Raven Snook

Raven is a writer, editor, performer and mom, who was born and bred in NYC, just like her husband, her mother and now, her daughter. As a writer, she's contributed articles to New York Magazine, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, the New York Post, TV Guide, Better Homes and Gardens, iVillage, AOL TV and Moviefone, Parents.com, and worked as an in-house editor for ParentsConnect.com and TimeOutKids.com. As a performer, she's appeared on many downtown stages (sometimes even for pay!), a couple of obscure films and TV shows, and The Maury Povich Show as a female drag queen. She's also the founder of Hot Mama Burlesque, the world's only all-moms burlesque show. After being the NYC editor from March 2011-March 2015, she is now happy to just be a blogger as she pursues additional writing opportunities.

Latest posts by Raven Snook

This Week: Free Summer Sports Programs for NYC Kids, Mother's Day in NYC, New Giveaways, Mini Golf Courses

Submitted by Raven Snook on Thu, 05/09/2013 - 4:00pm

Mother's Day is the big subject on all of our sites this week. In NYC, we've got Mother's Day brunch suggestions and fun family activities on Sunday and even a few ideas about how to celebrate the holiday without the kids. Since my mother and my mother-in-law live in the city and we always end up at their respective homes, I often forget that Mother's Day is about me, too. This year I'm going to make sure I enjoy myself—and I hope all you moms out there do the same!

We launched two great giveaways this week on the NYC site. First up, we're giving away 100 tickets to the massive New York Baby Show on Saturday, May 18-Sunday May 19 in Midtown West. Right now the odds are pretty good to win! And if you're planning on visiting Long Island's East End this summer, you'll want to check out our brand-new Hamptons and North Fork Family Guide and sign up for our soon-to-launch newsletter. If you subscribe to our Hamptons and North Fork newsletter before Tuesday, May 21, you'll automatically be entered to win one of a host of awesome local prizes, including gift certificates to Dockers Waterside and Studio Art, and tennis lessons at Sportime Quogue.

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

This Week: Best May Events for NYC Kids, Mother's Day Brunch Ideas, May Festivals & Fairs, Free Comic Book Day

Submitted by Raven Snook on Thu, 05/02/2013 - 4:00pm

At Mommy Poppins we don't just inspire our readers, we inspire each other! After hearing about our founder Anna's trip to the Guggenheim's Gutai exhibit with her nine-year-old, I decided to take my seven-year-old. That's her in the pic, having a blast literally leaving her mark on a piece called "Please Draw Freely." It's a thought-provoking show that prompted my daughter to start thinking about what constitutes art. Gutai closes next week, so it's your last chance to check it out and enter to win our Guggenheim giveaway.

It's a new month, which means it's time to get out your calendar. Our NYC, New Jersey and Connecticut sites all posted their May Go Lists, highlighting the absolute best things to do with kids throughout the month. With spring kicking into high gear, there are lots of amazing free festivals and fairs, plus Mother's Day is on the horizon. Speaking of the holiday, in addition to our posts about fancy brunch spots and readers' restaurant picks, we came up with five unique Mother's Day brunch ideas in NYC that offer more than just a meal. Meanwhile our Boston site has three easy recipes kids can make for mom on her big day, and our Travel site has Mother's Day getaway deals.

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

This Week: Awesome New Giveaways, Best Free Annual Family Festivals, Things to Do During Screen-Free Week

Submitted by Raven Snook on Thu, 04/25/2013 - 4:00pm

Do you feel lucky? This week we have not one, not two but three great giveaways going on at Mommy Poppins. Enter to win an Earth Friendly Products gift basket chock-full of eco-friendly cleaning supplies; a professional portrait of your kids by artist Lori Nelson or a four pack of tickets to the Guggenheim Museum. Not only are the prizes eclectic, the methods of winning are as well. For the Earth Friendly Products and Lori Nelson portraits, all you need to do is enter to win. But for the Guggenheim giveaway, we're encouraging readers to take the kids to the museum's current exhibit Gutai, snap a pic and submit it to our Facebook or Pinterest pages. That giveaway is definitely the most fun and is totally in keeping with our site's mission of getting families out and about doing cool things with kids.

Speaking of fun family outings, festival season is in full swing, which inspired us to round up our top 25 FREE annual festivals. And would you believe three of our picks take place this very weekend?

Our other sites have also been busy sharing the best things to do this spring on Long Island, in New Jersey, Connecticut and beyond, but a few posts will be of particular interest to New York families. If your kids are begging to see the likes of Taylor Swift and One Direction live, NJ's got a roundup of concerts for tweens, most easily accessible from the city. Our LA site did an awesome post in honor of Screen-Free Week with 10 fun no-tech things to do with kids. And on a more somber note, our CT site has a heartfelt post about ways kids can volunteer in the wake of a tragedy. While some of the suggestions are local, there are also ideas that apply to families anywhere, like donating allowance or toys.

Here's what else we covered in NYC this week:

This Week: Free Spring Festivals, Best New Theater Shows for NYC Kids, Tribeca Film Festival for Families

Submitted by Raven Snook on Thu, 04/18/2013 - 4:00pm

It's been an incredibly emotional week, from the tragic attacks in Boston to the new ELA Assessments to the gun control craziness. Even though Mommy Poppins' mission is to help families go out and have fun in NYC and beyond, we can't help but acknowledge these concerns since they're weighing on our minds. We suspect you're thinking about them, too.

And yet in stressful times, it's particularly important to find ways to enrich our lives by enjoying ourselves and spending quality time with our kids. Happily, spring is a time of renewal and celebration. There are lots of outdoor festivals, kids' concerts and new family-friendly shows this season. Plus with Earth Day coming up on Monday, there are many ways to honor our planet and give back to nature in NYC, New Jersey and on Long Island.

