I don't think anyone gets Halloween off from work or school, but somehow it feels like a three-day weekend, doesn't it?

First off, if you're going trick-or-treating Friday night, stay safe. I'm sure you know the drill but here are some tips just in case you want a reminder.

You might as well keep the Halloween fun going into the evening of Saturday, Nov. 1.  Starting at 5 p.m., the Mason Library in Great Barrington is hosting a free Community Halloween Party. The kids party starts at 5 p.m. with "spirited" storytelling by Tim Van Egmond, a folksinger and storyteller who performs throughout New England. Devilish pizza and creepy cupcakes follow from 6 to 6:30. Children of all ages are welcome. At 6:30, the grownups' party begins with performances by Berkshire Sings and Berkshire Ukelele Band. The free party includes a buffet with fiery grilled quesadillas, the devil's q-tips, warm cider, beer and wine. The lights will be off and projections, including the silent film "Nosferetu," will play against the library walls while a dimly lit bat chandelier dangles from the center of the room. Costumes are encouraged. 

Up Route 7 a ways, the Lenox Dale Fire Company will host its annual Halloween Parade, which will begin at 7 p.m. at St. Vincent dePaul Church on Crystal Street and proceed through the village, ending at the fire station on Elm Street. A party for the children will follow at the fire station; prizes will be awarded for the best costumes.

Had enough Halloween? The Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield is hosting a family board game day from 1 to 3 p.m. Kids of all ages are welcome to come play and compete in a wide variety of games, all provided by the library. Remember the joys of Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Scrabble and Jenga while trying out dozens of exciting and new board games. This family event is free. No registration is required but children under 10 must be accompanied at all times by an adult.

Then on Sunday, Nov. 2, you'll be well-rested for a new adventure, because you will "fall behind" at 2 a.m. and therefore get an extra hour of sleep. (It's the most wonderful day of the year, truly.) What adventure is that? Have you been to the "new" Clark Art Institute yet? If not, today's the day.

The Clark Art Institute will hold its first Family Day since its grand reopening in the summer from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Freedom Family Day is held in conjunction with the final day of the Clark’s exhibition "Radical Words: From Magna Carta to the Constitution," which features six documents critical to the formation of American democracy. Freedom Family Day features family-friendly gallery talks, David Grover and Friends leading sing-alongs featuring songs about peace, love and freedom; art-making projects and more. All activities and admission are free.

Oh, and don't forget to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Yes, it should be a family event. Bring the kids and let them see democracy in action. Just don't let them put the ballot in the machine. The election monitors really don't like that!

Rebecca Dravis is the community editor at iBerkshires. She can be reached at rdravis@iberkshires.com.

Get your Halloween on this weekend ... and prepare to party for a full week!

I admit, Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays. It always seems to rain (or snow, a la 2012) and my daughter STILL has to go trick or treating. I suck it up and take her because I was not allowed to trick or treat when I was a child. (My mom had her reasons; I've gotten over it.)

Then there's the candy ... oh, all that candy. Who needs it? Well, ironically, my daughter kind of does. As a child with type one diabetes, she chooses to treat low blood sugars with candy. Did you know Smarties have the same chemical makeup as the official diabetic-friendly glucose tabs - but taste much better? So we pick out the Smarties (and other assorted good-for-treating-lows candy like Nerds and Starburst) and then we have a pile left ... from which she then picks out a few she wants to actually eat, non-reliant on blood sugar levels, and leaves the rest for the "switch witch" to come take and leave her a toy.

It's all so exhausting. And let me tell you, the switch witch doesn't need all that candy, either.

But I am indeed gearing up to start this weekend. Here are some Halloween-themes picks for family fun.

On Saturday, Oct. 25, Fairview Hospital’s Outpatient Rehabilitation team will host the 2014 Monster Dash, a fun 5k run/walk and a 1-mile walk starting at 10 Maple Ave. in Great Barrington, the site of Fairview’s Outpatient Rehabilitation Service.  All ages and abilities are welcome to run and walk and people are encouraged to wear a costume. Race day registration takes place from 8 a.m. to 9:20 a.m. in the Rehabilitation Department.

Moving along, "Beetlejuice" will be shown for free at 11 a.m. at the North Adams Movieplex. Those who bring in a non-perishable food item will be entered to win prizes.

