Well, it’s Halloween Eve. The day before that magical day when children run loose in the streets gathering ridiculous amounts of refined sugar and worthless plastic toys. Even so, I do love Halloween. I didn’t love it as much when I was a kid, as I was a little annoyed by wearing things that weren’t comfortable. I totally love it now (maybe because I no longer have to wear a costume???). I especially love seeing my kids so excited. So, we have been working on Halloween costumes this week. My daughter is going as a rainbow fairy (her creation) and my son, who is too small to protest or demand otherwise, is going as a robot. I have to admit, I am pretty envious of his robot costume, as it has real blinking lights on it. My husband is very creative and great at execution, so he gets all the credit for that one. Don’t forget tonight is Halloween in Five Points, which begins with trick-or-treating at 5 pm. The pumpkin- carving contest is at 6 and the children’s costume contest at 7:30. Tootie and the Jones and Twilight Armada will perform during the event, with an adult costume contest at 9:00. Halloween in Five Points…a little something for everyone. See you there!

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This is the last week of the Little Lambs & Ivy Calendar Sale.  This week, save 20% off on:

• Monday - Toys

• Tuesday - Navy Blue items

• Wednesday - Hairbows

• Thursday - Zutano items

On Friday, all Halloween items are half price!

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The next 10 days will be big in Columbia, with lots of Halloween-related activities on the calendar.

• Boo at the Zoo at Riverbanks Zoo (October 24-30).  Costume parades are cool!

• Fall Festivals at RCPL North Main branch and Wheatley branch (October 31).  Festivals are cool!

• Family Day: Fun in the Fall at Robert Mills Carriage House (October 25).  Scarecrows are cool!

• Ghosts Galore at RCPL Southeast Regional branch (October 25).  Ghost are cool!

• Halloween Hullabaloo at RCPL Cooper branch  (October 30).  Stories, songs, and crafts are cool!

• Halloween in Five Points (October 30).  Pumpkin carving contests are cool!

• HalloWonka at EdVenture (October 29-31).  Candy sculptures are cool!

• Puppets with Bite at RCPL Main Library (October 30).  Puppets are cool!

• Spooky Storytime at RCPL Sandhills branch (October 30).  Spooky stories are cool!

• Tricks & Treats at SC State Museum (October 25).  Scavenger hunts are cool!

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On November 8, Harmony School will host its Third Annual Oyster Roast Fund Raiser.  For $25/ticket, you can enjoy all you can eat chili and oysters.  The ticket price includes adult beverages, as well as live music by local musician Danielle Howle.  There will also be a silent auction that night, with lots of great items up for grabs.  All proceeds go directly to the school.  This event is adults only!  Woohoo!!!  You can buy tickets direct from Harmony (787-1899).  After October 31, tickets are $35 each, so get yours today!  If you have any questions, you can leave a comment on this post and I will respond.

If you don’t know about Harmony School, let me tell you about it.  It is a small, private, non-profit school located in the Forest Acres area.  It is tucked away in a small building off Covenant Road, and it serves approximately 70 children in our community.  It has a wondeful reputation for providing a progressive, unique educational experience for children from preschool through 3rd grade, combining elements of Montessori, Waldorf, and Inquiry-based learning.  Come on out and enjoy some oysters and chili, and while you are at it, check out the Harmony environment for you own kids!

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I promised I would update the blog with this week’s Little Lambs & Ivy sale information.  Again, 20% off items in the following categories:

Monday: Zipper Day

Tuesday: Le Top Day

Wednesday: Light Pink Day

Thursday: Pocket Day

Friday: Hot Pink Day

Saturday: Christmas Item

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I just had the wonderful opportunity to meet one of the owners of a new children’s shop opening on Tuesday on Devine Street. I am super excited about this shop, as it will carry some wonderful clothing lines not otherwise available in Columbia! Kate Quinn Organics, Under the Nile, and others. Cool designs, lots of organic cotton items, even Plan Toys! The designs I saw today are very hip, but practical. I can’t wait for this new store to open, just in time for holiday shopping! Bonus: There is a tree house in the store for your kids to play in while you are shopping! Be sure to head out to K.D.’s Treehouse on Tuesday (10/21) for the grand opening.

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This post is for a) those who know me and want an update on our Vermont trip, and b) anyone gathering information on kid-friendly vacations.

So bottom line here is that Vermont is the deal for a kid-friendly vacation destination.  First of all, we chose Vermont because we love New England.  I have spent a lot of time on Nantucket and along the coast of Connecticut, and have made several other shorter visits to Boston, Maine, and Vermont.  I think all of these areas are lovely and charming.  I had only spent one summer weekend in Vermont and remembered being enchanted by it.  Rural, pastoral, quiet, charming, really just lovely in all ways.  So, when choosing where to go for vacation, Vermont immediately popped in my head as a place I would like to explore.

