Come get a jump on Halloween at the 31st annual Goblin Jamboree fundraiser at the Bay Area Discovery Museum! Bring your little goblins to this year’s spooky family event on Saturday and Sunday, October 21 and 22 from 10 am to 4 pm. This year’s theme is "Witches and Wizards" and they have put together a cauldron of spooky themed programs and activities to entertain your entire family.

Ride a train or real ponies, create your own wand and potions, make your way through a broom obstacle course and some hay mazes, play with glow-in-the-dark trains in the Bay Hall, explore the spooky sticker room, and and enjoy a full brew of games, activities and live entertainment. This year's event will feature live musical performances from the JimBo Trout, Juice and Jelly, and Beau Mathews. This event is the perfect Halloween party for kids ages 6 months to 10 years.

Photo courtesy of  fluidframephoto.com

Pomegranate is offering a variety of fantastic fall classes for expectant mothers and moms with babies. Looking for a class to include your little one? Check out the Mom & Baby Yoga and Crawler + Me classes that are offered throughout the week. Pomegranate also offers on-site childcare for more than half of their movement classes too. Drop-in classes are $23 each or purchase a 5-pack for $95.

Pomegranate is located at 25 Tamalpais Avenue, San Anselmo. Find out more about their classes by visiting www.pomcenter.com.

Fall class schedule:

Monday

• 9:30–10:45 am: Vinyasa Flow • Natalie POW, CC, **
• 11 am–12:15 pm: Mindful Flow • Natalie POW, POP, CC
• 12:30–1:45 pm: Mom & Baby Yoga • Marie POM
• 5:30–6:45 pm: Prenatal Flow • Amber POP
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Fall is almost here, and for those seeking that true Halloween pumpkin patch experience, here's our annual guide to pumpkin patches in Marin and southern Sonoma counties. Most pumpkin patches open in late September or early October.

In Marin County, Nicasio Valley Farms Pumpkin Patch offers a real on-the-farm experience and the Godmother's Pumpkin Patch at St. Vincent's is a local tradition and an exciting Halloween experience for families. For more real live farms offering pumpkin patches this season, head up north a short distance to rural Sonoma County, where you'll find them in relative abundance. We visited as many of these pumpkin patches as we could last year, and have posted links to our reviews of them below.

We've included dates and hours for pumpkin patches when available. Hours are correct as of the time of publishing, but it's still a good idea to check a pumpkin patch's website or give them a call before you go in case anything changes. As a rule, most pumpkin patches are open during the whole month of October, although a few open in late September. Pumpkin patches listed here are open through October 31 unless otherwise indicated.

While there are plenty of awesome pumpkin patches to choose from in Marin and southern Sonoma counties (see our list of those here), you can find other great places to pick up pumpkins and other Halloween and autumn treats throughout the greater Bay Area. Maybe you're headed on a road trip to the south bay, or bound for the grandparents' house in Sacramento this October—there's probably a pumpkin patch on the way. Here are a few out-of-town pumpkin patches, in Solano, Contra Costa, and San Mateo counties, that we've visited at one time or another or had recommended to us.

In addition to producing healthy and sustainable local food, Petaluma's Tara Firma Farms also puts on fantastic family-friendly events throughout the year. This fall, their annual Pumpkins on Pikes event continues this tradition. Come on out to the farm for Halloween fun with pumpkin carving, live music, dancing, a corn maze, BBQ and more.

Pumpkins on Pikes takes place on Saturday, October 28, from 2 to 10 pm. Bring your pumpkin carving tools, blankets and coats to stay warm after dark, a sheet to cover hay bales for seating, and favorite treat for the dessert potluck. Free pumpkins for carving will be provided with admission. The carved pumpkins are placed on pikes out in the cornfield, and when the sun goes down, the pumpkins are lit. It's an amazing spectacle! A BBQ dinner will be available for purchase $10 a plate at the event.

This fall the Clover Sonoma Family Fun Series returns to Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa with six fantastic shows for young audiences and their families. Beginning in October, the series will delight audiences of all ages with a brand-new fairy tale, awe-inspiring acrobats, a world premiere musical, and more.

Located in the heart of Central Marin, Piper Park is a 2.2-acre oasis of fun for the whole family. With a newly renovated playground, lovely wooded setting along Corte Madera Creek, numerous sports fields, and views of Mt. Tam, it's the perfect place to spend the day playing and relaxing. It's also a popular spot with local families for kids' birthday parties.

Photo courtesy San Francisco Ballet © Erik Tomasson

December is here, and for many families, the holidays won't be complete without attending a performance of San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker. Experience 200 costumed characters, dazzling scenery, Tchaikovsky's beautiful score performed live by the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and the opulence of the War Memorial Opera House decorated for Christmas. Tickets to this time-honored holiday tradition are going fast!

Many different performances of Nutcracker take place in the Bay Area during the holiday season, but San Francisco Ballet's is the one that sets the standard. Did you know that San Francisco Ballet was the first ballet company to bring Nutcracker to America, way back in 1944?

If you're a Marin County parent looking into private schools for your children, make sure you plan on visiting the fifth annual Southern Marin Mothers' Club Private School Fair, which takes place at Mount Tamalpais School in Mill Valley on Tuesday, October 3, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Most private, parochial, and charter schools in southern and central Marin will be represented at this event.

This fair is designed for parents looking for private school kindergarten options for their children in Marin as well as parents wanting to switch schools or who are new to the area. The event includes a presentation by educational consultants Betsy Little and Paula Molligan of Little and Molligan, Inc. The parents will then circulate around the school tables and learn about the differences between the programs.