We're constantly looking for new ways to update holiday traditions with our tweens, and this Easter we're trying a new twist on the traditional egg hunt: a flashlight egg hunt. We're planning ours for the Friday night before Easter (so as not to conflict with the Passover Seder) and ending with a screening at home of the big Easter movie from last year, Hop (the DVD went on sale March 23.)
How does one do a flashlight egg hunt? With a bit of planning. Here's ours:
We round up all the flashlights in the house: one for each tween (if your neighborhood or church group were super organized, it looks like you can also get these personalized).
Then the Easter Bunny hides the eggs (during daylight). He choses glittered eggs that are easier to spot when a light shines on them and stuffs others with a glow-in-the-dark bracelet so that they glow. (These you'll have to hide strategically to make them harder a spot.)
Since the hunts on Sunday mornings are primarily for the younger set (and in our family, the tweens must help the littles, not hunt themselves), we're having fun stuffing these eggs especially for tweens with LipSmackers, sticker sheets, hair ties, Cadbury eggs, and Peeps. We're even making a few braces-themed eggs that contain cherry flavored braces wax, those mini Wisp toothbrushes, and mini M-and-;Ms (which melts and doesn't stick so is safe for those sporting orthodontia).
We will end the festivities with the Hop movie screening and serve (what else?) Peeps fondue. After the sugar rush, the girls will have fun giving each other colorful Easter egg manicures - perfect for sporting with her dress on Sunday.
We were thrilled when our friends at Club Chica Circle asked us to write a guest post for them on ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with tweens. We had a ball creating an End of the Rainbow party in honor of the day - check out our post for ideas and how-to's here.
We love, love, love celebrating New Year's Eve and planning a party with our tweens is half of the fun. Here's a link to an earlier post with some party planning ideas including decorations, food, and drink suggestions.
This year we're adding surprise balls to the mix - check out this video from Kate Spade New York showing how fun these are:
First Tween Sasha Obama is ten years old today and celebrated her birthday at Georgetown Cupcake. The younger Miss Obama and her sister, Malia Obama, and several friends had a birthday party at the original Georgetown Cupcake location on Prospect Street in Georgetown (which is now used as their television studio for their show, "DC Cupcakes"). The owners of the cupcakery were on hand for the party, and we imagine that decorating cupcakes was on the agenda. Last year, Sasha had her birthday party at California Pizza Kitchen (Hmm, do we sense a theme? Our tweens think she made really fun choices in her party locations.)
Local Georgetown journalist Carol Joynt broke this story, and she has more photos on her blog here.
Happy 10th birthday to Sasha!
Photos by Carol Joynt. (Malia Obama is the tallest girl walking into the bakery, and Sasha is holding the bouquet of flowers. We love the huge bunch of pink balloons decorating the party spot.)
Our tweens are getting up early to watch the Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William this Friday morning, and we'll celebrate by having a traditional British tea for breakfast (the wedding will be at 11am London time which will be 6am here in Washington). An event with this much (literal!) pomp and circumstance does not happen everyday, and the spectacle of the event has piqued all of our tweens' curiosity.
On the menu: scones, clotted cream, raspberry jam, lemon curd, strawberries with cream, and (of course!) English Breakfast tea. We are definitely not morning people, so to make things easier the tweens will mix the dry ingredients for the scones the night before. When the alarm clock rings, we'll take the cold scone mix out of the fridge, add the eggs and buttermilk and then bake them off (these scones will turn out extra light and flakey as a result of the overnight chilling). Scones are easy to make with tweens because the dough requires so little handling - and in fact turns out better the less it is mixed - and this last step can be done while still groggy. Our favorite recipe for scones is from Martha Stewart.
We'll watch the Royal Wedding and have breakfast in bed before school on Friday morning. The tweens will be in their pajamas and wearing any tiaras we find in their old dress-up bin. Your tween could also make a pipe cleaner tiara and ring just for the event with pipe cleaners and beads - bonus points for using a red, white and blue theme.
Should you have the energy at 6am to decorate, check out this funky Rule Britannia party theme for a Royal Wedding Viewing Party from Bird's Party:
In doing research on what to serve at a Royal Wedding viewing party, we came across a company that makes "jellies" (the American version is Jell-O): Bompas and Parr. This company is run by two young British guys who are on a mission to bring Jell-O back into style. They've done jelly art installations at the SFMOMA and are known for making fantastic flavor combinations and architectural interesting jellies. They've made a special jelly mold of Buckingham Palace in honor of the wedding, and here's their piece from The Today Show earlier this week:
Justin Bieber is on his World Tour, and this weekend he played in Milan, Italy. Major fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana of Dolce & Gabbana threw a party for The Biebs after his concert on Saturday night. The designers are fans of the star, and he has been sporting their clothes at recent awards shows.
Dolce & Gabbana hosted the party at their restaurant, Gold, and set up a VIP area with the star's name in huge gold letters. Mr. Gabbana said: "We like him a lot, although he's very young, he's very attentive towards style and he takes care of his look".
