Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts held a Fall Festival this year with local musicians, local food & beverage, activities for the kids & a wonderful setting on a lake in the woods. We'd never been out to the property, so we decided this was a good opportunity to check it out. Comedy & Tragedy got into the spirit of the season...One of the local elementary schools built this recycle sculpure. Brandon was obviously impressed.Outside of the theater, there was a peaceful little garden with benches. I hoped to get a lovely picture of well behaved, serenely smiling, decorous siblings ... this was the best of the bunch. At least they are happy! Brandon got to do some crafts on "Pumpkin Hill." First he made a hobo sack on a stick which had a delicious Jolly Rancher inside.

After the hobo sack project, Brandon got to be more creative and use markers, glue and construction paper to create a paper bag puppet. This is the scarecrow he made. After doing the crafts, he told us "the Fall Festival wasn't so boring after all" ... yes he did say it just like that too.While Brandon was busy crafting, Laedyn checked out the pumpkins. She was excited to be able to touch and carry them around.Climbing on haybales wasn't bad either... An unusual moment of introspection!

Brandon made a new friend - Daisy the Scarecrow. We ran into her several times during our visit & Brandon didn't ever want to let her continue her wanderings. He REALLY liked Daisy & had to be pried away from her on several occasions.See ... I let Nick have the camera from time to time! This little canopy is near the performance stage. Performers were amplified, but the lake really allowed the music to reach every corner of the property in an unobtrusive manner. I look forward to going back again just for the music and ambiance!After wandering around the Wildwood grounds and seeing all that the Fall Festival had to offer, we took over a deck with a table and let the kids play. It was very relaxing. The weather was beautiful, the music surrounded us as it echoed over the lake, and the kids were content. Music soothes the savage beasts??? At the far end of the lake is a little pavilion where people can sit and enjoy the view. It had stairs that lead directly into the water - I guess you can dangle your feet into the lake if you want. We preferred to simply watch the schools of little fish darting around under the surface. On our way out we stopped near the entrance where they had a tractor set up for people to climb on and have their pictures taken. Brandon climbed up all by himself and refused to let us help him...

He didn't mind having Laedyn come up and join him for a picture once he'd had a few moments up there all by himself. She was pretty excited by the experience too, and cried when it was time to get down & head home.