Maureen Wilkey

Latest posts by Maureen

Why Your NYC Kid Will Drag You To the New Hershey's Chocolate World

Submitted by Maureen Wilkey on Fri, 12/22/2017 - 10:02am

Kids like candy. It's a fact I deal with on a daily basis. I counteract it with lots of activity and as much good food as my 5- and 10-year-olds will tolerate. But here's something they don't know. I like candy, too. So when the assignment hit my inbox to visit and review the brand-new Hershey's store, it was an easy decision. I'd even brave Times Square for it!

Read on to find out the good, the bad, and the ugly of our trip to the middle of the city in search of massive amounts of chocolate.

Hex & Co. Is a Board Game Lover's Paradise for NYC Kids

Submitted by Maureen Wilkey on Tue, 12/12/2017 - 11:15am

If screen time is getting to be too big of a battle at your place, head out to get back to the old-school gaming model: board games. Hex & Co. recently opened on the upper Upper West Side (Columbia area) and is serving up more than 1,000 board games, from classics to new pop-culture hits, to give your family a chance to sit down, grab a bite to eat, and, you know, talk and make eye contact with one another.

Hex & Co. joins outer borough favorites, Brooklyn Strategist, Brooklyn Game Lab, and The Geekery in Astoria, Queens for classic family fun. (More on this later.) Read our review and get all the details on the fun new spot below.

Roosevelt Island's Music and Play Station: Where Kids Groove

Submitted by Maureen Wilkey on Wed, 11/08/2017 - 10:35am

I'll never knock a good play space. Give my kids a ball pit, some climbing structures, foam blocks, and a clean area (maybe that's just for me)...and we're there. There are definitely neighborhoods overflowing with them—you could easily do a Brooklyn play space crawl, spending most of your time in Park Slope—so that's why I was excited to hear about a new one popping up on Roosevelt Island, the arts-and-movement-centered The Music & Play Station. The owners, Owen and Bridget Johnston, were gracious enough to give me the lowdown on the new space and what parents and kids can expect when they visit. Read on for more info.

An FAO Schwarz Holiday Pop-Up Shop Opens in Bergdorf

Submitted by Maureen Wilkey on Wed, 11/01/2017 - 10:47am

The holidays are a delicate balance of memory-making experiences for the family (ice skating and hot chocolate, The NYBG Train Show, checking out massive holiday lights displays, and hitting up Santaland), but also playing Santa himself and hunting/gathering gifts and spreading holiday cheer without going nuts. I might have found the nexus of these two things when I visited the new FAO Schwatz pop-up shop within Midtown Manhattan's Bergdorf Goodman.

Read on to get all the details and to decide whether to add a trip with (or without!) the kids to your to-do list over the next two months.

Paw Patrol and Olaf Among Macy's New Thanksgiving Parade Balloons

Submitted by Maureen Wilkey on Thu, 10/26/2017 - 4:15pm

The countdown to Thanksgiving is in full swing and that means the NYC Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is looming large on the streets of Midtown Manhattan. We've got insider tips for where to watch the parade and how to manage the crowds at the balloon inflation, but now we're sharing a sneak peek at the four new additions set to join the 91st annual parade on Thursday, November 23, for the very first time.

Read on to meet the cast of (new) characters.

Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical Is Perfect for Times Like These

Submitted by Maureen Wilkey on Thu, 09/21/2017 - 11:06am

You know how, as a parent, you can explain a concept dozens of times, but until a kid sees it for themselves, they don't really get it? When the topic of discrimination comes up (if it hasn't already), don't bother trying to define it. Just take your children to Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical.

The bright set, costumes, and hair/makeup (blue skin! purple skin! rainbow hair!), as well as the characters' electric personalities will draw kids in immediately, while the 55-minute performance takes a complicated topic and puts it through a kid-friendly lens—without dumbing it down or simplifying it too much.

Read on for our full review, or check out our NYC Theater Guide for more family shows playing now.

AMC Returns Favorite Disney Princess Movies to Theaters

Submitted by Maureen Wilkey on Tue, 08/29/2017 - 11:05am

Disney and AMC Theatres have joined forces to return some of the most popular princess-themed movies of years past to the theater this fall, including the original Beauty and the Beast from (gasp) 1991, and slightly more recent faves like the fiery, bow-and-arrow wielding redhead from Brave (2012).

If you have a gown-loving, but rambunctious little kid in your life, she or he may already know these flicks inside and out, but they were probably too young to catch them on the big screen. Tickets are already on sale for this princess movie fest featuring a diverse set of heroines, which will play in September and October at select AMC theaters across the country, so grab them while you can.

Read on for more info on how you can catch these six fairy tale heroes this fall.

Big Holiday News! Toys R Us (Briefly) Returns To Times Square

Submitted by Maureen Wilkey on Fri, 08/11/2017 - 1:35pm

If you're still lamenting the fact that Toys "R" Us left a giant Ferris-wheel-sized hole in Times Square for the past two years, you can get excited again because...it's returning! Well, at least for the holiday season. The big-box toy brand is opening a 35,000-square-foot, three-floor location at 42nd street and Broadway, beginning Saturday, August 26 at 9am, and running through the holiday season. (I guess "just in time for the holidays" means different things to different people.)

The three-story pop-up shop is full of new and classic buys for the little ones on your holiday list, but it's offering more than just a shopping trip.