Hi everyone,
I hope the children have picked their Halloween costumes by now because they could wear them all weekend long this weekend if they wanted to and still have 2 weeks to go until Halloween!
This is a weekend of pumpkins and fall festivals! We can start the weekend at a Jack-O-Lantern Storytime on Friday and then on Saturday head on over to Pier 6 for the Harvest Festival at Brooklyn Bridge Park and if you are in Manhattan the Madison Square Park Fall Fest is going on. Sunday we have the North Flatbush Children’s Fall Fest and Baby Loves Disco is having a Halloween Ball in Manhattan!
Want to take the children to a show? We have Lolli-Pops Surprise Symphony this weekend and The New Victory Theater has Me and My Shadow. If you want to take a break from Halloween events little Swappies is having a Kids Day for a Cause to Benefit Cookies for Kids Cancer with lots of activities for children.
Don’t forget to check out the calendar for a full schedule of all the festivals, sing-a-alongs, storytimes and drop in classes going on this weekend!
Have a great weekend!
~ Deirdre (mom to O & C)
Friday October 18th
Jack-O-Lantern Storytime at Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden (UES)
Friday, October 18th, 10:30am
Get ready for Halloween with our monthly storytime. Listen to stories about pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns, and visit the Museum’s kitchen to see the pie-making display. Afterward, make a jack-o-lantern ball & cup toy to take home. An optional brief tour of the period rooms will follow. For children 6 and under. Free with Museum admission. Admission: $8 adults, $7 students and seniors. Free for Museum Members and children under 12y.
Friday Singalong with Jarrod at Greenlight Bookstore (Fort Greene)
Fridays at 230p. FREE. Greenlight is delighted to offer a weekly singalong/story time event for babies and toddlers each Friday afternoon! Join us in the kids section for 40 minutes of favorite songs and stories for the littlest booklovers, led by Greenlight bookseller Jarrod and his trusty guitar. Ages 6 weeks to 3 years.
Family Movie Night at Moxie Spot (Cobble Hill)
FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT, FRIDAYS @ 6:30 pm
October 18th Feature: Monsters Inc
Roller Skate at Brooklyn Lyceum (Park Slope)
Fridays 8p-12m. $5.
All the fun of the 70’s. Skate-Music-Fun. BYOS (Bring your own skates)
For more events for Friday October 18th please click here!
Saturday October 19th
Harvest Festival at South Brooklyn Children’s Garden (Red Hook)
Saturday October 19th 10am – 1pm. Free and open to the public.
Join us for the Harvest Festival!
Pumpkin Patch – carve or decorate a pumpkin ($5 per pumpkin)
Arts & Crafts
Live music by The Dads Beats
Bake sale & food provided by Dosa Royale
Harvest Festival at Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6
Saturday, October 19, 2013 10:30am-1pm
Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, in partnership with Brooklyn Bridge Park, will celebrate the fall season with a Harvest Festival on Pier 6! Come in costume to enjoy a pumpkin patch, face painting, volleyball, mask making, storytelling and more! Musical guests including Audra Rox and the Bilingual Birdies, sponsored by Monk Fruit in the Raw, and an 11:00 am Zumba class with the Dodge YMCA. Make sure to visit the photo booth at the pumpkin patch to get a great picture of your little ones in costume!
The Atlantic Avenue BID is adding a new dimension to this year’s Harvest Festival with a old fashioned trolley bus that will be making stops at B63 bus stops all the way down Atlantic from Brooklyn Bridge Park to 4th Avenue. The BID will be adding more fun programming around the Hoyt Street Garden and elsewhere on the avenue and it will be handing out information about Atlantic Avenue’s many family-friendly restaurants!
The full lineup: 10:30am-11:30am – Bilingual Birdies, 11:00am – Zumba with Dodge YMCA, 11:45am – Halloween Parade & 12:00pm-1:00pm – AudraRox!
Pumpkin Patch at PS 9 (Prospect Heights)
Saturday October 19th 11a-4p. All welcome!
