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Family on the Tens
Friday, September 29, 2006

$10

The Cleveland Botanical Garden, 11030 East Blvd., is hopping with cool fall activities. Check out the free Harvest Time Grain Grinding in the Hershey Children's Garden (which closes Wednesday, Nov. 1, until the spring) 1-3 p.m. Saturday and cider making (and tasting, of course) 1-4 p.m. Sunday, and then 1-3 p.m. Saturdays through Oct. 21. But before you head to those programs, watch staff feed the chameleons in the Madagascar Biome 10 a.m. to noon. It's all free with paid admission: $7.50, adults; $3, children 3-12; free, members and children under 3. Call 216-721-1600, or visit www.cbgarden.org. For outdoor fun this weekend, catch the "Walk With Spirits of the Past" program of dramatic performances on Brunswick history by actors from Brunswick Alumni Community Theatre, 7-9 p.m. today and Saturday, and 2-4 p.m. Sunday at Heritage Farm, 4613 Laurel Road, Brunswick. Tickets are $5, adults; $3, children kindergarten through 12th grade. Call 330-725-6443 or 330-225-8200, or go to brunswickact.org.

$20

The noble ballet of the white Lipizzaner Stallions returns to Northeast Ohio for its 26th- anniversary series of performances next week. The beautiful horses and their riders will high-step it at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at Lake Erie College Equestrian Center in Painesville. Tickets, $19.50; $17.50, children 12 and younger and seniors, are available at Tickets.com, or by calling 1-800-882-8258.. . . Through Sunday, you and your older kids -- take our word for it, really -- can get quadruple the fright for your money at the Carnival of Horrors at Blossom Music Center, 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls. Grab your scare-loving child and for $16 each, you can shiver and shriek your way through the Oblivion Cage Maze, the Fun House, 3-D Freakshow and the Wicked Woods. This attraction, started by a teenager in 1990, might not be the best thing for those with clown phobias. Or maybe it is. It's open 7:30 p.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays, and 7:30-10 p.m. Sundays. Go to Carnivalofhorrors2k.com.

Free

Shaker Square will come alive with fall festivities during the Fallfest at the Square noon-5 p.m. Saturday. Restaurants will sell sampler-size foods, and live acts -- African Soul International, drumming, bluegrass music by Cats on Holiday and more -- will entertain. Paint a pumpkin, make candy apples, dip a candle and learn about nature with the Shaker Nature Center. . . . Travel to North Chagrin Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks tonight for Family Friday Night -- Squire's Castle jaunt with naturalist Stacey Allen. Find out the truth about this castle in the middle of the forest (built as a caretaker's cottage, it's said to be haunted) while you take a short hike around the area. The program is 7-8:30 p.m. in the castle parking lot. Call 440-473-3370.