View over 150 handcrafted scarecrows and vote for your favorite in each of six categories. Plus, live entertainment, arts and crafts show, carnival, petting zoo, canine corner and make-your-own scarecrow.

Festival attractions include live music, German food, Kinder Korner with kids' games; Bier Haus ; "Bengal Zone" sports TV viewing; games; and raffles. Sunday from 1-4 p.m. features Kinder Fest, a family time with musical chairs, hula-hoop and limbo contests.

Families can build their own scarecrow with straw provided free. Bring old clothes to stuff, or purchase clothes and accessories. Activities include traditional harvest crafts and activities, old-fashioned games, wagon rides around the village, square dancing and demonstrations.

Celebrate a safe Halloween with trick-or-treating and face painting in Safety Town Village and enjoy pony rides, petting zoo, moon jump, carving or painting pumpkins, food and more (fees may apply).

A vegan couple find themselves in a pickle when Harry is bitten by a werewolf cub. Luckily, Dr. Frank Einstein and Madam Clara Voyant may have a cure. Meet a campy cast of characters in this spoof of the horror movies of the 1930s. Audience members walk to each location to enjoy the unfolding story. Low-impact hikes (suitable for strollers, walkers and wheelchairs) are presented on the first Sunday performance of the month.

a playful family night to explore the world of bats, take a moonlit tram, and cozy up around the campfire and roast marshmallows.

Explore the Arboretum's nine miles of scenic roads by bicycle. Bring your own or rent regular bicycles, tandems, electric bikes, burley strollers, wagons and more.

See gardens, woodlands, wetlands and prairies in a tram tour. 60-minute and 30-minute tours explain the rich Arboretum history, and describe the trees and plants you'll see. There's also an opportunity to see lovely wildlife in a native habitat.

Play tricky games, fashion fun fall crafts, and plant a tree seed to take home. Small pumpkins to paint will also be available for purchase. Weekends in October.

Artistically decorated scarecrows from local Girl Scout troops are on display around Meadow Lake, daily in October.

Shop from more than 200 varieties of daffodils, tulips, alliums and other specialty bulbs, learn from Garden horticulturists and staff demonstrations on bulb selection and planting, and sip cider, wine and beer while listening to live music and shopping among local vendors. Plus, a straw bale maze and a gourd display.

The new Railway Garden, a G-gauge model railway running through a 2.5 acre site, opens April 30. Visitors enter through a 1920s-era railway depot to see trains running through a garden of miniature plants, water features and a variety of landscapes. May 1 through October.

Throughout October, visitors enjoy spooky sights and sounds, plus special events during Twilight Witching Hours (4-7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday October 6-29). Spooky trees, raving ravens and creepy crawlies will take up residence in the garden, joining the thousands of miniature plants, dozens of handmade bridges, and of course, an assemblage G-gauge steam trains.

Drop in anytime between 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the conservatory's Elizabeth Morse Genius Children's Garden to plant an imaginary garden, build a tropical habitat, help water the plants, or read a book under the tropical canopy. Runs through entire 2012.

Docents help children and others learn through interactive displays and games in the showrooms. New topics every month. September: "Traveling Seeds"; October: "Cone Bearing Plants"; November: "Fruits, The Seasonal Food Harvest"; December: "Eggs and the Conservatory Critters"; January: "Urban Wildlife"; February: "Chocolate"; March topic: "Survival in the Jungle"; April: "Carnivorous Plants"; May: "Water Works."

Enjoy the quiet, steady pace of the horses as they pull the hay wagon around the back 80 acre trail. Look for pheasant, deer, and coyote as you travel through the wooded areas and open fields past the pioneer log cabin. No hayrides Oct. 13 and 14.

Visitors can walk inside the two-story silo and turn the crank of a silage machine, watching "corn plants" delivered to the top of the silo. Plus, learn about the history of silos and silage, build miniature silos with building blocks simulating wood, brick and metal and much more.

Learn about the zoo's cats, from big cats like African lions, Amur leopards, Amur tigers, and snow leopards to small ones, including fishing cats and domestic house cats. Plus, special Zoo Chats and cat-themed crafts and activities for cat lovers of all ages.

Join a keeper-led tour of the Children's Zoo, then head to the barn to help keepers with morning chores like feeding the cows, delivering hay to the goats or brushing the animals.

Breathe in the crisp fall air as you enter the zoo through a cornstalk lined path, hear the crunch of the leaves underneath your feet, listen to the children conquering the straw pyramid or enjoy the sight of thousands of pumpkins on display. Nature-made fall decorations, including pumpkins, gourds and corn stalks, available to purchase.

Drawers and non-drawers gather to create individual works on cardboard and build a collaborative sculpture in real time. Make a custom button with Busy Beaver Button Co., draw on a tricked out light box created by Catalyst Ranch, sit for a portrait with Doodlebooth, and watch Inventables print an original image by artist Rachel Perrine on a Sharpie-equipped ShapeOko CNC mill.

Kids can take classes taught by the Actors Training Center as part of this all-day improv festival at Navy Pier. Classes take place on the hour (1-4 p.m.), then stay for performances from some of Chicago's best improv groups (7-11 p.m., tickets required).

See a toy so amazing, so unbelievable, it has the power to transform into anything you want it to be. Enter a world where imagination rules, and ordinary becomes extraordinary.

Create your own creepy costume, decorate a mini-pumpkin and explore our Spooky Backyard. Includes special crafts and Monster Mash Dance Party (Friday-Sunday) and face painting daily.