As the temperatures start to drop and families settle in to the new school year, fun events for families shift from hot dogs and ice cream to apples and pumpkins. So what’s in store for this weekend?

Festivals! You can have your fill of some half dozen of them in Westchester and the Hudson Valley, including the SOWE Music Festival, Armonk Cider & Donut Festival and the Hudson Valley Apple Festival. But equally noteworthy are the cultural performances with an international flair—namely Circus Latino and Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats.

Ready for more? Read on—then continue to our Events Calendar for even more great options. Craving even more fall festivals? We’ve rounded up our top finds for Westchester and the Hudson Valley so you can see them in one place.

This weekend is the perfect opportunity to bridge the gap between summer and fall. Take advantage of the warm days and slightly cooler evenings with some early autumn outdoor fun: check out the Classic Car & Truck Show at the Tuckerton Seaport, lace up up your boots for a Night Campfire & Hike at Tenafly Nature Center or pick some juicy ripe apples and take a hay ride during Alstede Farms Fall Family Days. For more late September activities to keep the gang busy, head to an early Oktoberfest at Crystal Springs Resort or the much-loved Princeton Children’s Book Festival hosted by the Princeton Library. Whatever you decide to do this weekend, we hope you enjoy it with family and friends. For even more activity options, check out our Event Calendar .

When we were invited by the Roger Williams Park Zoo to attend the annual Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, I was delighted—but when something is billed as “spectacular,” I am always at least a little bit skeptical. As it turns out, the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular lives up to its name. More than just a collection of carved pumpkins, it is a curated show of highly skilled and imaginative artwork, with a soundtrack to boot.

My family has long had an annual Halloween tradition of attending a zoo event during the daytime; now that my kids are older and are starting to outgrow Zoo Howl and Boo at the Zoo, maybe the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular will become our new Halloween zoo tradition.

Keep reading for highlights from the show and tips for getting the most out of the experience—perhaps it will become your family's new tradition, too. Editor's note: This is a past review of the annual Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular; this year, guests can travel through time and visit with dinosaurs, explore the ice age, and peek into the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Rome.

The Philadelphia area is a hub for the arts and sciences for kids and grown-ups alike. Not only do the city’s museums provide a great opportunity for educational fun, they also provide relief from inclement weather during any season. The Academy of Natural Sciences is one such venue. I brought my family for a visit during one of the hottest months of the year, and it was certainly worth the drive from the suburbs.

Fall is upon us and Westchester is blooming with new facilities that cater to families and a slew of new class options for all ages. Even established facilities are sprouting up with novel course offerings. Not sure where to start? We've rounded up new clsses throughout Westchester, to help keep you in the know. 

While some are traditional offerings like music and painting, we've also found an eclectic assortment including toy design, special-needs yoga and gaga. Several options are even tailored to infants as young as three weeks!

Read on to learn more about these and other new classes for kids in Westchester this fall! Also consult our Event Calendar for additional class options that don’t require a multi-week commitment.

Autumn marks the start of a new theater season, but you don't need to shell out big bucks on Broadway shows to give your kids a memorable live entertainment experience in NYC. This fall, preschoolers will go gaga for engaging, page-to-stage adaptations of some of their favorite picture books like Goodnight Moon, The Velveteen Rabbit and Click, Clack, Moo, while school-age children can catch a show about the American Revolution, an avant-garde lineup of shorts and kid-friendly Shakespeare. There are even a pair of productions specifically created for children on the autism spectrum. Best of all, 10 of our picks are $20 or less per ticket.

New York City offers near limitless things for kids to do from some of the best children’s museums and theater options in the world to our libraries, parks and playgrounds. Even locals get overwhelmed with the amount to do here each day and weekend. So we've put together the ultimate one-day itinerary for a family trip to NYC, making sure you take in all the top kid-friendly sights and activities, including Central Park, Times Square and the American Museum of Natural History.

This ultimate NYC family bucket list is designed to be fun for kids of pretty much any age, but we think school-age children will likely get the most out of it. It offers park and food breaks along the way, and could easily be stretched over a weekend or done at a slower pace for toddlers and preschoolers. Read on for your very best day in NYC ever, and check out the Mommy Poppins Visitor's Guide for more tips on the best kid sights and things to do in Manhattan, as well as Brooklyn, Queens and elsewhere around the city.

Fall brings school, the harvest and, for New Yorkers, lots of cool new culture. Our city's world-class museums are debuting the latest exhibits, and we've rounded up seven that sound particularly engaging for kids. Some are interactive, others are eye-popping but all make for enriching family outings. Even the more grown-up exhibitions cater to younger children with complementary hands-on workshops.