This Week: Countdown to Halloween, MoMA's Art Lab: People, Fabulous Free Weekend Events

10/18/12 - By Raven Snook

As you can see from the photo of my daughter in full Nightmare Before Christmas regalia, we're ready for Halloween in our house! We're ready for it on the Mommy Poppins sites, too. This week, we rounded up free family-friendly Halloween parades in NYC, do-it-yourself Halloween decorations and accessories, haunted houses in New Jersey and Halloween train rides in Connecticut. Be sure to check out our Halloween Guides for NYC, New Jersey and Connecticut for a truly terrifying amount of seasonal activities.

Of course Halloween isn't the only scary thing on our mind: We're also all obsessed with the upcoming election. Our Boston site shared a wonderful post about teaching your kids about voting. Regardless of which candidate you support, it's important to involve your kids in the process so that when they grow up, they become voters, too.

In other big news this week, Mommy Poppins is getting our own ice cream flavor! And we want you to help us choose what it will be. Our friends at Malu, which is one of our top places to have dessert in Long Island City, are considering five different flavors and you can vote for your favorite on our Facebook page. Make it sweet!

Here's what else we covered on our NYC site this week:

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Two cool new exhibits opened that have lots of kid appeal. The Children's Museum of the Arts unveiled The RAMMELLZEE Galaxseum, which chronicles the wild, sci-fi-meets-street world of NYC-based graffiti and hip-hop artist RAMMELLZEE. Meanwhile, the Museum of Modern Art opened Art Lab: People, a hands-on studio where kids can make sculptures, puppets, digital and analog art inspired by the human body.

We added two new posts to our Halloween Fun Guide: A roundup of free kid-friendly Halloween parades and tips on how to throw an at-home Halloween party in a small apartment.

Looking to boost your kids' math skills? Then check out our favorite educational math apps, many of which are FREE.

Our biweekly links roundup included details on youth circus auditions, changes to the G&T test and the return of Harry Potter: The Exhibition.

One of NYC's top family theaters, the New Victory, kicked off its new season with Urban, a unique and gritty circus show that we just loved.

In honor of Adopt-a-Shelter-Dog Month, we shared ways to adopt a dog or cat for your family.

Best bets for the weekend include a host of harvest festivals, tons of Halloween celebrations and the opening of the Children's Museum of Manhattan's Grinch's Holiday Workshop.