I know I shouldn't be so typically New England and obsess about weather, but 60s for this weekend -- welcome, fall! It'll be the perfect weather to enjoy any (or all, if you're feeling crazy ambitious) of these 17 fun weekend picks:

1. Rock it, South Boston.

2. It's been a looooong time since I've seen a movie in a theatre. This film festival could rectify that situation.
3. Artistry in the South End abounds.

4. Love, peace, and soul at the Oak Street Fair.

5. I love that this landscape watercolor workshop series is open to kids 9 and up.

6. The apples have arrived.

7. Laurel and I had so much fun building a fairy house the other week; head northward for fairy house building inspiration.

8. Fall fun in Quincy.

9. The weather will be utterly perfect for ponies, agile dogs, and other farm fun.

10. C'mon, a dog parade? How cute is that?

11. I loved the block parties my street held when I was a kid. Gloucester will be hosting a big block party this weekend.

12. Show your Arlington pride.

13. Oh to have an endless summer.

14. Apparently, Peabody = international mecca!

15. Assembly Square makes a bid for cool new hub in Somerville.

16. I dated a Serb back in the day. He would totally dig this.

17. A celebration of Greek culture north of town.

Image credit: South Boston Street Festival

This week has really just drained me. I've had three family health scares, an extremely time-consuming and stressful parental extracurricular activity and a few unexpected curveballs in other arenas. I've sat here staring at this screen for a few minutes now, and I don't want to write about anything that has happened this week. I feel like there are a few brewing good posts about current events, but honestly with getting so behind with aforementioned dramas, I don't have time to write anything good.

Yet, I feel compelled to record something this week, and perhaps that something is this: I'm tired.

Yet another thing: I'm in love with my whole family. Having people's health threatened made my already-squishy heart explode with love, and I felt it gushing out with such volume it threatened to drown me. All this week I've looked at my daughter and thanked God the challenges the world threw at us this week were manageable, everyone turned out to be okay after various doctor visits, scares were mitigated, and life is very close to returning to normal, except the new normal for me, is even more grateful than I was before.

I've been spending 2-4 hours a day on my new least favorite motherhood extracurricular activity. I'll be back when I'm done with my project. I hope it's tomorrow. I really, really do.

Musical theatre always brings high school drama club memories flooding back, so I was feeling happily nostalgic when I learned that the Boston Opera House is showing South Pacific (my senior year musical production!) from September 27 - October 2. If your kids dig musical theatre or you're looking for a fun outing with a loved one, hop on over for tickets. And how cool is this? The kind folks at Broadway Across America are offering one of you awesome readers a 4-pack of tickets to South Pacific*! Here's how to enter to win:

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THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED
Congrats to winner Mary Ann!
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Rules:

Simply e-mail contests@bostonmamas.com (with "South Pacific" in the subject) to enter to win.

One entry permitted per person; local entrants welcome to enter.

Entry period closes at midnight EST, Sunday, September 18, 2011.

*One lucky winner (drawn using Random.org) will receive a 4-pack of tickets to South Pacific for the Tuesday, September 27, 2011 7pm show. Sweet!

Today, Lindsey shares a game that's fun for kids and grownups alike:

A few months ago I realized that I was rushing my children through dinner and bath to make sure we had time for TV before bed. Startled by this, I simply told them the next day that we weren't going to have TV. We enjoyed a more relaxed dinner and evening and that was that -- the transition was shockingly seamless. Instead, after bath and before bed, we now often play a short game. I admit that some of the board games stacked in our family room are, quite frankly, a little slow for me.
Subsequently, I was glad to discover Rat-A-Tat Cat. This card game has become an obsession for all three of us. My 6- and 8-year-old play it together, though they prefer when I play with them. The game is simple: you deal four cards in front of each player, two up and two down. The goal is to wind up with the smallest number of points represented in your four cards (the cards are 0-9). Taking turns drawing from a pile of cards in the middle, you can swap out cards you draw for your face-up cards or take a chance and swap a card with a known value for one of your face-down cards. There also are a couple of other cards, such as "peek" and "swap" which allow you, respectively, to glance at one of your face-down cards or to swap a card, even a mystery one, with another player.

Rat-a-Tat Cat has the right mixture of speed (so I don't get bored) and simplicity. All three of us have won before, without anyone going easy or stressing out, and this makes the game more fun. It's a perfect game for the airplane and for up to four players, and I've overheard my 8 year old playing it on a play date before. One round takes about 10 minutes, and so far nobody around here is bored! I highly recommend Rat-a-Tat Cat.

The five of us sat outside -- Ma, Pa, Blondie, the little angel and me -- trying to capture the sound of birdsong and my parents' bubbling fountain in the background over our voices lovingly reading each other stories. (Disclosure: this isn't a review, but I did receive the books free from Hallmark when I attended a blogger event there on Friday -- more on that later.)

