Every winter, New York City families are faced with the same problem: How to keep the kids active when it's too cold to play outside. While your kids would probably be happy to turn your bed into a trampoline and your shelves into a jungle gym, you're desperate for better ideas. Our Indoor Activity Guide is filled with mellow inside spots like public atriums, children's bookshops and fun-filled megastores. But when your kids really want to burn off energy, you need a more active indoor destination where they can play, run around and test their limits, not your patience.

That's why we came up with this list of indoor play places in NYC where kids can get their ya-yas out. We even found spots that cater to tweens and teens. Plus, all of these places offer drop-in sessions so you don't have to commit to a class or pricey membership. From ball pits to drop-in play gyms, ice-skating to swimming to NYC's only inside skatepark, here are great ways to keep kids of all ages moving indoors in New York City.

I”ve always thought it somewhat ironic that our kids celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by taking a day off from learning.  But alas, Congress has once again failed to consult me when composing the list of federal holidays, and so school is indeed closed on Monday.  Therefore, come Monday morning, this family will honor Dr. King by happily lounging in our jammies and eating pancakes.   Not only that, we’re hoping to check out some of these great area events this MLK Jr. weekend! Just in case you are in Harford County check out these MLK events there too.

A school bus strike, a flu epidemic and no agreement over the teacher evaluation plan. Man are we ready for the three-day MLK weekend to arrive. How to celebrate and honor Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy was a hot topic across all of our sites this week, and we found lots of meaningful ways to mark the holiday (which also happens to be President Obama's inauguration day) in NYC, on Long Island, in New Jersey and Connecticut. There are even some volunteering opportunities for families.

While the snow we got in NYC earlier this week washed away in a matter of hours, our Winter Fun Guide has info on plenty of tri-state area ski and snow tubing resorts that make their own in case you're thinking of going away for the weekend. We're hoping we actually get a natural snowfall at some point this season so we can go cross-country skiing, too.

Here's what else we covered on the NYC site this week:

It's a three-day weekend, and there's lots going on to keep the kids busy. There are several shows to see this weekend, including Gustafer Yellowgold at the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre, Pinkalicious the Musical at the CM Performing Center in Oakdale, Raggedy Ann and Andy at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson, Sleeping Beauty at the Studio Theatre in Lindenhurst, and The Magic of Thaddeus at Dix Hills Performing Art Center. If nature's more your thing, check out "The Colors of Winter" at the Sherwood-Jayne Farm in Setauket, Winter Animal Tracks at the West Hills County Park, terrarium making at the Suffolk County Farm and Education Center, or the Cold Spring Fish Hatchery. There are also several events commemorating Dr. King in honor of the holiday. Check out our posts on volunteering in honor of MLK Day and commemorative events, and as always take a look at our events calendar for more great activities. Happy three-day weekend!

Ground Zero has become a must-see destination for many families visiting NYC. Making a visit to the 9/11 Memorial Museum meaningful for children may be challenging, but finding a decent place to eat nearby is even more so. Besides all the construction still under way, the neighborhood lunch spots mainly cater to office workers from the Financial District so there are a lot of fast-food chains and delis with limited seating.

If you are heading up to Tribeca afterward, you'll find many family-friendly restaurants but in the immediate vicinity of the World Trade Center site, options are a more limited. Luckily, I know the area well and can give you the inside scoop on where to look for the best inexpensive kid-friendly restaurants and eats near Ground Zero.

The three-day Martin Luther King Jr weekend that comes so early in the year is always a welcome treat, and Boston offers plenty for kids and families to do. In addition to special concerts, tributes, open houses and workshops that all pay tribute to Dr. King (highlighted in our separate post), families can visit an auto show, take in a SteveSongs concert in Brookline or Lexington, see some magic tricks with David Garrity or the Theatre of Illusions, and more. As always, you can find more things to do by visiting our Events Calendar.

This week, we begin our Summer Camps 2013 coverage with a collection of upcoming camp fairs. And Tara launches a new series that recognizes parents who make a difference in the lives of local families, with her interview with My Gym owner Ryan T. Debin. If you know a special Boston-area parent who we might consider for our Poppins Parents series, please let Tara know.

Enjoy!

All gymnasts, except one, grow up; when Cathy Rigby sings, "I'm never gonna grow up," you can take her at her word.

The Olympian reprises the role she's been reprising since 1974 in the touring production of Peter Pan that opened at the Pantages Theatre last night. And while I was excited to be sharing a little piece of theater history with my son, I was frankly unprepared for the possibility that the most believable Peter Pan I've ever seen would be played by someone's grandmother. It sounds crazy, but no mental gymnastics are required at all to accept the legendary gymnast as a 10-year-old boy for two hours; that flying granny did one of the most impressive on-stage transformations I've ever seen, treating us to the ultimate eternal boy.