The first thing I stumbled across proved to be THE ticket for planning a trip to Vermont.  Vermont Vacation is an amazing site that allows you to search all of Vermont, by region, for accommodations, seasonal events, activities, dining, attractions, etc.  Everyone knows Fall is high season in Vermont due to the amazing foliage, so as you might imagine, there are lots of festivals planned for this time of year.  This site aggregates all of that info for you, so you can see, by date, all the activities in Vermont, including art gallery shows, historic tours and lectures, festivals, concerts, etc.  This was very helpful in planning our daily agenda while in Vermont.  In addition to general farm information on the Vermont Vacation site, there is another site that offers information specific to Vermont farms .  The Vermont landscape is dotted with beautiful family farms, complete with big red barns and all your favorite barnyard animals, including sheep!  If you want to get out of the city and breathe some fresh air, listen to the sounds of nature, and get away from it all, Vermont is the place to go.   So all that being said, here are the specifics…

Air Travel & Accommodations: We planned our trip around using some long-saved Delta SkyMiles.  Once we identified travel dates that would work, I set to work finding the perfect accommodations for our family.  I wanted to stay in a private house/cottage/cabin.  I love meeting people and all that, but I really didn’t want to sleep in the upstairs of someone’s house and come down every morning for breakfast with people I didn’t know (a la the traditional B&B).  If that appeals to you, Vermont certainly has plenty to offer, but I was looking for a bit more privacy.  Also, I was looking for a place where my children (4 yr old and 18 mo old) would be comfortable and safe.  I did NOT want to have to risk my son coloring on some expensive antique or my daughter breaking the glass menagerie on top of it.  Oh, and of equal importance was the actual sleeping arrangements.  I needed a crib (or portable crib) for my son, and definitely more than one bedroom so we weren’t all sleeping on top of each other.  (I don’t know about you, but I like my sleep, and I sleep more soundly when my kids are in the next room rather than in MY room.)  Lucky for me, I found the perfect place, which I am now happy to share with you!  Falkenbury Farm , located in Benson, VT, offered a guest house separate from the main house, with 3 bedrooms, a portable crib, and very casual decor.  The price was also very reasonable by Vermont standards, at $150/night.  No additional taxes, no hidden fees nor extra charge for the crib. Not to mention that they had placed some great toys inside and outside the house for our kids, which was a total bonus!!

Day One: After we arrived at the Burlington airport, we went straight to nearby Waterbury for the Ben & Jerry’s Factory Tour.  Definitely a tourist trap, but worth is, as they have a great playground for kids and free ice cream samples at the end of the tour.  Also the tour is very cheap (3$/person and kids under 12 are free!).  After sitting on a plane all day, it was great to let the kids stretch their legs and breathe the fresh air.  After the tour, we set out for Falkenbury Farm, which was about 1.5 hours south of the airport in Burlington.  The drive was easy, even in the dark.  Once we arrived at the FF guest house, we were thrilled.  Totally worth every penny.  The property was beautiful, and the Ambrozaitis family was super nice.  They had a 10-yr old daughter who played with our daughter during our stay, which really made the trip even more memorable for us.  We also were allowed to help with farm chores each evening.  The website above will give you the feel of the place. With 7 children of their own, the owners of Falkenbury Farm have the perfect family-friendly setting.  So if you are going to Vermont, now you know where to stay.

Day Two: We took a short drive (15 minutes) to Champlain Orchards and picked our own raspberries and apples.  Delicious and a lot cheaper than the grocery store!  Also bought some apple butter at the Farm Market and ate every bite before we left VT!  Then we drove just a few miles down the road to take the Ticonderoga Ferry across Lake Champlain to Ticonderoga, New York.  Our kids had never been on a car ferry before, so that was new for them, and it only took about 10 minutes, so we weren’t stuck on a boat for too long.  Just across the lake was Fort Ticonderoga .  We did not visit the fort, as we didn’t think our kids would enjoy it at their ages, but if you have older kids, you could check that out.  The surrounding gardens look beautiful!  We did check out downtown Ticonderoga’s Bicentennial Park, complete with covered bridge, waterfall, and playground for the kids.  Lunch recommendations: Hot Biscuit Diner or Burleigh’s.  We returned to the guest house for farm chores and dinner.  (Do be aware that there aren’t any restaurants in Benson, only a general store.  The nearest restaurants would be 9 miles south of Benson in Fair Haven, so we ended up cooking dinner each night.)

Day Three: We took a drive (45 minutes) to Rutland, VT.  Rutland is a pretty big town (by Vermont standards) with lots of restaurants and commerce.  We headed straight for nearby Hathaway Farm to do their famous corn maze!  It was another beautiful farm with the requisite big red barn.  In the barn were some small animals the kids could see up close and touch (sheep, goats, cow, donkey, ducks, chickens, pigs).  After we tried the children’s corn maze (which is very short and easy to complete) and checked out the animals, we headed into the big corn maze.  We didn’t come anywhere near completing it.  It is a 7-acre corn maze and very complex.  We did maybe a quarter of it and then bailed out through one of the early-exit gates.  So good news is older kids might really be into it and thus the maze can occupy a solid 2 hours of your day, but if you have little ones, you do have quite a few options to exit early if needed.  Then we went into Rutland for lunch.  My kids are picky and vegetarian, and so this presented a bit of a challenge.  We couldn’t just pop into McDonalds for a quick fix, though we probably wouldn’t do that even if we weren’t vegetarian.  So we ended up at Quiznos.  Food was fine, but it just took a long time.  And as you know, with hungry kids whining, you really want your food yesterday.  Regardless, we survived.  We headed back to Benson, making one stop to pick up a pumpkin.  When we got back to the farm house, we (my husband) carved it into a jack-o-lantern for the guest house front porch.  Then more farm chores, dinner, and bed.

