With the arrival of some warm weather, it’s pretty safe to say that spring is (finally!) upon us. If you haven’t ventured outside yet, this weekend is the perfect time to head over to the Essex County Cherry Blossom Festival or check out Daffodil Day at the Reeves-Reed Arboretum. Indoor fun includes Pinkalicious the Musical or the latest performance from the Milk & Cookies Children’s Theatre. Read on for our top picks and find a listing of all NJ activities in our Event Calendar.

Our month-long focus on Midtown West continues with a look at some of the culturally diverse restaurants you'll find on Ninth Avenue. While we've covered other places to eat with kids in the neighborhood in the past—notably family-friendly eateries near hot spots Times Square and Rockefeller Center—a stroll down Ninth Avenue can feel like taking a trip around the world. Unlike other foodie strips that focus on a specific ethnicity (see Chinatown, the Bronx's Little Italy and Little Tokyo in the East Village), Ninth Avenue is filled with eclectic eateries—there's a reason it hosts NYC's annual International Food Festival every spring.

No children's menus or chicken fingers at these spots. Instead, Ninth Avenue is a great place to introduce your brood to delicacies from Thailand, Greece, Turkey, Brazil and others—way more options than we could ever list here. Our top picks are all casual and kid-friendly, and located on a 12-block strip. You could even grab takeout from a few of them and throw your own international family food fest in nearby Hell's Kitchen Park.

Ugh.  Here I was trying to think of a fantastic spring day trip to take with my nearly ten year old and where does she ask to go? THE MALL!!!!.  The birthplace of bad spending habits and teenage attitudes.  Bastion of bad taste and fast food.  Anywhere, I said to my teeny bopper, anywhere but the mall.

Naturally, the more I argued against it, the more my pre-teen daughter wanted that trip to the mall.  Fast forward several arguments and a battle of wills, and we found a brilliant – brilliant!- alternative … South Norwalk’s SoNo Marketplace.  

This new, dare I say hip, market is a converted old warehouse in South Norwalk, and its more than 40 vendors offer gourmet food, gifts, clothing, art and toys.  The vendors are largely located in stalls throughout the space, and there are great indoor and outdoor spaces for dining and relaxing.   

When you have four kids like I do, eating out can be more of a chore than just staying in and cooking. A "kid-friendly" restaurant isn't going to cut it; we need a place where our brood will be truly engaged. That's why I'm always on the lookout for interactive restaurant experiences so eating out feels like a fun activity, not just another meal.

In the past, we've covered New York City restaurants where kids can play and eateries with family entertainment. But there are also a handful of local restaurants that offer make-your-own-food activities. My family has tried a few of them, and they're worth seeking out. Where else can you encourage your kids to play with their food and mean it?

Walking into the Big Apple Circus was like taking a giant step back into my childhood. The aromatic mixture of popcorn, costume makeup, manure, and hay will do it to you every time. We took our two-year-old to the 4:30pm showing under the Big Top in Government Center. When we approached the entrance, I thought to myself how lucky Bostonians are to have this opportunity right in the middle of their city. The circuses of my childhood were all out in no man’s land. We had to trudge through fields of mud for what seemed like miles. With no shoes. (OK, that part isn’t true.)