"Coke or Pepsi?" is a book with questions for girls to ask other girls about their interests, their likes and dislikes, etc. Our own tweens love to bring these books on sleepovers, to parties, on road trips, etc. The publishers just released out a new edition of the book, and our eldest tween's review of it is here:
"I thought the "Coke or Pepsi?" Girl Diary was awesome! It is chock full of great diary entry spurring ideas! Some of these ideas include a virtual tree to carve your own personalized message into, space to write the letter you’ll never send, and a page to turn your own drama into a movie poster. I also really enjoy this because even if your not a writer there is still ways to get your feelings on paper. Only suggestions - maybe a more discreet cover for privacy you know? Thanks "Coke or Pepsi?" for a GREAT space for a girl to unwind at the end of a day!! <3 "
The publishers gave us two copies of this series to give away, and we're thrilled to share this with our readers as our April giveaway (congrats to our March giveaway winner, Hailey, who won the Justin Bieber Special Edition 3-D Glasses). To win these books, you all you have to do is become a fan of MsTwixt on Facebook and post a comment on our Wall about this book (if you're already of fan of ours on Facebook (thank you!) - just post a comment about this book on our Wall). We'll select two winners at random from those who post comments, and you can post as many comments as you'd like. (NOTE: Tweens: if you would like to enter this contest, you must have your parent enter. As Facebook's policy is that you must be 13 years or older to have a profile, we hope that this helps to ensure that parents only enter. This is because we want to respect the privacy of tweens and will not collect personally identifiable information on kids. As always, please be smart online - see our tips on online safety for tweens as a reminder.) We'll draw one winner on April 8th and another on April 15th.
Note: as a reminder, MsTwixt is strictly editorial and there is no pay-to-play. We receive lots of requests to review products and turn down nearly all of them. This is one of those few times when what we love and have recommended in the past matched up with a chance to share the item with our readers. Unlike most blogs, we never do paid product reviews - you're getting the dish straight-up.)
Our tweens' Girl Scout troops are making 1000 origami cranes to send to a sister Girl Scout troop in Japan as a show of support and friendship in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. The significance of the origami cranes comes from the story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who was a victim of the Hiroshima atomic attack and suffered from leukemia as a result of the nuclear fallout. Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds 1000 cranes will be granted a wish by a crane such as long life or being cured of a disease. Sadako died when she was only 12 years old from the disease and folded 644 cranes before her death. Her classmates folded the remaining amount after she died as a sign of their love and support. There is a statue in Sadako's memory in Hiroshima, and the tradition of sending 1000 origami cranes is recognized today as a symbol of world peace and solidarity.
Our project began with a local librarian attending our troop meeting and showing the girls how to fold these beautiful animals out of colorful origami paper. Particularly for younger tweens, this took some doing, but all of the girls got the hang of it after a while. This is a complicated origami project to do as an introduction to origami, and it is a testament to the librarian's patience that all of the girls in the troop were able to successfully make their cranes. Each girl went home with origami paper, an instruction sheet, and an empty shoe box and will return to our next troop meeting with the shoe boxes full of origami cranes to mail to our sister troop in Japan.
To help sustain the girls' efforts, our tweens made candy sushi as a snack for the troop. This was a fun but sticky project involving Rice Krispy treats, Fruit Roll-Ups, and Swedish Fish. You can find recipes for candy sushi fairly easily online, but here are our tips:
Make a batch of Rice Krispy treats, but add a few more marshmallows than usual (you want a pliable rather than crisp treat).
While one tween makes the Rice Krispy Treats, have another tween unwrap and unroll one package of Fruit Roll-Ups. Our local market was out of the green kind, so we used dark purple instead (we liked that the color scheme reminded us of Cherry Blossom season here in Washington). I've also seen tie-dye or rainbow ones used to great effect.
Press a flat layer of Rice Krispy treats onto each Fruit Roll-Up roll leaving about a half-inch plain.
Lay a double row of mini Swedish Fish length-wise down the cereal treats and then roll up the "sushi" roll ending and sealing with the plain half-inch. You could also use sour straws, gummy worms or fruit licorice instead of the Swedish Fish
Use a sharp knife to slice the "sushi" into pieces. We served ours in cupcake liners.
We found that one batch of Rice Krispy Treats and one box of Fruit Roll-Ups made enough "sushi" for 15 hungry tweens as a mid-afternoon treat. (Orthodontists: beware!)
The troop has decided to host a bake sale to raise funds for the Red Cross to accompany these origami cranes, and I think our tweens will make another batch of candy sushi to sell at the fundraiser. We may try to make a more professional looking nigri-style sushi like these from not Martha for the bake sale.
Has your tween taken part in any efforts to help Japan after the earthquake? Please share what they're doing below!
Our tweens have discovered Mardi Gras and are excited to celebrate Fat Tuesday as a family. This year they've asked to have pancakes for dinner (I'm not entirely certain how traditional these are as a dinner option - let us know if this is legit).
We saw these Mardi Gras mask cookies by Sweetopia that use this amazing decorating ingredient called "disco dust" (which we'll need to try because of the name alone):
In past years we've made beignets for breakfast, but we haven't tried to bake a King Cake as yet.
