Due to terrible damage sustained during Hurricane Sandy, the NYC Police Museum's Old Slip building is closed. However, you can still see some of its exhibits in its temporary 45 Wall Street space. When my (very) soon-to-be-six year old son entered the new, hands on, Junior Officers Discovery Zone at the NYC Police Museum, his reaction wasn’t quite what I expected.  As we walked down the ramp leading to the new children’s area he said “uh oh, this place looks like it’s for toddlers”.  I told him that we should go in and check it out anyway and after about an hour I asked him if the zone was for still only for toddlers and his reply tells it all:  “No, it is for me, too!”

Find out what changed his mind about this new permanent children's exhibit about NYC Finest in lower Manhattan.

Who doesn’t love the Laura Numeroff series of “If You Give…”? Whether it’s mice at movies, pigs ingesting pancakes, or Numeroff’s latest romp with cats snarfing cupcakes and slipping on sprinkles, the books are a favorite of kids and parents alike.

As long as the sidewalks are shoveled and MTA is moving us, New York City is the place to be this winter and there is no reason to hide inside your apartment just because it is cold or snowy.  The city is brimming with lots of fun things to do, so many in fact, it was hard to pare down to the best bets for the weekend.  

The Chinese or Lunar New Year is next week and there are plenty of ways to celebrate this weekend, both the Museum of Chinese in America and The Asia Society are hosting Family Days, plus there is also Taiwanese puppetry, lantern making, Asian music and dance around town. You can share some classical music with your children at the LolliPops Meet the Composer Concert; explore green design, collage making and even look for seals.  You may want to visit the faux indoor park before it closes on Monday, or take a trip to an indoor skating rink, rock climbing gym, bowling alley or a new play space.

This weekend finds our events calendar packed - so be sure to check it out - we have theater, dance, music, magic and a ton of story times listed.  Read on to plan your weekend and we hope you have a great one.

A great way to get a feel for a camp is to visit it in person. Whether you're thinking about day camp here in NYC or in the country, or especially sleep away camp, there's no better way to check it out than to meet the people and see the facilities first-hand. Many camps will let you visit any time, but some have special open house dates where you can get a tour and maybe even try out some of the activities for yourself. We've collected a bunch of upcoming open house dates, but if you don't see the camp you're interested in listed here, just give them a call and ask when you can visit. And if you can't get out of the city just now, check out the Camp Fairs being held by New York Family starting this weekend, on Saturday in Manhattan, or in Brooklyn on Sunday.

Check out our Camp Guide for more ideas on cool summer camps around NYC.

There's just so much freaking cool stuff going on all the time in NYC and if I wasn't so busy staring in disbelief at all the snow I would write up each of these things separately, but as it is I have a lot of ironic tweeting and facebooking to do about how unbelievable this winter has been. Who has time to blog?

Seriously though, read on because there's a bunch of really neat things that you want to know about from free swimming and ice skating to a play that offers babysitting as well as theater. Plus s'mores, hot cocoa, a baby and me lunch deal and more.

Winter, snow, and ice may not be my idea of fun, but when you add the word "festival" after them I may just change my mind! This weekend New Jersey brings you two winter fests with ice-cold entertainment like live ice-sculpting and dog sled demonstrations that is balanced off by warming events like a chili cook off, a pancake breakfast, and tons of indoor fun for kids like a puppet show and a Frosty the Snowman musical. Harold and the Purple Crayon is playing on-stage at NJPAC. Older kids can brave the outdoors trying their hand at snowshoeing or searching for bald eagles. Finally, the Morris Museum has a fun "heart art" art project that is free with museum admission.

If you haven’t noticed, my son loves anything and everything to do with animals and because of this obsession, I mean, passion of his, we spend a lot of time at the zoo. Thankfully, the zoos in New York City aren’t just full of animals, they also offer fantastic enrichment programs for kids and families.  In the past 6 years my son has attended camp, workshops and classes at one zoo or another and has even had his birthday party there.  Last year, for his fifth birthday, we gave him the absolute ultimate birthday gift for a zoo-loving boy, the opportunity to sleepover at The Bronx Zoo. He went with my husband and they both had such an awesome time that what we thought of as a “once in a lifetime” experience will likely become an annual tradition for all three of us.

Read on to get a look at their great time at the Family Overnight Safari at The Bronx Zoo and sign up for your own today!

As much as we love getting out and enjoying all the fun indoor activities of NYC, when the temperatures are this cold it's also nice to spend a cozy day at home playing around the house. But cozy can go crazy very quickly if you are not well stocked with things to do. And the perfect thing to have on hand, especially for apartment dwellers, in my opinion, is activity books.

Here are my favorite boredom busting activity books for boys and girls. These also make terrific birthday party gifts or long distance travel sanity savers.