What's Cool for Tweens in November: MsTwixt's Calendar

Ms Twixt's Calendar

• Nov 1 Hello Kitty's birthday
• Nov 1 Hilary Knight's birthday (illustrator of "Eloise")
• Nov 2 Kendall Schmidt's birthday
• Nov 2 Cookie Monster's birthday
• Nov 4 Eloise's birthday
• Nov 5 Kevin Jonas' birthday
• Nov 7 "Shake It Up" series premiere on Disney Channel
• Nov 9 Kay Thompson's birthday (author of "Eloise")
• Nov 10 Lilly Pulitzer's birthday
• Nov 10 Sesame Street's anniversary
• Nov 10 Emerson Rose Tenney's birthday (Teri Hatcher's daughter)
• Nov 12 Anne Hathaway's birthday
• Nov 12 "Avalon High" movie premiere on Disney Channel
• Nov 13 National Gallery's outdoor skating rink opens on the National Mall
• Nov 13 Monique Coleman's birthday
• Nov 15 "Harry Potter 7: The Deathly Hollows" U.S. movie premiere in NYC - ticket info here
• Nov 18 Mickey Mouse's birthday
• Nov 18 "Harry Potter 7: The Deathly Hollows" movie midnight opening!
• Nov 23 Miley Cyrus' birthday
• Nov 24 "Tangled" movie opens
• Nov 29 Louisa May Alcott's birthday (author of "Little Women")
• November Big Time Rush tour (locations TBD)

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. Please also follow our updates or Re-Tweet our posts on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

National Candy Corn Day is October 31st

We love candy corn, and Halloween is, of course, National Candy Day. We stumbled upon this fun cookie recipe for Candy Corn Cookies - it is super easy and a great after-school project or Halloween-day project for tweens:

You'll need:
- one batch of sugar cookie dough (your favorite recipe or mix)
- orange paste food color (if you use the liquid drops, add a tad more flour to the dough)
- 2 squares (2 oz.) of semisweet chocolate melted.

1. Line a loaf pan with waxed paper, extending paper over sides of pan.
2. On work surface, place 3/4 cup dough. Knead about 4 slashes of orange food paste into dough until color is well incorporated. Press this orange dough evenly in bottom of loaf pan.
3. Divide remaining dough in half. Gently press one half of remaining dough (un-colored) into pan on top of orange dough. 
4. On work surface, knead chocolate into remaining dough until the dough is well mixed and looks like chocolate throughout. Press this chocolate cookie dough over the plain dough in pan, pressing gently to edge of pan. 
5. Refrigerate 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until firm.
6. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove dough from pan. Cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Cut each slice into 5 wedges. On ungreased cookie sheet, place wedges 1 inch apart.
7. Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are set and edges are very light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet. Cool completely. Store in tightly covered container.

Photo and recipe adapted from Betty Crocker.

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. Please also follow our updates or Re-Tweet our posts on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

Back by Popular Demand: Taylor Swift on Halloween

Tween singing superstar Taylor Swift says her mantra for Halloween is NOT to be sexy, but to be scary. Ms. Swift gave an interview to MTV sharing, "I felt all the girls in our school kind of used Halloween as an excuse to take all their clothes off and parade around." She added, "They would tan weeks in advance so that they could bare it all on Halloween. I'm like, 'That's not the point.' You're supposed to be scary." Last year, Ms. Swift dressed up as Chewbacca along with her best friend explaining, "Abigail and I have always been sort of anti-teeny-tiny, little costumes."

It is refreshing to see tween celebrity favorites voice common-sense and independence on such topics and to treat their positions as tween role models responsibly. Ms. Swift is to be commended on her stance of not bowing to peer pressure and demonstrating how going one's own way doesn't detract from the festivities.

There have been several news stories recently about the sexualization of tween girls on Halloween, and it can often be difficult to find age-appropriate costumes. Thankfully, girls this age are creative and resourceful, and many opt to craft their own unique looks for Halloween. As a parent of three tween girls, I am thrilled to have another example of a high profile tween celebrity reinforcing a spirit of independent thinking and resistance to peer pressure.

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. Please also follow our updates or Re-Tweet our posts on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

Perfect Non-Sweet Treat for Tweens on Halloween

We saw these and flipped! Twixt has always sold these cool Lego-like Zip Zip drives, and customers love them because they're fun and perfect for storing homework files.

Now Zip Zip has come out with a glow-in-the-dark version just in time for Halloween - so cool! They also work as light up keychains, and with Day Light Savings Time around the corner (next Sunday, November 7), these are great for our tween's backpacks. Ms Twixt plans to include these in our tweens' ghost gift baskets.