Please join us on Saturday, October 19 from 11am to 4pm as we welcome Fall with our Pumpkin Patch Garden Party!Plenty of pumpkins will be available in our Outdoor Garden Classroom, on Bergen Street at Underhill Ave. Pick your own for $5-$10!Live music and pumpkin decorating. Food, facepainting and other fun available for purchase!Funds raised go to our outdoor classroom, gardening and related programs.
Madison Square Park Fall Kids Fest
Saturday Oct 19th 11a-2p. Free.
Bring your favorite lil’ ones for a day of free fun in Madison Square Park from 11AM-2PM filled with arts and crafts, games, live performances with The Little Rockers Band, The Amazing Max, and Songs for Seeds, food, face painting, a pumpkin patch plus so much more! Join one of two costume parades with Big Apple Circus and trade your child’s outgrown costumes at our Costume Swap located on the southern gravel. The Conservancy and Fall Kids Fest co-presenters, Time Out Kids, are creating oodles more fun to make this fest better than the last one!
Fall Kids Fest 2013 takes place at Madison Square Park, rain or shine, at 23rd Street between Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenues
Let’s Make Puppets! at BookCourt (Cobble Hill)
Saturday October 19th 2p. Free.
Join Ericco for a puppet making intensive! This is a free workshop. Ericco will guide children how to make sock puppets using socks, glitter, buttons, and more. Hot glue will be used during this workshop, so parental supervision is required. After the workshop, kids can feel free to get more creative by play-acting with the puppets they have made.
Shadow Puppetry at New Victory Theater (Times Square)
Saturday, October 19, 2013 at 430p (130p sold out). $17/non member & $12/members. For 4 years and up.
Bring puppets to life with color, light and shape. Shadow Puppetry will be a 45 minute workshop. This Family Workshop will be led by New Vic Teaching Artists.
Shadow Puppetry is inspired by Me And My Shadow and teaches techniques of shadow puppetry that are used in the show. No previous experience necessary.
For more events for Saturday October 19th please click here!
Sunday October 20th
Little Swappies Presents: Kids Day for a Cause to Benefit Cookies for Kids Cancer at Pier 57 (Manhattan)
Sunday Oct 20th 11A-5P.
Join us on for a fun-filled day of activities, classes, and a pop-up marketplace. This is a FREE event, but 100% of all donations for classes and cookie sale proceeds will go directly to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, a wonderful locally based not-for-profit organization committed to raising funds to support research for new and improved therapies for pediatric cancers. Visit our curated pop-up marketplace, featuring innovative and exciting kids brands including Little Collector, Clementine Consignment, Spuni, Petit Organics, Bitsy’s Brainfood, FitBump, and more! All day Activities will include:
Use recycled materials to build your own robot with Scrapkins founder, Brian Yanish.
Face painting and and temporary tattoos with UrbanSitter.
Kids at Work toddler play area – art and sensory play for 12 mos – 4 years. Dress for mess!
Stroller cleaning with CleanBeeBaby.
Raffle prize giveaways.
View website for more details on classes and activities (some require advance registration).
Story Time and Crafts with Ruby from “Ruby’s Studio” at The Scholastic Store (SoHo)
Sunday October 20th 11a-12n and 12n-1p. Free.
Hear stories and make colorful duct tape wrist bands with kids’ safe adult’s phone numbers hidden on the inside as part of the launch events around “Ruby’s Studio: The Safety Show.” Kids are sure to fall in love with this modern day Mary Poppins as she teaches them practical safety tips and reads an assortment of books about feelings and friendship. Ages 3 and older. Free. For info and to reserve seats, click here.
North Flatbush BID 2013 Children’s Fall Fest
Sunday Oct 20th & 27th 12n-4p. Free.
The 2013 Children’s Fall Fest from the North Flatbush BID will be held at the 6th Avenue Triangle, at Flatbush/St Marks from 2-4pm on Sunday, October 20 and Sunday, October 27, and it’s free!
