Aaaaah, spring is in the air! It’s like the entire world is waking up from a long winter’s nap and is ready to party. You and your family can join in on the fun with these festivals, fairs, and special events located around Fairfield County this season.  If all that fresh air has awakened your sense of wanderlust, make sure you hop over to Westchester and check out some of their Spring Festivals  too!

My family and I love books, and luckily for us, Boston is a great city for bookish fans. Both libraries and bookstores appear among the top 100 Things to Do with Boston Kids Before They Grow Up, and there's no debating the wonderful options for book lovers in the Boston area. With children's bookstores from Faneuil Hall to Harvard Square to farther afield, families can keep even the youngest of readers happy at any of these fantastic spots.

Got a little gamer on your hands? Broaden his or her Minecraft world of neat row houses and green trees with these camps and classes offered by professionals. And the kids don't even have to know they might learn a little math in the process! For more classes on Long Island, visit our Classes & Enrichment Guide.

Extreme Kids & Crew, a mom-founded nonprofit, just opened its third NYC sensory gym for children with disabilities and its first outpost in Queens. We've visited its Brooklyn play spaces in Crown Heights and Red Hook in the past, so we were excited to see its latest, Ridgewood Space, in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens, which straddles Brooklyn and is often touted as the next hot NYC nabe.

The goal of the Brooklyn-based nonprofit is to provide supportive spaces for children with disabilities and their families to play and connect. The new Ridgewood spot is located in P.S. 71 elementary school, and offers places to swing, slide, build and just chill out. The bubble machine particularly caught our eye.

The borough seems to be adding more and more indoor play spaces for kids, including Sabrina's and Shastye last year, and we're happy to welcome Extreme Kids & Crew to the fold. Read on for our full review.

Tea time is an opportunity for moms and children of all ages to enjoy a few relaxing moments together. Whether it's for a special occasion, a child's tea party birthday or a traditional tea and scone, here are five places to try, each with its own unique style.   

May is right around the corner, so don your sombrero, dust off that marimba and head out for some Cinco de Mayo family fun! There’s music to dance to, food and drink to consume, monarch butterfly celebrations and more. With all this activity, your kids may enjoy a relaxing siesta while you mix up that margarita you so richly deserve. For even more seasonal fun, check out our list of 25 things we can't wait to do with kids this spring in NJ.

Activities based on engineering principals offer a great way for kids to learn art, science, technology and concepts of literacy, while also strengthening fine motor, critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork skills. That’s the thinking behind STEM-based schools, like our sponsor BASIS Independent Brooklyn, which starts teaching engineering in its PreK classes. But learning engineering principles can happen at home, too, and BASIS Independent Brooklyn teachers have shared some of their favorite engineering-based activities from their preschool and K-4 classrooms to try with your family.

"With increased screen time in PreK-12 environments, there is a growing and important movement to build in time for actual 3D play into children's days," says Hadley Ruggles, head of school at Basis Independent Brooklyn. "Not only is engineering important for asking larger questions about the world around you, but it keeps important parts of kids' brains and bodies active." So challenge yourselves with these fun engineering activities, perfect for your preschoolers and older kids, too.

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind-the-scenes of your favorite animated films? Now's your chance to find out at the Franklin Institute's The Science Behind Pixar exhibit. See how Finding Nemo, Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monster's Inc. and more were created. From concept, to design, creation and the finished product this exhibit offers insight on even the most minute details of the process.