“The time for action has arrived…”

Museum, guided tour, interactive exhibit, historical re-enactment - you could describe the Tea Party Ships and Museum as any of these, but in reality, it’s actually all of these. Many years in the re-building, the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum opens on June 26 on the Congress Street Bridge, just around the corner from the Children’s Museum.

We recently had the opportunity to tour this new Boston attraction and have to admit that we were were impressed by the quality, care and attention to detail that has gone in to the project.

Radio City Music Hall is known for hosting huge spectacles on its football-stadium-size stage. And Cirque du Soleil is known for its enchantingly beautiful performances. Put them together and you get Zarkana, a visually stunning extravaganza of epic proportions.

[UPDATED 5/22/2013]

Wow…summer is here with a vengeance!  90 degrees for the second day running means this family is beach bound.  I’ve put together some of the beaches we’ll be hitting this summer.

Jennings Beach, Fairfield, CT
This large beautiful beach offers a lot of amenities: an adjacent playground, skate park, as well as on site concessions and bathrooms.  You will need a sticker for entry or ($15/weekdays, $25/weekends).  Best to come early!

880 South Benson Road, Fairfield, CT 06824

Connecticut will be celebrating with a variety of Independence Day events and activities this season. You can find plenty of fireworks displays on the 4th of July and beyond within the Hartford County area. Dress yourself in some red, white and blue and show your patriotism by checking out one of the following fun events! Note that some celebrations are as early as June 29th.

If you live in my neighborhood, you know the 4th of July is around the bend -- not because there are flags and bunting everywhere, but because the fireworks have already started.  Practice makes perfect, I reckon.  I prefer to leave my pyrotechnics to the professionals (... and unfortunately, out of earshot thanks to a skittish 4-year-old), and this year, several cities and towns will celebrate Independence Day with a skyward spectacle.  Some locations go full blast with the patriotism, adding food, music, picnicking and more to the mix.  Why not make a day of it?!

Summer break, summer heat, summer camp—summer is all anyone's talking about. This week on our NYC site, we added a bunch of new posts to our Summer Fun Guide, including info on where to watch Macy's 4th of July Fireworks, a roundup of free boating programs and a list of family-friendly restaurants with outdoor seating. We also launched our first-ever NYC Kids Visitors Guide, so tourists can get to know our city the way we do (although even if you're a native, we suspect there are still things for you to discover).

On our New Jersey site, the summer fun continued with a roundup of water parks (including Sahara Sam's, which we're running a deal on) and a post about the best spots to watch those Macy's sparklers from across the Hudson. Our Long Island site also has a roundup of amusement parks that make for great day trips. If you're planning to head to Cape Cod this summer, our Travel site has a list of 25 things to do in Wellfleet.

Here's what else we shared this week on our NYC site.

In addition to our regular posts about activities, we try to keep parents informed about topics that impact the lives of NYC families. Now, on top of our biweekly roundup of news links, keep an eye out for posts about relevant news pieces a few times a week.

Our first installment touches on the hot-button topic of PTA fund-raising. A recent New York Times article investigated the budgets of some PTAs that raise surprising amounts of money. It's not a simple issue. Read on to find out what they're earning and both sides of the story.