Last year, volunteers at Novato's Pleasant Valley Elementary School created the Spooky Swamp, a family friendly haunted house, for the school's annual Halloween Happening for students and their families. It was so popular that they decided not only to re-create it this year, but open it to the public as well! The Spooky Swamp will be open for one night only, Saturday, October 27, from 4 to 8:30 pm.
Walk in to the school's multi-purpose room and be transported to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. One wrong turn though and you'll find yourself in the Spooky Swamp. Luckily, a hillbilly tour guide will help you wind your way through the perils of the swamp and its structures, avoiding alligators and other haunts along the way. You never know what lurks around the corner or behind that tree stump! The Spooky Swamp is a good old fashioned haunted house that's appropriate for elementary school-age children and families. There's no blood, no gore, no violent images, and the actors take care to adjust their level of scariness to the age of the children in each group.
Admissionto the Spooky Swamp is $5 per person, ages 4 and up. All proceeds go to support Pleasant Valley Elementary School.
Halloween may be one of everyone's favorite holidays, but trick-or-treating, once its primary activity, is kind of a lost art these days. It used to be you'd just trick-or-treat in your neighborhood, but many communities just aren't Halloween friendly these days. In fact, it seems that many otherwise bustling neighborhoods are ghost towns on Halloween night.
My kids and I love to make healthy Halloween treats for snacks and school lunches. Not only are all these healthy, but they’re fun to make and eat, too.
Here are our picks for fun local events and activities for children and families this weekend. Find more events for the whole week in Marin and beyond in our .jpg)
Fall is here, which means Halloween is just around the corner and local pumpkin patches will soon be open! For those seeking that that true Halloween pumpkin patch experience, we present our annual roster of pumpkin patches in Marin and southern Sonoma counties. In Marin County, Nicasio Valley Farms Pumpkin Patch offers that on-the-farm experience and old favorites like the St. Vincent's Pumpkin Patch (Godmothers of Timothy Murphy School Pumpkin Patch) offer an exciting Halloween experience for families.
Every family has their favorite place to pick their Halloween pumpkins. What's yours? Tell the world by voting for your favorite pumpkin patch below in Marin Mommies' third annual Pumpkin Patch Poll. You don't need to be a registered user to vote, so make your choice known!
While there are plenty of awesome pumpkin patches to choose from in Marin and southern Sonoma counties 
Kids always love to make fun decorative crafts, especially at Halloween, when they can help make the house or classroom extra spooky. These easy-to-make paper jack-o-lanterns are a Halloween-time take on the traditional paper lantern craft project, and are simple enough that almost anyone in the family can make them. Make a bunch with different face designs and hang them around the house.