Fun Tween Tradition on School Year's Eve: Schultuete

Happy Back to School! Our tweens return to school tomorrow, including one starting middle school (!). The girls aren't the ones only excited/nervous about Back to School - Mom loves the idea of starting fresh too. Readers know that the MsTwixt household celebrates every little thing, so here is one of our tweens' favorite Back to School traditions that your family might enjoy too:
Schultuetes are a German tradition of giving paper cones filled with school supplies and trinkets to celebrate the first day of school. They remind us of Christmas stockings. They are SO easy to make - all you need is: poster board, a stapler, some tissue paper, scissors, a glue stick, and a piece of ribbon.
Here are  the instructions:
1) Roll a piece of poster board into a cone shape. Your goal is to have the smallest opening possible at the tip of the cone. The overall size of the cone itself isn't critical. We find that a standard piece of drugstore poster board rolls naturally into a narrow cone that is approximately 30" tall.
2) Staple the poster board closed to keep the cone shape, and then trim the base of the cone so that the end is fairly level (precision isn't important here).
3) Decorate the outside of the cone as you like - we tend to use school colors and then use Sharpies to write our tweens' names on the schultuetes. Stickers are a great choice too.
4) Fill the cones with small school supplies. This year we included PJs from BeePosh, thin pens to help her color-code her notes, personalized pencils from Oriental Trading, erasers, rulers, portable hand sanitizer gel, a new toothbrush, and some scratch-n-sniff stickers.
5) Once the cones are filled, run glue stick along the INTERIOR edge of the cone's base. Then press tissue paper along the glued edge (we find that 2 pieces of tissue paper works well).
6) Cinch the tissue paper closed with the piece of ribbon, and Voila - a homemade schultuete! Schultuetes can be made in any size and any color combination - have fun with it!
Our tweens open theirs the night before school starts (School Year's Eve), and it's a great opportunity for parents to tuck in any straggling supplies.
What Back to School traditions does your family have? We'd love to hear!
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Tween Travel to Washington, DC - Top Picks & 3 Perfect Days

Recently a colleague asked about our recommendations for how to best see DC with tweens. So we put some thought to it and created three perfect days in Washington, D.C.  Did we capture your favorite sites? What else would you recommend?

Washington is a great trip to make with kids. Here's a list of places your tweens will love along with where to eat (I don't know about you, but we try to avoid chains and like to have a sense for where the locals eat):

A Perfect Day With Tweens on Capitol Hill:

• Start with breakfast at historic Eastern Market (Penn and 7th St, SE). If you go on a weekend, line up for the famous Market Lunch blueberry pancakes. If it's a weekday, our favorite spot for breakfast on the Hill is the tiny but delicious Le Bon Cafe. Truly French, their food is amazing without the steep price tag - try their pumpkin bread (you'll thank me later) and sip cafe au lait as they do in Paris from charming bowls. (Did you know?: DC was designed by a Frenchman - Pierre L'Enfant)
• Tours of the Capitol begin at the Visitor Center. If you contact your Representative or Senator's office in advance (allow several weeks), they can arrange for you to get passes for the Floor to watch the action in person. The movie "Eagle Eye" took place on the Floor, so that may be fun to watch before you go so that your tweens can recognize where they're going. The Capitol Visitor Center itself is also quite cool to see.
• At the base of the Capitol is the U.S. Botanic Garden - you can't miss the enormous glass structure. It's filled with beautiful plants from around the world and is a great oasis in the heart of the city.
• After the Capitol tour and Botanic Garden, head to lunch at Top Chef's Spike Mendelsohn's burger joint for lunch: Good Stuff Eatery (4th St and Pennsylvania Ave, SE). The Toasted Marshmallow Shake is TDF. Or, if they prefer pizza, Spike's pizza and sub shop, We The Pizza is next door - definitely sample their homemade soda mixers.
• Across the street is the Library of Congress where the second "National Treasure" movie was filmed. There are a ton of historic documents on view (including Presidential papers) and the architecture is stunning - there's a free historic walking tour offered daily. Tweens can flex their knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System and see how the LOC has gone digital.
• A few steps beyond LOC is the Supreme Court, a must-go place for a budding activist or argumentative tween (another famous movie, "The Pelican Brief", has scenes set here).
• If you tweens like Shakespeare or studied his works in school, you might want to check out the Folger Shakespeare Library. They have a vibrant theatre with shows from amazing traveling troupes throughout the year (we saw "Comedy of Errors" there last spring), a unique gallery of objects, and a little gift shop. No food on-site.
• Union Station is a great area to end up at for dinner. Avoid the food court and instead opt for America, a restaurant on the main level. Or, circle back to Pennsylvania Ave SE to the other Spike Mendelsohn spot that you didn't try at lunch time.
• Definitely end the day by driving around the Capitol and other monuments at night - they look amazing when lit. This way the tweens can see the Capitol which they just toured and get a preview of the Mall for your next day's journey.

