Top Picks This Weekend
Make Halloween a real treat this year with more pre- and post- trick-or-treating fun Fri. Celebrate Halloween at IHOP with a free “Scary Face Pancake” for boys & ghouls 12 & younger; get some extra candy during the Brandywine Zoo’s Boo! at the Zoo in Wilmington, DE and the FREE Mall-O-Ween at Langhorne, PA’s Oxford Valley Mall; be treated to character visits and themed story time during Halloween at the Please Touch Museum in Philly; and curl up in your sleeping bags after trick-or-treating for the Hocus Pocus Family Movie Night at Milton, DE’s Premier Centre for the Arts.
What to do with all those leftover pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns? Take the family to events of mass destruction Sat. for a smashing good time. During the Pumpkin Madness Festival at Ronks, PA’s Cherry Crest Adventure Farm, throw, roll, launch, hurl, drop and trample remaining pumpkins before the penultimate “Giant Pumpkin Drop.” Or visit Erwinna, PA’s Van Sant Airport for Pumpkin Bash, where you use the airport’s radios to drop pumpkins from planes and try to hit the target of kiddie pools below.
Keep in the holiday spirit and honor the dead with local Day of the Dead Celebrations. Philly’s Penn Museum brings puppetry & storytelling, arts & crafts and traditional altars called ofrendas for a family-friendly afternoon Sat; South Street holds the FREE festival and parade, complete with giant puppets, dancing skeletons and strolling spirits, Sun. starting at Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens; and the Princeton, NJ Shopping Center hosts FREE fun with strolling mariachis, paper flower-making and sugar skull-decorating, also Sun.
More Local Events the Kids Will Love
Get your apple fix with themed food and fall festivities, including pie-eating contests, stilt walkers and dance workshops, during the FREE Apple Festival Sat. & Sun. at Lahaska, PA's Peddler's Village.
Get creative and reflective during the Main Line Art Center’s Art of Giving Thanks Family Art Festival in Haverford, PA Sun. Families make balloon art, design-your-own thank you cards, a holiday mosaic and a Make, Give & Take project.
Join the fun Sat. at Norristown, PA’s Elmwood Park Zoo for Bubby the Bison’s Birthday Bash & National Bison Day with themed activities, including bison feeding, rides on “The Bison Express,” workshops to help elect the animal as our National Mammal and cake.
From aerodynamics to feather design, unlock birds’ secrets of flight and then put them into practice during Plainsboro Preserve’s Feathers and Flight Sat. in Plainsboro Twp, NJ.
Kids get hands on Sat. & Sun. when they make a bracelet, pick up a themed coloring book and create their own pet rocks during Gemarama 2014 at Exton, PA’s CFS, the School at Church Farm.
Don your costumes once more for games, cargo bike rides, face painting, fire truck visits and a moon bounce at the Northern Liberties Annual Fall Festival in Philly’s Liberty Lands Park Sun.
Ahoy, mateys! Set sail on your quest to join the FREE Pirate Adventure Day at Chadds Ford, PA’s Brandywine River Museum of Art Sun. and create themed crafts, embark on scavenger hunts and listen to fellow seafarers’ stories.
Your little ones can play the blues during the FREE PNC Grow Up Great at Philly’s Kimmel Center Sat, when they learn the style and join the band.
Let the family walk off some of that candy Sat. during Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Monster Mash 5K Dash at Jenkintown, PA’s Abington Club.
An underwater adaptation of The Tortoise and the Hare, the “Under the Sea” Family Fall Concert: The Seahorse and the Crab at Philly’s Curtis Institute of Music Sun. introduces kids to music while they sing and clap along.