Since the weather looks iffy this weekend, it may be a good time to explore the new Legoland Discovery Center in Westchester—just make sure you buy your tickets in advance. And if you've already been there, our New Jersey site has a roundup of cool places to play with Legos, besides your kid's room, of course.

Looking ahead to May, our Travel site has a slew of great getaway deals for Mother's Day and beyond that sure beat even the fanciest NYC brunch. And if your child's a movie fan who attended screenings at last month's New York International Children's Film Festival, check out this cool kid critic contest our LA site has going. If your brood saw any of the flicks playing at the Los Angeles Children's Film Festival when they screened in NYC, they can enter the contest, too and get published on the site to boot.

Whatever you end up doing this weekend, even if it's just hanging around the house, we hope you and your kids are able to relax and enjoy each other's company. That's my family's goal! Here's what else we covered in NYC this week:

This Week: Spring NYC Day Trips, Best New Museum Exhibits for Kids, NYC Family-Friendly Restaurant Guide

Submitted by Raven Snook on Thu, 04/11/2013 - 12:00pm

Are we the only ones who felt like this was a long, slow week? Maybe it has something to do with this being the first full week back after spring break. The awesome spring weather doesn't help either: How can we focus on work when there are parks and playgrounds calling out to us? Not to mention the hypnotic tinkling of the invading ice cream trucks.

Still, we found time to do some work. We launched our NYC Kid-Friendly Restaurant Guide and even added a pair of tasty new posts: Restaurants where kids can make their own food and an international food crawl on Ninth Avenue to go with our Midtown West coverage.

If you're looking to take a seasonal day trip, our Long Island site profiled New York State Parks in Nassau and Suffolk Counties that are filled with all kinds of outdoor fun like boating, fishing, biking, horseback riding and golfing, not to mention the opportunity to commune with nature. Meanwhile, our New Jersey site has a roundup of animal-filled farms where kids can get up close and personal with alpacas, llamas, sheep, goats, ponies, chickens, miniature horses and more.

And those are just a few ways to take advantage of spring now that it's sprung. Here's what else we covered on our NYC site this week:

Spring Deals: Save on Camps, Classes and Birthday Party for NYC Kids

Submitted by Raven Snook on Thu, 04/11/2013 - 12:00am

Spring brings flowers, long days in the playground and a new set of exclusive Mommy Poppins deals. We reached out to some of our favorite fun and enriching NYC programs and asked them to extend discounts to our readers. The result is seven awesome offers for kids that you won't want to miss, from preschoolers through teens. Save big bucks on birthday party packages, day camp, guitar lessons, a family photo shoot and more!

This Week: Spring Festivals & Fairs, Best Kids' Events in April, Mommy Poppins Expanding to Westchester & East End

Submitted by Raven Snook on Thu, 04/04/2013 - 4:00pm

On the very last day of spring break, a bunch of Mommy Poppins bloggers and our families got together for a private cruise on the East River Ferry. Yup, those are our kids in the photo freezing their behinds off on deck! (The things we make our children do in order to get a good shot.) Even though it felt more like winter than spring, we had an awesome time. We hope your spring break was also full of fun adventures.

Speaking of the season, even though Mother Nature hasn't quite gotten on board, spring festival season still kicks off this month. All of our tri-state-area sites have roundups of the best April fairs and carnivals, including NYC, Long Island and New Jersey. Plus, all of those sites also published their monthly Go Lists this week, highlighting the best things to do with kids in each area throughout April.

If you're already looking ahead to summer, be sure to check out our Camp Guide. We keep adding new posts, like this roundup of five sleepaway camps for kids with food allergies. If it's a vacation you're after, our Travel site just profiled the gorgeous Sanibel Island, a Gulf Coast barrier isle located off Florida. Or closer to home, you could plan a trip to the Jersey Shore. Although it took a beating from Hurricane Sandy, our New Jersey site has an update on recovery efforts at a number of Jersey Shore hot spots so you know the deal before you go, as well as ways you can help areas that are still rebuilding. And of course nearby Liberty State Park makes for a fabulous spring day trip... and if you grab the ferry there you can appreciate NYC from the water, just like we did earlier this week.

Here's what else we covered on our NYC site this week, including big news about Mommy Poppins expanding to Westchester and more.

This Week: Easter Weekend, NYC Spring Break Fun, High-Tech Makerspaces

Submitted by Raven Snook on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 1:00pm

Mommy Poppins NYC may have been quieter than usual this week due to school recess and a pesky server outage, but our lives have been busier than ever. Our bloggers have been running all over our awesome city, enjoying all kinds of spring break fun. My daughter and I laughed our heads off at Bello Mania at the New Victory Theater (we even got the famed clown's autograph!), saw Rodgers and Hammerstein's reimagined Cinderella on Broadway and stopped to smell the blooms at Macy's India-themed Flower Show. (We posted a gallery of Flower Show pics on our Facebook page.) Meanwhile Anna and her family explored the Guggenheim's Gutai: Splendid Playground exhibit and enjoyed the first great playground day of spring. We hope you and your kids have been enjoying spring break as much as we have.

Of course we still have many days of fun ahead of us. Sunday is Easter and there are lots of egg hunts throughout NYC as well as Fifth Avenue's fabulous Easter Parade. And then Monday is April Fool's Day and our Boston site came up with 10 hilarious pranks to play on kids. And don't forget to check out our roundup of special spring break activities. There are so many great things going on in NYC right now, you'd need an entire season to try them all.

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