgrounds all over New York City that are subway-worthy and worth the schlep and we will be bringing them to you all summer.