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🎉 The Naperville FunTimes
Your Weekly Family Fun Guide
Issue #30  •  Friday, October 2, 2026
Happy Friday, Naperville families! 🍺
It’s October, which means the weather is now a coin flip and every plan needs a backup. So this week has one of each: a German beer festival at Naper Settlement that has a kids’ ticket and inflatables, a free nature center with a woolly mammoth skeleton, and an indoor playground on Route 59 for when the sky opens up. Kids eat free at two spots too, one of which works any day of the week.
🍂 First Weekend of October
 
📅 This Week’s Top 3 Family Picks
Family at an Oktoberfest festival at dusk
Pick #1
⚡ This Weekend Only
Oktoberfest at Naper Settlement — Polka Bands, Pretzels & a Kids’ Ticket for $15 🍺
📍 523 S. Webster St., Naperville
💰 $25 adults • $15 kids (4–12) • tickets sell out
👶 Kids 4–12 have their own ticket
🕑 Fri Oct 2, 5–10 PM • Sat Oct 3, 3–10 PM
Yes, it’s a beer festival. It’s also held on the grounds of a 19th-century village, with live polka bands, Bavarian food, food trucks, and a kids’ ticket that gets them children’s activities and inflatables. Saturday is the family-friendly one: it starts at 3 PM, so you can get in, eat a giant pretzel, let the kids bounce, and be back home before the stein-holding contest at 5 gets rowdy. Naper Settlement has said tickets go fast, so grab them online before you drive over.
🍺 Get Oktoberfest Tickets →
 
💕 Why We Love It
Nothing else on the calendar this weekend gives you a polka band and a bouncy castle in the same place. Bring a light jacket, because the sun drops fast after 6 and the village gets chilly. If it’s sold out when you check, the Settlement’s Family Spooktacular on Oct 24–25 is the kid-focused one to save.
Family exploring a woodland creek trail near a historic mill
Pick #2
Fullersburg Woods — A 13,000-Year-Old Mammoth Skeleton & a Working Water Mill, Both Free 🦣
📍 3609 Spring Rd., Oak Brook
💰 Free (donations welcome)
👶 All ages — strollers do fine on the paths
🕑 Nature center daily 10 AM–4 PM
The Nature Education Center has a real woolly mammoth skeleton in it, plus microscopes, spotting scopes, and nature backpacks the kids can borrow for a trail walk along Salt Creek. Then walk down to Graue Mill next door, the only working waterwheel gristmill in Illinois, built in 1852. It’s free too and open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 to 4, with milling and weaving demos on Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM. It’s a short drive from Naperville, and the leaves are just starting to turn.
🦣 Plan Your Visit →
 
💕 Why We Love It
Total cost of the outing is zero, and it’s the kind of morning where the kids do the walking and you get to drink your coffee. Do the mammoth first while everybody is fresh, then the mill at 2 for the demo. There are portable toilets at the mill, but use the ones inside the nature center before you go.
Children playing in an indoor playground while parents relax
Pick #3
Ball Factory — Four Stories of Slides, Tunnels & Foam Obstacles for Rainy Days ⚽
📍 864 S. Route 59, Naperville
💰 Day pass, unlimited time • siblings under 1 free
👶 Up to 12 • separate toddler zone
🕑 Sat–Sun 10 AM–6 PM • Fri 9:30 AM–6 PM
This is your October weather insurance. Ball Factory is a big indoor play structure on Route 59 with slides, tunnels, ball blasters and a dedicated toddler area, so a two-year-old and a ten-year-old can both be busy at the same time. There’s a full coffee bar plus pizza, nuggets and nachos, so nobody has to leave to eat. A day pass covers unlimited time, and the current prices are listed on the Ball Factory website.
⚽ See Hours & Passes →
 
💕 Why We Love It
It works for the mixed-age family, which most places don’t. Go Friday if you can; weekends are busiest when it rains. Everyone will want to stay all day, so a day pass is worth it, and you can drink an actual hot latte while they wear themselves out.
 
🍽️ Kids Eat Free This Week!
The first one works any day, including this weekend. The second is a Tuesday deal for next week. Adult entrée required at both.
⭐ Top Pick
🍔 The James — Geneva
EVERY DAY
Kids eat free with the purchase of an adult entrée, no day restrictions. The kids’ menu is the usual suspects (mini burger, grilled cheese, mac & cheese, nuggets) with fries or chips. It’s a nice place to land after the Fabyan Windmill side of the Fox River, or as a Saturday-night reward if you don’t mind the 20-minute drive.
317 S. 3rd St., Geneva • (630) 262-1317
⛳ Arrowhead Golf Club Restaurant — Wheaton
TUESDAYS
Kids eat free with the purchase of an adult entrée, so it’s a school-night option for next week. It’s a golf-course dining room with a real menu, and the deal has been running for a while. Call before you go if you’re counting on it, since the age cutoff isn’t posted online.
26W151 Butterfield Rd., Wheaton • (630) 653-5800
 
Heads up: it gets dark around 6:30 now, and that changes every plan you have. Pack the jackets, keep a dry pair of socks in the car, and pick one thing off this list instead of trying to do all three. A pretzel and a polka band on Saturday is a pretty good weekend on its own.
See you next Friday,
The Naperville FunTimes Team 🧡

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