Next up, the Berkshire Humane Society will be hosting a Halloween Adoption Party at Purradise, located at 301 Stockbridge Road in Great Barrington, from noon to 3 p.m. In addition to shelter animals up for adoption, there will be lots of fun activities for the entire family, including face painting, games and a costume contest.

Wrapping up Saturday is a party at the Great Barrington Fairgrounds. Starting at 4 p.m., there will be a pumpkin carving contest (bring your own pumpkin), followed by a 6 p.m. screening of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," followed by a bonfire. Costumes are encouraged but bring a blanket (or two or three).

Moving along to Sunday, Oct. 26, head to the Berkshire Mall for the annual "Malloween" celebrration from noon to 2 p.m. Kids can go store to store to collect candy and then join Live 95.9 in the food court for games and prizes and even more candy (yay).

Then at 4 p.m., watch or join in the Adams Lions Club's annual Halloween parade for children. Children, in costume, are asked to gather at 4 p.m. at the Adams Community Bank Center Street parking lot. The parade will step off at 4:30 pm, with marchers heading from Center Street to the east side of Park Street, then turning right onto East Maple Street to the Depot Street lot. In the Depot Street lot, the Adams Lions Club trailer will serve hot dogs and refreshments and the club will award prizes for the best costumes.

And if you're already looking toward the actual holiday, click here for our list of trick-or-treat hours.

Happy haunting.

Rebecca Dravis is the community editor at iBerkshires. She can be reached at rdravis@iberkshires.com.

It's a quiet mid-autumn weekend in the Berkshires.

It might rain Saturday, Oct. 18, so there are a couple of indoor options for family fun. First, the Berkshire Athenaeum will join Coordinated Family and Community Engagement for a “Fun with Fall” playgroup from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The program will include exploring, tasting, and reading about apples. Parents and children will also be able to complete an art activity as well as interact with various levels of math, literacy, and science stations. This event is geared toward children ages 2 to 5 but older and younger siblings are welcome to attend.

This event is free, no registration is required but children under 10 must be accompanied at all times by an adult over 18 years of age. For more information contact Jenn Faulconer, CFCE Coordinator, at 413-448-4809 or by e-mail at pittsfieldcfce@gmail.com.

If you like art, the Eclipse Mill artists in North Adams will open their doors to the public this weekend; you can read our story about it here.

And if the rain holds off, Clarksburg School will host its annual Haunted Hayride at Clarksburg State Park from 6 to 9:30 p.m. (If it rains, look for it next Saturday, Oct. 25.)

Sunday, Oct. 19, looks like a lovely, if much cooler, fall day. I will be heading to Six Flags New England for the annual JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes in the morning followed by a day in the park after. But if you're staying in the Berkshires, one event your family might like is at Ayelada Frozen Yogurt on East Street in Pittsfield, which is holding a family day to benefit Moments House. There will be balloon animals, crafts, pink yogurt pints and more. Moments House, in case you're not familiar with it, is a warm home-like daytime facility for all Berkshire County residents living with a cancer diagnosis as well as their families. They give amazing support there!

Or take the chance Sunday to do what plenty of people on my Facebook news feed seem to be doing these days: raking leaves.

Oh, and playing in them, too. You're never too old for that!

Rebecca Dravis is the community editor at iBerkshires. She can be reached at rdravis@iberkshires.com.

This column is brought to you by the department of shameless promotions.

But keep reading. It's for a good reason!

I have a little girl who has been living with type one diabetes for four years now. She wears two "gadgets" attached to her body, deals with blood sugar highs and lows, and never really feels "normal." It's a lot for anyone to deal with, much less a sweet 8-year-old. We are so very close to amazing technology (bionic pancreas) that would make living with this difficult disease much easier ... and maybe even a cure, as Thursday's news out of Harvard was amazing.

All year round, I do everything I can to promote awareness of this disease that affects around 3 million Americans but is much less understood than type two diabetes. But this time of the year, as we approach the annual JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes that we participate in, I kick into high gear with the raising of awareness - and money to help find that next step and ultimately that cure.

First, the awareness: In type one diabetes, which is an autoimmune disease, the pancreas has basically failed and does not produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. Healthy people have pancreases that produce the right amount of insulin at the right times; type one diabetics have to take insulin externally, either via shots or an insulin pump, every time they eat, calculating the amount of insulin they need based on the amount of carbohydrates in the food they are eating, their activity level, their stress level ... the list goes on and on of things that affect blood sugar, making it incredibly hard to manage the levels like a functioning pancreas would.

