It’s holiday picture time. You’re bundling up the crew and heading out to take the annual shot to be sent ‘round the world (or at least to your cousin Courtney in San Antonio). Sure, you could trek to Rockefeller Center and pose in front of the most famous Christmas tree in the world, or line the kids up in front of Macy's gorgeous windows. But why not do something a little different this year? We rounded up a few places you may not have thought of (yet), as well as some off-the-beaten-path locales where you can say, “Fruitcake!”

Got tots obsessed with Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Then they'll love getting a chance to see the creatures up close at the Central Park Zoo's soon-to-open bear habitat. Plus, we've got the scoop on a new enrichment center for kids on the Lower East Side, the closing of one of our favorite East Village family eateries and the sad news that the Bronx's only ice-skating spot, the Van Cortlandt Park rink, won't be open this season. All that and more in this edition of our biweekly news post.

There's nothing like being outside on a crisp fall day, and Connecticut provides plenty of opportunities with apple picking, pumpkin patching, and corn mazes. But what happens when you've done all that and you still feel that icy breath of the approaching winter urging you to get outside while you still can?

Sometimes you need a little extra structure to get you outdoors, and we've uncovered some terrific programs designed to make it just a little bit easier to get the whole family to put their iEverythings aside and enjoy the day. Here are some of our favorites in Fairfield County:

Orange County has some great and well-known museums for kids, including the Discovery Cube in Santa Ana and the La Habra Children's Museum. But OC also has a number of small and low-cost museums that are also great for kids, and more manageable for parents. Just as we offered 8 Small and Low Cost LA Museums, here are 8 Small and Low Cost Museums in the OC.

In between hayrides to pumpkin patches, Halloween-themed events, and other fun, fall activities, this is my favorite time of year to bike -- warm enough so that you don’t need gloves, cool enough not to melt into a sweaty mess. A bonus is the beautiful foliage you will take in on most of these rides. Now that my oldest daughter has shed her training wheels and mastered her two-wheeler, we are ready to venture out of the neighborhood and try an adventure on a scenic bike path. Listed below are some options for a family friendly bike ride in the Hartford area, depending on how skilled your child is. 

There’s been lots going on here at Mommy Poppins. This month, we completely upgraded our back end, and moved to a server that can better handle our growing site traffic. While we're still working out some bugs (thanks to those of you who alerted us to any issues you noticed), that didn't stop us from launching our newest site: Mommy Poppins Philadelphia. So tell all your Philly friends!

If you’ve been reading this site for any length of time during the last eight years we’ve been around, you know how hard we work to share carefully curated activity ideas with local families. Although we are a technology-based publication, we are not a start-up. Our goal is not to grow big fast and sell out. We love what we do and want to keep doing it. Over the past few years, we’ve added New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut, Boston and Los Angeles to our original NYC home base. We also started a Family Travel site a few years back featuring city guides and destination reviews all over the world.

The launch of Mommy Poppins Philadelphia is unique for us in that it marks the first time we are expanding by teaming up with an existing site. The family activity site, Playground Buzz, is joining the Mommy Poppins family to become Mommy Poppins Philadelphia. This partnership means we start off with a full directory of businesses and activities, a jam-packed calendar and an experienced team to run the site. We are thrilled to have Lori, Kristen and Amy from Playground Buzz with us now.

Mommy Poppins Philly will be just like all of our other sites with an Event Calendar, a Directory and editorial coverage. We will add our regular guides as we create more content (the Halloween Guide is already up and running). You can also sign up for the Mommy Poppins Philadelphia weekly activities newsletter.

If you're looking to shop local this Halloween season, there are some stores around Long Island that offer costumes, props, accessories, make up and much more. From glitter to gore, these shops will have what you're searching for this season.

For more holiday fun, check out our Long Island Halloween Guide.