I had three of the recordable storybooks. Pa is the bedtime story reader in our family, so I wanted him to read one. Then we were all going to take turns reading the other two -- one for Blondie and one for us. On our first run-through, Blondie misted up a little and it was a poignant moment what with the birdsong and the bubbling fountain and that unicorn that came over the ridge right at the moment the last word was pronounced.

Then we tried to play it back.

Somehow we'd kept the recordings of certain pages and lost others, and the little angel kept scraping her chair and walking around with what she clearly thought were gossamer steps on the pavers but actually sounded like a bull elk wandering through Macy's.

Finally, we took the books inside. There was apparently some trick to laying them perfectly flat and perhaps daylight affected the little light-sensitive holes? So we recorded all three books over again, and when you press stop, it plays it back to you, then if you REALLY WANT TO BE SURE, you must then play the entire thing over when you are done, so all in all by the end we had listened to each other read these books approximately 32 times, yelling at Pa and Beloved every time they tried to have a conversation because OMG WE ARE RECORDING HERE and CAN'T YOU JUST WAIT ANOTHER 54 MINUTES?

Then we were done, and Pa wrote on the opening page of the book that he read "recorded on September 11, 2011," and I realized we hadn't even planned it, but it seemed entirely appropriate to be together on the ten-year anniversary of the scariest day in recent memory, recording our voices so we might always hear the inflections of love. Even though we came for the weekend not to commemorate September 11 but to help my parents fix a leak in their bathroom, but maybe that makes it even better.

The little angel will probably always wonder why 9/11 is such a big deal in the same way I could never understand why people could remember where they were when Kennedy was shot. I hope she never has a day in which she remembers exactly where she was when some horrible scary thing happens that rocks her faith in leadership or in humanity. It's not possible to protect her entirely, though, so ... the books. We wrap our children in as much familial love as we can, and we hope that shield of belonging and strength will be enough.

I know I'm not the only one who is super excited about a respite from the rain. The forecast looks beautiful -- perfect for enjoying any or all of these 15 (!) weekend picks that caught my eye:

1. Art buffet = awesome.

2. I hope they have weaving demos again at the Boston Arts Festival -- it was Laurel's favorite activity last year.

3. How can you not love a grand costume parade?
4. My elementary school friend Melanie was so generous -- she always shared her (crazy delicious) lamejun with me. If I knew where she was, I'd buy her treats from this Armenian festival.

5. Celebrate local and indie organic design,
baby Bollywood style.

6. I kind of freaked out a little seeing my former GBYSO conductor Joel Bard on the roster for the Newton Cultural Center festivities. Such a nice guy!

7. I find windmills kind of magical, do you?

8. I love perusing artisan wares.

9. I'm totally down with a concert that references a character named Schmutzinberry.

10. For those on the South shore, enjoy this music, theatre, and dance family festival.

11. And if you're in the Winchester area, check out this musicfest.

12. I have a feeling Laurel would really dig the costumes at the Melrose Victorian Fair.

13. Agricultural goodness abounds at the Franklin County and Sterling fairs.

14. Want to enjoy a grown up music venue family style? Alastair Moock and friends will play from Moock's new family friendly album at Club Passim.

15. We've found our last two sitters through Care.com. If you need childcare, they're hosting a Care Fair at the Museum of Science.

Image credit: Peabody Essex Museum

Today, Jennifer recommends a visit to Barefoot Books for more than books:

Given the variable nature of New England weather (cue today's monsoon...), it's always good to have some indoor activity ideas in your back pocket. My kids and I recently enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the Barefoot Books pottery studio in Concord. Our mission was to try out their newish paint-your-own pottery studio (it was added to the store's offerings this past spring), and oh, did we have a grand ol' time.
If you haven't been to the store before, it's a whimsical experience for sure. From the minute you approach the brightly-colored building with patio seating outside (hello perfect snack time venue), you know you're in a kid-centric place. Even the bathroom is crazy cool. We browsed the books for a bit and checked out the story time area and main art room before heading to the back pottery studio. We chose to paint a small castle (my 6 year old daughter) and a toucan (my 8 year old son). I even decided to join in the fun and painted a travel mug as a gift for my dad -- you're never too old to give the gift of hand-painted pottery, right? They offer dozens of items to paint and a beautiful palette of colors; pieces are ready for pick up about a week after your visit and the store calls you to let you know when your items are ready.

I thought our outing would be about an hour, max, but with the lovely and relaxing atmosphere (did I mention the cool music and wonderfully friendly staff?) we ended up staying 2 hours. After we finished painting, my daughter drew a few pictures at the big table in the art room while I looked over their impressively packed events calendar. We'll be heading back soon!

I was just finishing up work last night when the little angel breezed in. She is very firm with me -- when I say "three more emails," she stands over my shoulder and holds me to it. I was trying to fudge a little last night, so finally she flopped on the chair in my office in frustration.

"My feet need to feel the fresh air, Mommy," she huffed. "Hurry up and let's go for a walk."

And that? Was the best thing I'd heard all day. We abandoned the laptop mid-email.