“I was working in the lab late one night…” The opening notes of the 1960’s version of “The Monster Mash” have been echoing through my house and car speakers since early September, per my children’s request. Halloween is one of our favorite holidays and this year’s variety of related activities has provided some great opportunities to get out and see what’s new in Oklahoma City family fun.

We’ve read some really neat Halloween stories, attended a fall craft class, visited a school carnival and participated in Pumpkin Palooza. It’s been a full calendar lately, between seasonal events and other community offerings like the Race for the Cure 5K that I participated in last Saturday through MetroFamily’s Strong Together group and a family concert at Civic Center Music Hall. The best is yet to come, though, with events leading up to Halloween and those actually hosted on Oct. 31.

Here’s what’s still pending on our family’s October agenda:

• Magic Lantern Celebration: The free costume-making workshop and costume parade on Paseo this Sunday sounds like an amazing opportunity to combine arts, crafts and the season’s magic.
• Walking with Dinosaurs: Based on the recent BBC special, this show looks really neat and will keep both Sam and Isaac, ages 7 and 2, interested. My toddler can live in the moment and just enjoy seeing these larger-than-life replicas while Sam will have questions about the prehistoric setting.
• Pumpkinville at Myriad Botanical Gardens: I want to take a stroll through the grounds, which are now decorated with more than 3,000 pumpkins.
• Parkhurst Pumpkin Patch: We go to Arcadia each year. It’s our tradition to visit the petting zoo, pick a pumpkin and then eat lunch at POPS on Route 66. Fortunately, it’s open into November, so we still have a chance to take a drive.
• Trick-or-treating! My husband works time-and-a-half and this Halloween will be one of the few we’ve had in recent years to celebrate together as a family. We’ll take Sam and Isaac, aka Chris and Martin Kratt from “PBS’ Wild Kratts,” door-to-door through the neighborhood then head over to the Candy Rock Block Party at Spring Creek Plaza.
• “Dr. Seuss’s ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ The Musical” starts Oct. 28 at Civic Center Music Hall. MetroFamily will have a table in the lobby for the Nov. 1 performance, with hands-on activities and photo opportunities. The Saturday show starts at 11 a.m., which should give families like ours the chance to recover after all that trick-or-treating the night before.

Find MetroFamily’s list of fall events here and our Halloween planner for what’s going on Oct. 31 here. Autumn will be over before we know it, so make the most of the beautiful weather and seasonal attractions with our ever-expanding calendar too.

We’ll try to keep the volume down on “The Monster Mash” in our corner of central Oklahoma. Happy Halloween!