A Perfect Day With Tweens on the National Mall:

• Have breakfast at Paul, an organic bakery from France that opened its first U.S. outpost by the Archives. 'Not the place for a diet, so splurge on the pastries and coffee. Should you feel so inclined, this is also the best place to pick up sandwiches for a lunchtime picnic. The courtyard outside has a map in stone of the world with pretty fountains at the U.S. Navy Memorial. The Archives houses the Constitution and is a must-see (it was also in the first "National Treasure" movie).
• Buy tickets online in advance for the chance to ride the elevator to the top of the Washington Monument. Plan the rest of your day around this time. Same day tickets to this are also available, but folks start queuing up at 7am (the window is at the back of the Visitor Center at the base of the Monument; this Visitor Center has the one of the best selections/gift shops on the Mall).
• The Newseum is next door and one of the few museums in D.C. that isn't free. But through Labor Day, up to 10 kids are free with one paying adult. Kids can make their own news or sports broadcast, see Tim Russert's set (for the political tween), and see daily newspapers from around the world. Their top floor balcony has some of the best views of the DC. Before you leave, grab a cool drink from the basement cafeteria.
• The question is not which Smithsonian to see, but what you have time for. Highlights include: the modern pieces and Calder sculptures in the National Gallery of Art East Wing, the underground walkway between the National Gallery East Wing and West Wing, the outdoor sculpture garden of the Hirshhorn, pretty much all of Air And Space (there's a McDonalds inside and the teens might want to sample astronaut ice cream there), Dorothy's Ruby Slippers at the American History Museum, the ginormous petrified squid and mastadon at Natural History (while there, the Butterfly Exhibit is worth the $2 admission price), and the beautiful Buddhist and Asian pieces in the Sackler and Freer Gallery. In the basement of the American History Museum are 3-D Ride Simulators where, for $7 each, tweens can go under the sea, into outer space, or on a racetrack - very high coolness factor and the best kept secret in town. If you didn't pack a lunch, have lunch in the street level cafe of the American History Museum - avoid the basement food court. Check out our tween's review of the American History Museum's American Girl Doll Addy exhibit. Oh - and the American Indian Museum has truly wonderful family programs. You canNOT go wrong - the Smithsonian has just amazing programs for families.
• Walk along the Mall to take in the scene - you'll see government officials jogging during their lunch breaks, and scenes from the "Transformers 3" movie. Or take a pedi-cab ride to view the entire Mall (tip well on hot days!). You'll see a lot of hotdog vendors, but these are not as good as the NYC ones - but you'll definitely want to grab ice cream or popsicles from the ice cream trucks stationed around the Mall to cool off.
• The Holocaust Museum is just off the Mall, and this is very worthwhile but intense - you have to know your kids.
• You won't be able to do the entire Mall in one day, so I suggest doing the museums above (the eastern part of the Mall) on one day, and the outside monuments another day.
• For dinner, there's pricey but elegant The Source by Wolfgang Puck next to the Newseum, or a ton of fun restaurants in the Penn Quarter/Gallery Place neighborhood. Our tweens like Ella's for pizza, Ping Pong for dim sum, Carmines for insane portions of Old-fashioned Italian, or Jaleo for tapas. You'll have a ton of choices here.

A Perfect Day With Tweens Outdoors In D.C.:

• The entire White House staff seems to eat at Breadline on Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th - best bread in the city, Illy coffee, and great people watching, Washington-style. Everything is good here. Food options this end of the Mall are more limited, so we recommend buying sandwiches or salads from Breadline for lunch now.
• Fuel up, because you and your teens will need energy for the walk down 17th, by the Old Executive Office Building, the White House (these tours are only available by booking in advance; if you go, try to schedule the Rose Garden or Edible Garden tour as well), the Daughters of the American Revolution Hall, and the Organization of American States, and through the Mall. Walk into the World War Two Memorial - it is beautiful and tells the story in a very compelling way. 
• Continue to walk across the Mall to the Tidal Basin and rent a Paddle Boat. Paddle your way around and take in the Jefferson Memorial - it's the best way to see it. Pack sun block and water - it gets hotter on the water - see our review for more tips.
• You can have lunch anywhere on the Mall, but if your legs can still stand it, walk over to Lincoln Memorial and have lunch on the steps. Views of the city are amazing, and it's a great spot to walk around and reflect. The Visitor Center between the Lincoln Memorial and Korean War Memorial is also pretty good and has drinks and frozen treats. If your teen collects patches or pins, each Visitor Center on the Mall offers patches and pins for the Monuments nearby.
• After you rest and re-fuel, walk along the Potomac River and head to the Kennedy Center. It's a nice walk, and the Kennedy Center is a beautiful building. There are free shows at the Millennium Stage everyday (check their website for times and themes), a great bronze bust of JFK, and beautiful river views from the back terrace. Should you feel so inclined, the Cafe on the rooftop isn't too fancy and offers cafeteria-style tea, treats, and snacks - great views from there too - very civilized.
• Continue to walk along the river and enter Thompson Boat House to cross over into Georgetown. You'll be on the Georgetown Waterfront which is a people-watching scene on the weekends and at night. On weekends, folks dock their boats and hold boat parties, and for land-lubbers, the restaurants along it grill and open their patios. Walk along the Waterfront Park all the way down to the end under the overpass to Jack's Boathouse - you can rent canoes or kayaks and take in the Potomac from an unparalleled vantage. Jack's is charming and helpful - a neighbor even had his wedding reception there.
• After this day, you've earned your sugar, so walk up Wisconsin Ave to M Street. This is the heart of Georgetown's shops and dining. Serendipity (yes, the same one from NYC) is here on the corner, and their sundaes and frozen hot chocolate is amazing - check out our review.
• Window shopping and people watching are part of the fun around here. Then walk west down M Street to Georgetown Cupcake at 33rd Street (be warned: there's usually a huge line; you can avoid it if you call-in your order in advance, but I think the minimum is one dozen - which you'll have no trouble eating, believe me).
• Continue along M street until you see a building called "The Car Barn". Just past this are the steep steps from the movie "The Excorist" (personally, I'm not a fan, but every teen I know asks me about these steps). You can walk up these steps, and you'll end up just a few blocks from Georgetown University. A stroll around this picturesque campus is great to get them excited for college.
• For dinner in Georgetown, our faves are Serendipity (usually fine to walk in on a weeknight or you can make reservations for seating before 530pm), Pizzeria Paradiso, J.Pauls, Paolos or  Martin's Tavern (see the booth where JFK proposed to Jackie there).

Other sites your tweens will love include the Gargoyle Tour (see website for days and times) at the National Cathedral, The Spy Museum (not free but worth it), Olde Towne Alexandria, the pandas and baby lions at the National Zoo, and, for true Transformer movie buffs, the Udvar-Hazy Air And Space Museum (you'll need to rent a car to get there though).

Enjoy your trip to our nation's capital, and post your tips here!

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Tween Design Picks

In case you hadn't seen our Facebook update, we had a small fire in our house (everyone is safe) and find ourselves doing a bit of re-building and re-modeling as a result. One of the big projects is designing a bathroom for our tween girls. We've been posting our tween design picks and inspiration on Pinterest, a new website that lets you create virtual mood boards. Personally, we're addicted to Pinterest and think you will be too (you've been warned: you will want to spend a lot of time browsing here). We're also posting our Back to School picks for tweens on Pinterest (and we'll still blog about these things - Pinterest just makes it easier to share many photos).  Enjoy!

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A Celebration of the Harry Potter Films at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Happy Birthday to Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling! If you're Potter-heads like our tweens, you'll be interested to learn that tickets to a Celebration of Harry Potter Films at the Universal Orlando Wizarding World of Harry Potter go on sale at noon EST today. This event includes a Private Gala, screening with the cast members, and a Q-and-A with the filmmakers. It's pricey ($699/adult for the 3-day event), but it's an unprecedented event. Tickets are limited and available online only. The package includes four days at a Universal Orlando resort, three-day admission to the Universal theme parks, the set of all eight films, and admission to the cast member Q-and-A and Gala. This Celebration of Harry Potter Films takes place November 11-13, 2011 - start saving that allowance now!

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100th Anniversary of Girl Scouts Book: A Celebration of 100 Trailblazing Years

We were excited to learn about a new book coming out shortly to commemorate the Centennial of Girl Scouting. Betty Christiansen has authored "Girl Scouts, A Celebration of 100 Trailblazing Years", and it includes some very cool photographs of the largest movement of girl independence. We love the illustrations as well - sort of a silhouette-style - and the way the book tells the story of Girl Scouting through the 1900's and into today. We can't wait to add a copy to our tweens' library.

Note: MsTwixt is biased as she is a Girl Scout leader to three troops. 

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Tween Costumes at the Harry Potter Final Movie Premiere & Giveaway

Last night we were part of the crowd at DC's historic Uptown theater for the premiere of the last Harry Potter movie, "The Deathly Hallows Part 2". As usual, the wait for the film was filled with camaraderie, pick-up Quidditch games, and fantastic costumes. Here's a sample of some of the best costumes tween kids wore to the event:

Professor McGonagall poses with a young fan (she sewed every part of her costume, including the hat, and her husband carved her wand):

A few tweens were part of Team Pygmy Puff and had a wand duel:

Luna Lovegood was represented:

The most original costume was the Golden Snitch:

Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall field questions from tweens waiting for their Hogwarts admission letters:

We loved this tween's t-shirt from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes (she was a big fan of our Skiving Snackboxes):

Several wizards battled Bellatrix Lestrange:

We ran out of battery, but other cool costumes included Fleur dela Coeur, Dobby, and Rita Skeeter.