$35 for 2GB from MyZipZip.com

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. Please also follow our updates or Re-Tweet our posts on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

Back by Popular Demand: 'Tis the Season: Candy Corn Mania

We originally ran this post last year, but we've had many requests to bring it back.

We love candy corn! Here's a smattering of what we found to celebrate this Halloween icon:

SEE: Possibly the World's Largest candy corn is at Disneyland's California Adventures Sunshine Plaza where the Mouse transformed the "California" sign as giant candy corn.




WEAR: How cute is this Candy Corn fairy costume for a tween? ($40 from Chasing-Fireflies.com; accessories not included)


MAKE: There are a million ways to use candy corn in baking; these cupcakes were cute and original (photo from iheartcuppycakes1 on Flickr)



GIVE: A sweet way gift for your tween that won't anger her orthodontist: a plush Cornelius Candy Corn from artist Dan Goodsell ($6.99 from myplasticheart.com)



CRAFT: Here's a free(!) pattern to download for your crafty tween to knit her own candy corn hat! Pattern courtesy of Material Whirled.



DRINK: A fun Halloween party beverage from Jones Soda Company: Candy Corn Soda. Be warned: this is SUPER sweet (good thing it comes in such small cans). These used to be available at Target, but no longer; try your local World Market instead. ($1.50 for 4 8-oz cans)


 If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. Please also follow our updates or Re-Tweet our posts on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

New Greyson Chance Single: Waiting Outside the Lines

Remember 11-year old singing phenom Greyson Chance? His first single came out yesterday on The Ellen Show. Once again, he's amazing. It's called "Waiting Outside the Lines", and the video is below:




If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. Please also follow our updates or Re-Tweet our posts on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

A Real Hello Kitty Car

In celebration of Sanrio's 50th anniversary, Smart Car has created three Hello Kitty wrapped Smart Cars. Even though tweens are too young to drive, they'll love seeing these cute cars. The cars are available for order for those so inclined, and they can be seen on a national tour here.

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. Please also follow our updates or Re-Tweet our posts on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

Fun for Tweens: How-To Do a Candy Corn Manicure

Just in time for Halloween: a fun how-to for a Candy Corn manicure!

This is from a cute blog by Babbling Brooke who is a tad nail polish obsessed, but lucky for us, she shares - here's her guide for a fun Candy Corn manicure:

1. Use two coats of yellow nail polish (she used Need Sunglasses by OPI)
2. Then paint on a coat of orange using a either a French manicure nail guide or simply swooshing a curved line. Paint to the ends, leaving a stripe of the yellow showing at the base of the nail
3. Use a French manicure white nail pen or tip paint to do the ends in white
4. Paint on two layers of top coat to smooth out the layered look and feel of this manicure

Sweet!

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. Please also follow our updates or Re-Tweet our posts on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

United Nations Day for Students

Yesterday, October 24, was United Nations Day. If your tween is doing Trick or Treat for UNICEF or has purchased that cool FEED Trick or Treat bag we wrote about earlier, she or he may also be interested in learning more about U.N. Day. (BTW, tween star Selena Gomez is a current UNICEF Ambassador - the youngest ever)

U.N. Day marks the date the UN was created in 1945. According to the current U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, "UN Day is a day on which we resolve to do more.  More to protect those caught up in armed conflict, to fight climate change and avert nuclear catastrophe; more to expand opportunities for women and girls, and to combat injustice and impunity; more to meet the Millennium Development Goals." Pretty cool stuff.

Tweens can read more about United Nations Day on their website with a special section for students here.

In our tweens' middle school, they've just started Model U.N., and that's been really exciting in our house. Model U.N. is a debate program offered by many schools in which students step into the shoes of ambassadors from U.N. member states to debate current issues. It's an amazing program to help tweens grow into themselves as researchers, as advocates, and as public speakers in a safe, age-appropriate way.

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. Please also follow our updates or Re-Tweet our posts on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

First Tweens' Parent Teacher Conferences

Now that the school year is off and running, it's already time for the first parent-teacher conference. Yesterday, the President and First Lady attended parent-teacher conferences for First Tweens Malia and Sasha Obama at Sidwell Friends School. Ms. Sasha Obama is in fourth grade at the lower school campus of Sidwell in Bethesda, Maryland, and Ms. Malia Obama is in seventh grade at the middle school campus in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, DC. According to the Associated Press, President Obama has never missed a parent-teacher conference in either Chicago or Washington.

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. Please also follow our updates or Re-Tweet our posts on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt