A few posts back, this one to be exact, I mentioned that I would possibly do a post with fun things to do with kids in the city.  To my delight I had people reach out to me and say they would love to hear about things to do in the city with kids. Let me just say, thank you for reading my blog—really, thank you, I love you.  A forewarning, this post is long and has a lot of pictures (yikes, I really struggle in the picture editing department). Hopefully you get some good information.

I am pretty passionate when it comes to raising kids in or taking kids to visit the city. There are so many great things to do with them there. When people think of New York, it is easy to think of times square and you get comments like, “I can’t imagine raising my kids there.” or “That sounds like a horrible place to take kids!”  This might be true for some and I respect that.  Although, I think a lot of it has to do with knowing where to go and making a plan. There are so many amazing things the city has to offer kids. I’m going to throw out a few ideas of things you could do in a day in…

Central Park

The marble slide  + the zoo + eating at Le Pain Quotidian that is in the park close to the zoo.

The carousel + great lawn + Heckscher playground. I heard that this is Central Park’s first playground (can anyone confirm that?). It’s beautiful, awesome, and has really great rock climbing and exploring for the littles.

The sailboats are fun too—the Alice in Wonderland statue is right there.

The Central Park Mall. I love the mall because there is always something interesting there. Really great musicians, people making big bubbles for kids, art, and the kids love to just run and play. Then you have the boats + riding the boats + eating at the boathouse.

The marionette cottage is there and you can go see a puppet show.

The Jackie Onassis reservoir is beautiful and peaceful, just walking up in that area, there is also safari playground and there are a set of swings close by too in the pinetum.  You can always get a hot dog and a popsicle at one of the carts, my kids love the spider-man popsicles.

In the spring it is worth going up to the conservatory garden the blooms are just too beautiful.

The Harlem meer will sometimes have fun happenings going on.  Like a pumpkin float in October or tree lighting in December.

The MET is awesome. You can take your kids up to the roof top and get snow cones.  They also have free classes for kids down in the basement. The MET is also right by ancient playground which was a favorite of my kids.

Other Playgrounds

Hippo playground is another playground I love love love in Riverside park. It is especially great in the summer, with a ton of shade and water, my kids could play there for hours. We lived on 97 and Columbus so we would eat at the Whole Foods a lot, then Henry would ride his scooter from there to hippo playground. Scooters are the best things for kids in the city, they can get around so fast!  So if you are going buy scooters that are packable the micro scooter is our favorite and they come apart so you can pack them nicely also I love these bell helmets.  We also love Madison square park, there is a fun playground, usually, a cool art installation a shake shack and Eataly is right there too.

Museums

So many fun museums. My absolute favorite is the CMA. They have a clay bar and really great wee-art class. Also, a back room where you can always paint and they always have fun and interesting things going on for the kids.

We love the Museum of Natural History on the upper west side. They have great classes for kids downstairs. Last time we were there, George held a cockroach. He is so brave! There is also a really cool exhibit called dark universe and the butterfly conservatory is always a hit with the boys.  Also, upstairs right now there is the biggest dinosaur, he comes out of the room, the Titanosaurs, so cool, go see! In the summertime, they can play outside in the water and then shake shack is close by.

I also like the CMOM and the MOMA.  There really are so many museums, I could just do a post on that alone.

More

Follow my friend’s gorgeous feed on Instagram called FOMO she has a lot of the cool things happening in the city. In the pictures below we went to a pop-up pool they do in the summertime in Brooklyn.  It’s so much fun for the kids go!  Oh, and in Brooklyn, there is a carousel, the Brooklyn ice-cream factory and the Brooklyn kids museum. It’s also really fun to look at the skyline of Manhattan from Brooklyn.

Ok, I think I need to move back to NY. Oh, shows, take them to the Lion King if you can, the costumes are awesome.

Food

Places to eat, too many, that’s what I love about you New York.  I know I am leaving things off my list and it’s killing me a little but here we go.

Alice’s tea cup (Christmas tea & pumpkin scones),  Levain cookies, Bouchon bakery (tomato soup, grilled cheese, macaroons!),  Eataly (anything, truly it’s all good), Jacob Pickles, Parm. I also love the ABC store and the restaurant is the best, it’s a good date night place.  Also, a really fun date night is to get city bikes. Gib and I got ours in Dumbo rode across the Brooklyn bridge up to the base of Central park, it’s probably the most fun on a date I have ever had.  City Bakery hot chocolate is popular but for me, I can have two sips and I am out (it is thick and super rich). It’s definitely worth trying. Sprinkles is a favorite, especially the vending machine for cupcakes!

Ok, I just talked to my dear friend Lesley Colvin and this is her list: Serendipity for dessert plus the Roosevelt island tram while you wait for your name on the list. My kid’s love this tram too! Black Tap for yummy food and milkshakes, the Met, Washington square fountain and fun playgrounds nearby, Gantry Plaza State Park for a picnic and an amazing view of Manhattan.  Also, Lesley is an amazing photographer.  She taught me everything I know about photography and she takes amazing pictures.  Check out her Instagram and this too and her website.  If you want to book family pictures while you are there she is your women.

I love the website Mommy Poppins. They always had some of the best things happening for kids on that website.  Timeout NY kids is good too.

I am going to revise and add to this post as I think of more, because I know I am leaving a lot of things off!  Ok, thank you for reading!  If you have any suggestions or any obvious things I missed, leave them in the comments below!  Thank you.

Hope you’re having a great day.

Love, Tiffany

two last things….

What stroller do I have and love? The stroller I personally love is the bugaboo donkey, it’s the best.  It can be a double or slide into one seat. You can put a kickstand on it, it’s the best city stroller out there. I also have loved my ergo because it grows with baby. I started using mine at about 6 months (I like wraps better in the beginning).  So I could feel closer to the boys.  I know they have an infant insert for the ergo, I never really used mine.

My thoughts on these pictures.  Oh my goodness, I miss August.  This is really difficult, but I am really trying to keep moving forward for my family and always holding him in my heart.  I love the picture where his hand is behind his back.  My Dad always use to walk putting his hand behind his back just like August did, they would pump it as they walked. I miss my three boys playing together and laughing together and fighting over a toy, pulling each others hair and yes even at times biting each other. They were so feisty together and there were some days I thought, I can’t do this, this is too hard.  Do you know what I would do to go back and have those be my problems?  I want to be really present with my kids now because I know tomorrow might look completely different than today. Our little family is far from perfect, but they’re perfect to me.  It’s George and August birthday this week.  It’s going to be exciting for George.  I hope I can really celebrate George and live for August.  That’s what I keep telling myself multiple times a day.  Thanks for reading hopefully you are getting excited to take a family trip to NYC aka the best city in the world soon.  Or if your living there do a few things that you hadn’t thought of but I am pretty sure you already know!