Day Four: Unfortunately, our visit to Vermont was drawing to a close.  We had to get moving in order to get back up to Burlington that night for a ridiculously early flight out the next morning.  The good news was that we had one more awesome day in Vermont.  We set out at 9am heading east across Vermont, through Rutland again, heading in the direction of Woodstock, VT.  I had always wanted to see Woodstock, as I had heard great things about it.  It was indeed, as picturesque as I had heard.  Absolutely gorgeous and charming.  We passed right through, though, heading to the next little town called Quechee.  In Quechee, we visited the Vermont Institute of Natural Science , which houses and rehabilitates raptors.  We got to see some beautiful birds up close and personal in the morning lecture.  Owls, hawks, falcons, and even a vulture!  The birds were very cool and the nature center facilities were unbelievable.  This place is a total treasure.  Aside from seeing the birds, there is an awesome .5 mile nature trail (very easy for kids to do this hike, but not for strollers) through the surrounding woods, down by the river, and back up past a tipi and a vernal pool; three rooms in which children can play and explore; interesting garden sculptures; picnic tables for snack time.  VINS is definitely worth your time.  Skip the totally cheesy nearby Quechee Gorge (which by the way was slammed with people and tour buses when we passed through) and go to VINS instead.  No crowd and much more interesting. From Quechee, we took the interstate back up to Burlington while both kids napped. (That, btw, is unprecedented!!)  We checked into our hotel, Homewood Suites, then set out for dinner in downtown Burlington.  Burlington was a very active city.  It was a Saturday night, and the city was hopping.  Burlington has the luxury of having its university campus adjacent to downtown, literally.  So all the college nightlife is merged with downtown, making the whole downtown seem more active.  Not to mention that Burlington has an awesome pedestrian mall with lots of cute coffee shops, great retailers, and solid restaurants.  We ate at American Flatbread, which is a wood-fired pizza place.  It was the perfect meal to end our perfect Fall holiday.

To close, here are my main travel tips for this particular trip:

• Have lots of snacks.  Vermont isn’t the most heavily populated place, and you may find some towns with few to no dining options.  Always have lots of snacks on hand. This goes for the plane trip, as well.

• If you stay at FF Guest House, make sure you get some gallons of bottled drinking water.  They are on a well and the water is perfectly clean, but it does have a mineral smell/taste that city dwellers may not like.  Just have several gallons on hand for drinking and making coffee and such.

• Don’t over-plan.  One major destination per day kept us plenty busy.  Downtime on the farm in the afternoons was also very good for all of us.

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According to my daughter, I say that a lot. First things first.

1. We are back from vacation. Vermont was awesome and I highly recommend it for a great family Fall vacation. More on that in another post.

2. Little Lambs & Ivy is having a calendar sale this month. What exactly is a calendar sale? Well, each day this month, a different set of items will be on sale for 20% off. For this week: Tuesday is Orange Day. Wednesday is Socks and Tights Day. Thursday is Baby Gift Day. Friday is Sweater Day. Saturday is Brown Day. I’ll post next week’s schedule later in the week. Go check it out and support local business!

3. This weekend, the Columbia Double Dutch Forces will be performing at the RCPL Southeast Regional branch, which is on Garner’s Ferry Road. 1:30pm. Suitable for all ages and free.

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This weekend, the Nickelodeon Theatre will once again offer a family-friendly movie as part of the Second Saturdays @ The Nick program. This month, the movie is E.T. Yes, the one you saw when you were a kid! I am super excited that this movie will be shown here, and that local children (and adults!) will get to experience this cinematic treasure on the big screen! The movie is recommended for ages 7+, so leave the really little ones at home. Spread the word, and get out to the Nickelodeon on Saturday morning at 10am.

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For our trip, I am pulling together a cd for the kids. If you want to help your kids expand their musical taste… you know, offer them something besides They Might Be Giants or Lunch Money (both of which I love, by the way), try this mix. My kids love these songs:

In Between Days - The Cure

It’s Oh So Quiet - Bjork

Vampire - Antsy Pants

Pony - Kasey Chambers

Do Lord - Johnny Cash

I’ll Fly Away - Johnny Cash

Orange Blossom Special - Johnny Cash

I Put a Spell On You - Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

All I Want Is You - Barry Louis Polisar

A-Punk - Vampire Weekend

Second Chance - Liam Finn

Stand - R.E.M.

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