Stupid pancreas.

In type two diabetes, which is a metabolic disorder, usually the pancreas still makes insulin, but the body cannot use the insulin properly for various reasons.

OK, on to the fundraising part: I'm a big believer in the cliche of putting "fun" into fundraising, because asking for money just for the sake of money is hard! So this weekend, I have planned two fundraisers for my little girl's Walk to Cure Diabetes team that I hope will raise money to aid those wonderful folks working so hard to give her and the other 3 million folks a better life.

First on Saturday, Oct. 11, is a Progressive Palette painting party in Williamstown from 2-4 p.m. This is $35 a ticket and is for adults and kids over the age of 8. This requires you to register and pay online in advance, and there are only a few spots left, so if you read this and want to go, click here ASAP. All snacks and instruction are included!

Then on Monday is a movie morning at the North Adams Move Plex. For $5 per person (cash only please) you can see "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" on opening weekend! The movie starts at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, which is Columbus Day and appears to be cool and rainy - the perfect day for a movie!

OK, shameless promotion department is closed. Other weekend activities include the Berkshire Botanical Garden Harvest Festival both days, the opening of the Spark!Lab at the Berkshire Museum on Saturday, Octoberfest from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday in Monterey, the Medieval Faire at Ventfort Hall in Lenox on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Ramblefest in Adams from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Whatever you do, enjoy the long weekend.

I was driving down Route 7 in Williamstown on Thursday around 6 p.m. and my breath literally caught at the beauty of the stretch of road in front of Mount Greylock Regional High School.

I've always considered this to be one of the most beautiful half-miles in all the world, though I may be biased. Still, seeing the fading ray of the sun caressing the lovely fall foliage was awesome. So awesome that my daughter tried to take a picture through the car window. It didn't work, but I will always have it in my mind's eye.

This weekend in North Berkshire is all about the foliage. Starting tonight, Friday, Oct. 3, with the Fall Foliage Festival Children's parade and ending Sunday, Oct. 5, with the 1 p.m. main event parade, this weekend celebrates the natural beauty of the place we call home.

And the weather looks to cooperate today and Sunday, anyway.

The Children's Parade starts at 5:30 p.m. and marches from Main and Eagle Streets over the City Hall.  Children who want to participate should arrive by 5 p.m. at Main and Eagle streets. Categories for prizes are “Best Group Working Together” or “Best Overall Costumes” or “Most Imaginative Float." All three first place winners may participate in the Fall Foliage Festival Parade on Sunday. To be judged, entries must follow the theme of “Celebrating the adventure and culture over the 100 years of the Mohawk Trail.” All children may enter the parade even though they may wish not to compete. No child will be turned away.

There are also family friendly events on Saturday - the sixth annual dog parade at 10 a.m. starting from Veterans Memorial Park and the children's races and family fair from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Noel Field - but Mother Nature might be messing with these events. Still, it looks to be a lovely fall day for the main event on Sunday, which starts at 1 p.m. and marches up Route 8 and across Main Street before ending down Ashland Street.

Looking for some indoor family fun on Saturday? The Pittsfield Fire Department will be hosting an open house during Fire Prevention Week to promote "Working Smoke Alarms Save Lives!" Through these educational, family-oriented activities, which run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., residents can learn more about the importance of working smoke alarms and testing them monthly. The open house will be held at Pittsfield Fire Department Headquarters, 74 Columbus Ave. Activities include fire safety talks and activities, senior citizen fire safety, Emergency Medical Systems information, and CHILD Project retinal scans, a program that identifies and locates missing children through the use of iris identification biometric technology.

One more thing to mention: Before Sunday's parade, head over to Williamstown Elementary School for the annual PTO used clothing sale from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. This sale features a large selection of clothes and lots of great winter gear; boots, pants, jackets, hat and mittens. As an added bonus, items will be half price from noon to 1 p.m. Looking for cheap winter gear for the kids? Look no further. Because while this weekend is about fall, winter can't be far behind.

Rebecca Dravis is the community editor at iBerkshires. She can be reached at rdravis@iberkshires.com.