The family-friendly event invites kids to come in costume and enjoy a puppet show, face painting, pumpkin decorating and giveaways, a rock climbing wall, singalongs, games, raffles, and more.
PJ Library Makes Cents at Park Slope Jewish Center
Sunday October 30th 2-3p. Free. Come to Park Slope Jewish Center on for PSJC and PJ Library Make Cents–an interactive program that combines stories and tzedakah (charity). Through stories and song, we’ll learn why it’s important to care for others and even get to make a fun take-home craft. This program is geared for children ages 3-8, and will take place on Sunday October 20 from 2-3 pm. We hope to see you there!
Baby Loves Disco at Le Poisson Rouge (East Village)
Sunday October 20th 12n-3p.
Halloween Ball –come in costume! Ticket Price: $20 per person $60 Family Four Pack. 6 mos to 7 yrs. Must be with an Adult. General Admission. Non-walking babies get in FREE! For the past 8 years, Baby Loves Disco has been transforming the hippest night clubs across the world into child proof discos as toddlers, pre-schoolers and parents looking for a break from the routine playground circuit let loose for some post naptime, pre-dinner fun. Make no mistake, this is NOT the Mickey Mouse club, and Barney is Banned. Baby loves disco is an afternoon dance party featuring real music spun and mixed by real djs blending classic disco tunes From the 70s, & 80s with today’s hottest dance tunes…..guaranteed to get those little booties moving and grooving.
For more events for Sunday October 20th please click here!
ALL WEEKEND
MIXED-UP VEHICLES BOOKS at NY Transit Museum (Downtown Brooklyn)
Saturday & Sunday Oct 19th & 20th 130p
Create and color your very own fantasy vehicles! Mix and match amphibious buses and trains with wings in this silly bookmaking workshop. For ages 4+. FREE with paid Museum admission!
Me and My Shadow at The New Victory Theater (Times Square)
Saturday Oct 19th 11a, 3p & 7p and Sunday Oct 20th 12n & 5p. 45 minutes with no intermission. Tickets $14-$38. For ages 4+.
It’s giggles galore when one young girl befriends a particularly sly and silly fellow—her shadow. A whimsical story about friendship, this clever and charming play will delight audiences In this playground of paper, light, music and magic, ME AND MY SHADOW ignites imaginations and tickles the fancy of little theatergoers in this big theater space.
The Little Orchestra Society’s LOLLI-POPS™ PROGRAM: Surprise Symphony at The Kaye Playhouse (midtown east)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2013 AT 10:00AM AND 11:30AM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2013 AT 11:30AM AND 1:00PM
Recommended for ages 3 – 5y. Performances at THE KAYE PLAYHOUSE, HUNTER COLLEGE
Celebrate with The Little Orchestra Society as it kicks off the season with the October premiere of a brand new Lolli-Pops™ program, Surprise Symphony, with guest conductor Jeff Grogan. The Orchestra, along with Grogan, will take families on an illustrated journey, using visuals by acclaimed animator AJ Smith, to discover the many surprises we find when making music. From the rhythms of an unexpected beat to the balls of string that bring sound to a violin—children and parents will be glued to their seats learning about various instruments and the many twists and turns that go into the making of an orchestra!
On October 19th and 20th, the Orchestra and its loveable Lolli-Pops characters – Bang the Lion, Buzz the Bee, Bow the Panda and Toot the Bird – will introduce children to the mystery behind the orchestra and each family of instruments (woodwinds, strings, brass and percussion). Concertgoers will watch via jumbo screen as Smith’s animations of every day objects turn into instruments, highlighting the unexpected beginnings of music. Once each family of instruments has had their moment in the spotlight, the Orchestra will come together with music that is soft and loud, bold and gentle, and fast and slow. Music includes Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, among others.
Contact: The Little Orchestra Society at 212-971-9500, The Kaye Playhouse Theatre Box Office at 212-772-4448, or buy tickets online at www.littleorchestra.org. Single tickets start at $15 and subscriptions start at $30.
