Here we are halfway through October. Are your costumes ready? Halloween is just around the corner, and there are several spooky activities to check out this week. The Los Angeles Public Library continues its exploration of Homer’s Odyssey with many events for kids, teens, and adults in multiple locations across the city. On Tuesday stay home or go out, but be sure to take a few minutes to “Read for the Record” – Jumpstart’s annual promotion of child literacy. The book selected for this year’s event is Rosemary Wells’ Bunny Cakes. Siblings Max and Ruby have different ideas about Grandma’s birthday cake; Ruby wants buttercream frosting and roses, but for Max it’s all about the red hot marshmallow squirters. For these and other fun weekday ideas, read on...

Who says all of the dress up fun has to end with the humans in your family? Let Fido in on the Halloween action with these pet-friendly costume contests and barkfests so that all of the members of your family can have a howling good time this season.

For more Halloween fun on Long Island, visit our Halloween Fun Guide.

New Jersey schools are closed November 6th and 7th for the annual New Jersey Education Association convention. Still have to work and wondering what to do with the kids for the day? Or just hoping to keep them occupied? We’ve got the skinny on ten fabulous camps and programs for NJ kids, whether they’re artsy, outdoorsy or athletic. And if you're planning to take the day off too, visit our NJ Staycation post to find lots of fun ideas for local adventures.

As a child, it never occurred to me that the picnics my family often went on in an old Dutch cemetery were anything but trips to the park. We’d have sandwiches, walk around the ancient stones trying to read the inscriptions (Literacy!), figure out how old the stones were (Math!) while collecting fallen leaves and acorns from the enormous old trees that shaded the small graveyard (Science!).

Now, with the year turning towards the heart of autumn—and, of course, Halloween—people become interested in the ghostly tales of those who lived here before us. For a unique spin on the ghoulishness of late night (or midday) cemetery visit, consider checking out these local and historic cemetery tours.

Our family loves biking but doesn't live in a neighborhood with sidewalks.  In fact, the road is very busy and would be dangerous on two wheels. Because of that, we travel from home to bike and get out and nature and explore. It can be boring going to the same place over and over again, so, If you're like us, you might like to see Mommy Poppins' list of family friendly bike rides in and around Hartford.

Want to hear something scary? For the next two weeks, you're going to hear a lot about Halloween—and I don't mean from us. The kids are talking about it nonstop! My daughter has already changed her costume idea three times. That's her in the pic at New York Comic Con last weekend, doing a dry run dressed up as a Beanie Boo, but who knows what she'll actually be on October 31.

All of our sites, including our brand-new Philly outpost, have jam-packed Halloween Guides, so you can find fearsome family-friendly fun in Westchester, New Jersey, on Long Island and beyond. This week in NYC, we updated a bunch of our popular annual Halloween posts including costume parades for kids and dogs.

Of course right after Halloween, the holiday season kicks off, and that's a time when we here at Mommy Poppins like to find ways to give back to our community. This year, we decided to start a little early by hosting a virtual food drive through Feeding America. Currently, one in five children in the U.S. doesn't get enough to eat on a regular basis, an upsetting statistic, especially when $1 can help feed eight people! Please consider donating to our drive.

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