We were looking for cool jazz tunes to introduce our tweens to and stumbled upon this great organization called Jazz House Kids. Their mission is to introduce young people to the joy of jazz and provide them "with a unique opportunity to explore the rich heritage of this great American art form firsthand". They are "dedicated to improving the quality of life for young people through the medium of jazz and provide young people with an innovative concept of understanding music." We love that they celebrate "multiple intelligences" by teaching of jazz.
We're looking for some jazz music to play with our tweens tonight - do you have any suggestions?
Some other fun ways to celebrate Mardi Gras with tweens:
A library in New Jersey held a tween dance party that featured an air guitar competition
We thought this craft to make unique Mardi Gras masks was really well thought-out.
We've had a tremendous response to our post on a Justin Bieber/"Never Say Never" themed-birthday party, and we appreciate everyone's comments and emails!
To thank our readers, we thought we'd share the love and give you a little something to celebrate the Bieb's birthday in style: we're giving away a pair of limited edition purple Justin Bieber 3D glasses! (We purchased several of these for our youngest tween's birthday and it turns out that we overestimated by one pair - our error is your gain.) They are brand new and in their original packaging.
To win these cool purple shades, all you need to do is post a comment below about how you and/or your tween marked Mr. Bieber's birthday yesterday (our tween's report is here). We'll need your email address as well, so send it to us at mstwixt@gmail.com (we NEVER sell or lease your information, and if you are a tween, please have your grown-up send us their email address).
We'll draw one lucky tween's name from the list of comments on Saturday, March 5th. Happy posting!
Justin Bieber's 17th birthday is today, March 1st, but our youngest tween's (age 8) birthday was this past weekend and she celebrated with a Bieber birthday party. The girls had so much fun that we thought we'd share how we put together this birthday extravaganza:
We took the group to see "Never Say Never, the Director's Cut" and made sure the tweens were properly outfitted for the show with special Bieberized purple 3D glasses and purple glow sticks. Pre-party prep included getting ready with purple rock star hair and Bieber Silly Bandz.
At the movies, the girls took over the last row of the theater and rocked out to the show. They had a blast and a few left converted as true "Beliebers".
After the show they had a sleepover and made their own bedazzled "varsity" tops inspired by the "Never Say Never" movie poster - here's how:
We used sheets of sticker-backed felt and printed out 8-inch high varsity letters; then
We traced the letters onto the felt and cut them out.
Then we outlined each letter using a silver Sharpie pen, and glued on differing sizes of silver rhinestones. Then we affixed them onto a (purple, of course) tank top.
The girls flipped over their custom tops!
We also found this amazing party planning site, The Party Animal, with fantastic ideas for planning a Justin Bieber bash - enjoy!
On a more positive note, the company now offers custom Silly Bandz. While pricey (the minimum order is for 5000 of each shape at $0.16/each - this adds up to about $800), these could be great for school or camp fundraisers, a joint Bat Mitzvah party, etc. We wish these were around when we had Twixt!
As our tweens plan their New Year's Eve sleepover party, we are stocking up on crafts for the girls to do while waiting for midnight. Crafting fuzzy flower rings out of pipe cleaners fits the bill perfectly: these are inexpensive, independent, and fun!
Our tweens are heading to the craft store to pick out all manner of sparkly pipe cleaners for this project. Let us know if you try it and send us photos - we'll post them (removing, of course, all tweens' personally identifiable information)!
We're known for our tween-focused New Year's Eve celebrations, and this year, we thought we'd share our list of all things fabulous for tweens on New Year's Eve a bit earlier than usual.
Our first fun find: eco-friendly glow-in-the-dark nail polish! Made by Piggy Paint, their Radioactive nail polish is part of their new line for tweens called Project Earth. We think this would be perfect for mani-pedis during a fun girls-night-in or New Year's spa party.
Here's our guide to the Ultimate Percy Jackson Party:
Blue food!
The tween demi-Gods in attendance can consult the Oracle to see which Greek God will claim her with a sorting quiz.
Make a laurel wreath to wear once she's completed her quest (you'll need a plain plastic headband, olive/dull green foam sheets, scissors, a hot glue gun, and a wreath cookie cutter (to use as pattern to cut out leaves). The girls can also have fun draping themselves in white sheets to create toga looks.
A little bag of chocolate gold coins (drachmas) would make a sweet party favor.
We also found another Percy Jackson party on Make It Do's blog check out the great ideas she had for her son's party.
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Ms. Twixt just learned about a really fun online tool to put your photos on M and M candies: the M and M Candy Lab. Check it out at: http://www.thecandylab.com/ You can upload your photo onto a virutal M and M and then make it talk or sing.
'Tweens: ALWAYS be sure to get your parents' permission before posting any photos of yourself online!
This little tool also allows you to post the M and M onto your Facebook or MySpace page - very cool!
We will end the festivities with the Hop movie screening and serve (what else?) Peeps fondue. After the sugar rush, the girls will have fun giving each other colorful Easter egg manicures - perfect for sporting with her dress on Sunday.
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