Amazing Maize Maze at Queens County Farm Museum
Saturdays & Sundays now until October 27th 11 am – 4:30 pm (last ticket is sold at 4:30 pm)
Amazing Maize Maze: $9 adults, $5 kids age 4 to 11, free for kids age 3 and under. Hayride: $2.
Enjoy getting lost in our 3 acre interactive corn maze. The adventure begins with a Stalk Talk to prepare you for the challenge of finding clues, solving puzzles and making your way out of the maze.
Legend of Sleepy Hollow at Brooklyn Lyceum (Park Slope)
Saturdays & Sunday 12n & 130p weekends until October 27th. $15 for one & $50 for 4 – for ages 7-10
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (and Ichabod Crane) visit the the Brooklyn Lyceum and shake things up with a classic tale for three weekends this fall.
While you may have heard of Ichabod Crane, Katrina Von Tassel, and The Headless Horseman you’ve never seen them quite like this. From the imagination from those in the bowels of the Brooklyn Lyceum(aka Public Bath #7) comes an interactive reading of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Projections, actors, sound effects, and a deliciously malevolent set will accompany the reading, along with festive food and drink.
So, dress in your spookiest, and come down to enjoy what will be undoubtedly the scariest rendition of one of the greatest ghost stories ever told.
* Be forewarned: The text has been slightly condensed for maximum fright! Tickets at brooklynlyceum.wazala.com
Brick-or-Treat at LEGOLAND® Discovery Center, Westchester
Now until Thursday October 31st Mon-Sat 10a-930p & Sun 10a-7p
A ghoulishly good time is brewing at LEGOLAND® Discovery Center Westchester during Brick-or-Treat! Little ghosts and mummies can experience Halloween October 12 thru 31 with spook-tacular activities sure to please the whole family! Wear your Halloween costume and receive $3 off Admission.
Activities include*:
Brick-or-treat for LEGO® bricks around the Center to create a special jack-o-lantern model and take it home with you
Search for hidden monsters in MINILAND and enter to win a family four-pack of Annual Passes
Help us build our Monster Town by creating your own monster out of LEGO bricks
Learn how to build a scarecrow in the Master Builder Academy
*While supplies last
See website for ticket prices.
Halloween Harvest at Luna Park (Coney Island)
Luna Park is open from 12pm – 8pm Saturdays & Sundays in October
Join us every weekend in October for pumpkin painting and FREE activities like trick or treating, scavenger hunts, daily entertainment, one of NYC’s largest pumpkins (guess the weight and win!) and more starting on October 5th!
– Pumpkin picking and painting is all day long!
– Guess the weight of our giant pumpkin and WIN is all day long!
– Face painting is FREE and is all day long!
– Trick or Treating is FREE and is from 2pm – 6pm at the Witch’s House located between the Brooklyn Flyer and Electro-Spin
– “Spooky” Caricatures are FREE and will be available from 2pm – 6pm
– A balloon artist will be roaming the park giving away FREE creations from 2pm – 6pm
– We will be playing games at the Dreamland stage from 2pm – 6pm and everyone is invited to participate!
http://lunaparknyc.com/plan-a-visit/park-prices.html
Hansel and Gretel’s Halloween Adventure at Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre (Central Park)
Starts Tuesday October 1st 1030a & 12n and various days & times until Saturday November 2nd (check website here). Tickets: $7 children under 12y & $10 13y and up
Safely back at home during the Halloween season; Hansel and Gretel experience the most vivid dreams where Central Park and the Belvedere Castle serve as the backdrop for a magical explosion of music, dance and exciting encounters with a host of lovable characters. The brother and sister team once again embark on an adventure where beautiful mermaids, adorable monsters, swashbuckling pirates, charming vampires and a fabulous witch all intertwine for one unforgettable Halloween night in New York City.
The Haunted Pumpkin Garden at The New York Botanical Garden (Bronx)
Now until October 31st The Garden is open year-round, Tuesday – Sunday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
The Haunted Pumpkin Garden is Back and Spookier than Ever!
