If you want to get a head start on Halloween, then scroll down to the end for a list of weekend Halloween happenings. If you’re like me, and you think that one day of Halloween is just plenty, thank you, then here’s some non-Halloween weekend fun:

Family Day at SAM

Art activities, games and live performances to celebrate the opening of the S’abadeb exhibit of Pacific coast Salish art.

Greenwood Fall Carnival

Face painting, bouncy houses, games, music and food. Proceeds benefit art and music programs at Greenwood Elementary. While you’re there you can hit the Greenwood Safe Trick or Treat from noon – 3pm.

10/25, 1-5pm at Greenwood Elementary

Family Concert at Town Hall

Chic Streetman comes to Town Hall as part of the Saturday Family Concert series with a performance entitled, “What are Mom and Dad voting for?”

Fall Festival at Swansons Nursery

Hayrides, face painting, vegetable car races and more. Plus, planting containers are 40% off.

Day of the Dead craft activity

Create and decorate a skeleton mobile at the Greenwood library to celebrate Day of the Dead.

10/26, 1-2pm, Greenwood Library

Halloween Happenings

• Mt. Baker Trick or Treat Party – meet at Bradner Gardens Park. 10/26, 2-4pm. Come in costume. Bring your own apples and cup to make your own apple cider on a manual apple press.
• Pacific Science Center has tricks, treats and science feats and nightly Haunted Hikes.
• Un-haunted house at Moonpaper Tent
• Trick or treat on the waterfront with entertainment and activities at the Aquarium
• Pumpkin prowl at the zoo
• Eco-green Halloween at Camp Long
• Halloween Hoopla in Wallingford, supports Boys and Girls club

If, like fellow Metblogger Yayunicorns, you’re perplexed by the lack of fresh pressed apple cider at harvest events in the apple state, then this first one’s for you:

Harvest Festival at Jones Creek Farm

U-pick pumpkins, pears, apples and “freshly pressed hot spiced cider!” Plus: hayrides, a haunted house, homemade baked goods and local crafts.

Green Halloween Open Haus

Learn about green Halloween at this ecohaus Seattle event with kids activities, face-painting, and tips for a healthy, eco-friendly Halloween. Prizes awarded for most eco-friendly Halloween costume.

Magic Show in Mt. Baker

Joe the magician comes to the Mt. Baker clubhouse as part of the Pied PIper series.

Hansel and Gretel

Molbak’s brings you Hansel and Gretel for their 26th annual fall play.

Live Theater Week Family Day

As part of live theater week, many theaters are offering free activities and performances all day, including, The Green Sheep, Cinderella, The Emperor’s New Clothes, and an improv workshop.

In addition to pumpkin patches galore, here’s some more weekend happenings:

Young Gardeners Story Time at the Center for Urban Horticulture

The theme this week is fall fruit with books about apples, pears, and bananas. I’m not sure how bananas qualify as fall fruit, but it’s all good, I guess. The stories are followed by a hands-on activity.

Kelsey Creek Farm Fair

Fall farm fun with pony rides, hayrides, kid’s crafts, and pumpkin decorations. Live entertainment by Cowboy Buck.

Sounds of Cuba at the South Park Library

Learn about Cuban dance music and culture in this bilingual presentation by the Supersones classic guitar trio. Refreshments provided.

Grand opening celebration for the expanded Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center

Mercer Slough is a 320 acre nature park within the city of Bellevue. To celebrate the opening of their newly expanded Environmental Education Center they are having speakers and workshops throughout the day. Activities include: native species on-site planting, water creature exploration in the ponds, toddler hikes, and facility tour with park rangers.

Utsav: South Asian Performing Arts Festival

“Strings, flutes, drums and dances from various South Asian countries highlight the talented artists of the Northwest. Ancient and modern, vocal and instrumental music and a tremendous variety of dance styles and their rhythmic foot beats convey the deep connections of Seattle’s growing South Asian community to these countries’ art forms.”

10/11 – 10/12 at the Seattle Center House and UW campus, locations and schedule of events here

It appears that fall is finally upon us, so I’ve got some indoor activities for you guys this weekend….

See The Black Stallion at SIFF Cinema

SIFF continues their popular Films4Families series into the fall with family-friendly films every other Saturday at 10am. This Saturday’s film is The Black Stallion, and following the film, SIFF is offerning a tour of the projection booth. “Small groups will be given a tour of the booth to see the projectors and other equipment in action while families waiting in line will be treated to a hands-on experience with real pieces of 35mm film, exhibition videotapes, heavy film cans, and more.”

Check out some amazing LEGO creations

BrickCon comes to Seattle Center displaying creations by “adult LEGO hobbyists.” They promise “stimulating and fantastic LEGO displays” made from “thousands and thousands of LEGO pieces.” Curiously, they have no photos of such displays on their site, but a flickr search for brickcon will give you an idea of what might be in store. They will have a building zone for kids to make their own LEGO creations and a brick bazaar to buy your own sets and pieces.

Get your family dance on

Join in some old time family dancing at Greenwood Family Dance. No experience necessary, but if you’re especially nervous, they have a family jam session beforehand to “build confidence in a jam setting.”

Drink mimosas, watch high-flying arials

This is genius. Circus Contraption brings you Kiddie Caberet – a kid-friendly circus show with a mimosa/bloody mary garden for mom and dad.

Pet a reptile

The popular Pied Piper series is back in Mt. Baker. It kicks off this weekend with a visit from the reptileman.

Poulsbo American Music Festival

This sounds like good old-fashioned family fun, with music, a pie-eating contest, face painting and sack races.