Experience the thrills and chills of the season with a garden full of intricately carved pumpkin sculptures, bugs, bats, parades, and more. New this year, the Haunted Pumpkin Garden features creepy creature encounters every weekend and the largest Spooky Nighttime Adventures trail ever! On October 19–20, watch master carver Ray Villafane of Food Network fame transform humongous pumpkins into unearthly creatures. It’s so much fun, it’s scary!
Pumpkin sculptures of spooky scarecrows, frightening spiders, sneaky snakes, and more await discovery at every turn in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. The display includes more than 500 intricately carved pumpkins that are sure to capture your youngster’s imagination. Every day kids can play inside a “gourd-geous” Pumpkin House, put on a scary show at the Pumpkin Puppet Theater, look for wiggly worms under a rotting log, and join a Halloween Parade, while every weekend offers even more treats.
Admission to the NYBG varies on the day of the week so see website for ticket prices.
Boo at the Zoo: Dragons and Dinosaurs at the Bronx Zoo
Weekends now until Sunday November 3rd 10a-5p. Boo at the Zoo is free with zoo admission; Dinosaur Safari (10am–5pm) and the Museum of UnNatural Mysteries (11am–5pm) require the purchase of a Total Experience ticket.
The kids can venture through the Museum of UnNatural Mysteries; catch a magic show or Beasts of the Magical World, a musical theater performance; take in live music from Gigi and the Lend Me a Hand Band; explore a hay maze; learn about all kinds of no-longer-extant creatures at the extinct-animal graveyard; check out demonstrations by professional pumpkin carvers; and, of course, rock their outfits in a Halloween procession (12n, 2pm) and then embark on a trip back in time as you ride our Dinosaur Safari!
Details: General Admission Tickets: adult $16.95, child (Ages 3-12) $12.95, senior (65+) $14.95. Total experience adult $33.95, total experience child (3y-12y) $23.95, total experience senior $28.95 (discounts on ticket prices bought online. See website for details.
For a full calendar of events please click here!
ONGOING
Dinosaur Safari at The Bronx Zoo (Bronx)
Now through Sunday November 3rd from M-Su. 10:30am — 4:30p. All ages welcomed. It’s a guided wagon tour past life-like, animatronic dinosaur species! Ride through a land of life-like massive dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures that roar, snarl, hiss and move.
Details: Tickets for Bronx Zoo Dinosaur Safari: Total experience adult $33.95, total experience child (3y-12y) $23.95, total experience senior $28.95 (discounts on ticket prices bought online & Wednesdays is pay as you wish). See website for details.
Gazillion Bubble Show at New World Stages Theater (MIDTOWN)
Wednesday, Fri-Sun (various times) now through February 23, 2014
You’ve seen how your kids react to bubbles. Now, imagine how they would react to seeing people inside bubbles, or lasers shooting through bubbles, or bubbles within bubbles?! They will be enthralled…and so will you. I’m been to this twice because we love it so much. Awesome show and well worth the price and trip. The Gazillion Bubble Show in Manhattan, is all about bubble magic and everyone from David Letterman to Oprah thinks the show is pretty fantastic.
Details: 340 West 50th Street, NYC. All ages welcomed. Cost: $44.50 -$89.50 (VIP package). Purchase tickets: Telecharge at 212.239.6200 or at www.telecharge.com. Visit the website for more information.
Whales: Giants of the Deep at The American Museum of Natural History (UWS)
Through January 5, 2014 from 10am — 6pm
Get a load of this! Whales: Giants of the Deep brings you close to some of the most massive mammals on Earth. Featuring life-size models, interactive exhibits, films, as well as over 20 whale skulls and skeletons.
Details: Central Park West at 79th Street, NYC. All ages welcomed. Cost: $25 adults; $14.50 kids age 2-12; $19 seniors/students (General admission plus 1 ticket includes admission to the museum and Rose Center plus 1 special exhibition). Contact: 212-769-5100. Visit the website for more information.
For a full calendar of events please click here!