Bring a little wildlife into your own backyard

Join the N.E. Seattle Community Wildlife Habitat Project to learn how to create a healthy wildlife habitat that attracts birds and butterflies to your own backyard.

I hope to see you all at the Seattle Tilth Harvest Fair on Saturday, but that’s not all that’s going on this weekend. There’s plenty to do for kids and grownups alike:

Go Swimming

This is your last chance to hit the public outdoor pools before they close for the season. Mounger pool in Magnolia has family swim (and a corkscrew slide!) from 5:30-7 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Or for the little ones they have gentle swim from 11am – noon. Colman pool in West Seattle is a heated salt water pool and has family swim from 5-7pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Aki Matsuri (Japanese Fall Festival)

This celebration of Japanese culture has all things Japanese, including a Japanese flea market, Japanese arts and crafts vendors, and plenty of performances, like Japanese drumming, a tea ceremony demonstration, and puppet shows.

Morning Movie and Pajama Party

Watch the Jungle Movie in your pajamas at this benefit for Morningsong Early Learning Center, the only child care center in Seattle serving homeless toddlers and preschoolers. $15 gets you a seat at the movie, popcorn, and a drink. Note that tickets must be purchased in advance.

Star Party at Greenlake
View the stars through telescopes provided by the Seattle Astronomical Society. Held on the north shore of the lake at a grassy area west of the Bathhouse Theater, near the fishing piers.

Alki Statue of Liberty Dedication Ceremony

Celebrate the return of Lady Liberty to Alki beach with food, arts and crafts, music and dancing. Formal dedication ceremony at 1:30pm and luminaria lighting by the Girl Scouts at 7:30pm.

Starting tomorrow, the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), is offering free interactive activities for kids on the first Thursday of each month from 11am to 3pm. Activities will include artifact handling, games, stories, scavenger hunts, and crafts.

Like many other Seattle museums, admission to MOHAI is free on the first Thursday of each month. The interactive kids activity is over at 3, but the museum is open from 10am to 8pm tomorrow.

Photo of the MOHAI building from stevevoght on Flickr.

If you’re taking the kids to Bumbershoot this weekend, be sure to swing by the Kids Pavilion for crafting, movie making, hula-hooping and more.

And if you’re not Bubmershootin’ or heading out of town for the long weekend, there’s still plenty to do around town with the kids:

Go Car-Free in Columbia City

The second Seattle car-free day is this Sunday in Hillman City and Columbia City and coincides with bicycle Sunday along Lake Washington Boulevard S. We were pleased to see a sign in the window of the Columbia City Bakery this week announcing their plans to stay open late that day. Here’s hoping this car-free day is more successful than last week’s debacle.

Take a Moonlight Walk

Moonpaper Tent celebrates the end of summer where “fire flies, fairies, moon snails, and more help create an illuminating visual tableau of lights and quiet, as children and parents create lanterns to take along with them on a magical moonlight walk through the neighborhood. Whispered stories, glittering face-paint, and glowing surprises await!”

Bremerton Blackberry Festival

Hop a ferry to Bremerton for the annual blackberry festival. Enjoy arts and crafts, live music, and a chalk art contest. And of course there will be plenty of blackberry treats on hand, including “blackberry slugs- a delicious type of maple bar made with blackberry filling and whipped cream.” Um, yum?

Blues for Food Fest

Dance in the grass to five local blues bands at this Magnuson Park event to support the P-Patch Trust.

If you are a Mariners fan and you’re female,  this one is for you.

The Savvy Girls of Summer are hosting a pre-game event next Tuesday for female Mariners fans and children under 14. Tickets are only $11 and include the game and a pre-game event w/ snacks, wine, and a Moose visit!

From Deidre Silva, one of the savvy girls, and author of It Takes More Than Balls: The Savvy Girls’ Guide to Understanding and Enjoying Baseball, “What makes this different from a Girls Night Out or Ladies Day event is that there will be a brief panel discussion featuring women who work in the sports industry. This is a good opportunity to expose your kids to a dramatically different sports perspective than we normally experience. Fox Sports commentator Angie Mentink will be on hand as well as a few women who are executives in the Mariners organization, including one of the player’s wives.”

More details, including the event schedule and online reservations, available here.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Carlson [flickr] via our group pool [#]

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find myself fantasizing about moving to a farm with goats and chickens and fruit trees and a big, sprawling vegetable garden. Then I think about how much work that would entail, and I get sleepy.

It’s times like these when I head out to South 47 Farm in Redmond – a great place to get your farm fix. It’s close enough to Seattle to go for a quick berry-picking run (U-pick raspberries were $5/lb this past weekend – can’t beat that) or take the family and make a day of it.

All of the vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs are organic, and most are available for both U-pick and  farmstand purchase. They keep their web site updated with a list of available crops, so you can see what’s ready to harvest before you visit.

We went last weekend and picked four pints of raspberries, which are plentiful right now and a good choice for little ones to pick since they grow low, are easy to spot and pull, and have no thorns. We also picked a basket-full of rainbow chard (pictured) – they provide a basket and scissors for clipping; a bouquet of sunflowers, and a pint of blueberries, which are just starting to come into season there. We paid a visit to the resident goats, chickens, and alpacas, and were back in Seattle in time for lunch.

South 47 also has a farm tots/farm kids program, events throughout the year, and they were even setting up for a birthday party when we were there.

How about you? Where do you go for your farm fix?

South 47 Farm

Open Wed-Sun, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

15410 NE 124th St., Redmond, WA 98052

directions here (scroll to end of page)