Our tweens also dressed in their Hogwarts best, and they LOVED the film. Unbeknownst to us the show we saw was in 3-D, so we have an extra set of special, opening-day Harry Potter 3-D spectacles to give away to a lucky reader. Just "Like" us on Facebook and post a comment here or on Facebook telling us about a cool Harry Potter character costume you've worn or seen. We'll select one 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 giveaway, 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 post the winner on July 31st (Harry's and J.K. Rowling's birthdays).

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A Justin Bieber Singing Toothbrush?

Tween Justin Bieber fans will rejoice: a company called Brush Buddies has made a singing Justin Bieber toothbrush. The idea behind this "build a better toothbrush" is that the toothbrush plays a song for the full amount of time that one is supposed to brush your teeth. The Justin Bieber line plays "Somebody to Love" or "Baby" or "You Smile", and there's also JB floss (which looks like a CD), and a travel kit. Given the star's mega-watt smile, it seems the company has chosen a good product model.

Available online at BrushBuddies; $1.99 for the toothbrush

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Getting Ready For the Final Harry Potter Movie

It's no surprise that we are HUGE Harry Potter fans (even traveling to Boston to take in the Harry Potter Exhibition), and we've had our movie tickets for tonight's midnight show for months. To help us pass the time in line (and yes, our tweens will be in costume), we made our own Skiving Snackboxes. In the books, Skiving Snackboxes were an invention of the older Weasley twins to help students get out of class for medical reasons. Our version is designed to do the opposite - to treat our tweens as they wait for the film. Here's how we tackled this project:

We found these wonderful "cardboard satchels" at Paper-Source for $6.00 - they even have straps!  Then we lined the interiors with glittery purple paper (brilliant purple seems wizard-like, right?):

 

We're using colorful cupcake liner papers to hold little bags on goodies inside including Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (jelly beans), Puking Pastilles (chocolate nonpareils), licorice wands, crystallized pineapple (Professor Slughorn's favorite), lemon drops, Droobles Blowing Gum (gumballs), Peppermint Humbugs (York Peppermint Patties), Ton-Tongue Toffees (toffees), Fizzing Whizbees (Pop Rocks), and Chocolate Frogs.

The tweens made custom decals for the boxes like this one:

Then we envisioned what a Skiving Snackbox would look like in the Muggle World and went to town with some paint pens and glitter:

And here it is filled:

 Now we're off to join the throngs of other Harry Potter fans in the movie queue. Even though we'll be in line for hours, there's a carnival-like atmosphere amongst the crowd. It's always fun to see other kids' costumes and to play (Wizard) Chess and broomstick Quidditch while we wait. 

We'd love to learn what you're doing too - what are your tweens doing for the last Harry Potter movie?

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Tween Foodies Can Meet Cupcake Wars Chef

Our tweens are huge Food Network fans and know their celebrity chefs. Sprinkles was one of the first cupcake-only places, and chef/owner Candace Nelson will be in Washington today to host the First Annual Congressional Cupcake Wars. This unique cupcake battle will feature seven bakery teams competing to create stars-and-stripes-themed cupcakes and will benefit military families at Fisher House. More details on this fun event are here.

Our tweens met Candace at the opening of the Sprinkles DC store this spring, and she graciously gave our girls a hands-on tutorial of how to frost cupcakes the Sprinkles way - details here.

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Just Announced: the Members of "Healthy MEdia: the Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls"

Co-chaired by actress Geena Davis and former FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, an organization to "lead the national dialogue on how women and girls are portrayed in the media and outline a blueprint for promoting positive and healthy media images" has been created. Members of "Healthy MEdia: the Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls" draw from the public, private and non-profit worlds and include:

• Co-chair Geena Davis, Academy Award-winning actor and founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
• Co-chair Deborah Taylor Tate, former FCC Commissioner
• Maria Brennan, President and CEO, Women in Cable Telecommunications
• Alice Cahn, Vice President, Social Responsibility, Cartoon Network
• Danielle Carrig, Senior Vice President, Advocacy & Public Affairs, A&E Networks
• Salaam Coleman Smith, President, The Style Network
• Sean Cunningham, President and CEO, Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau
• Madeline Di Nonno, Executive Director, The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
• Carmen DiRienzo, President and CEO, V-me Media, Inc.
• Emme, Social Reformer, TV Host and Founder, EmmeNation.com
• Ivelisse Estrada, Senior Vice President, Corporate and Community Relations, Univision Communications
• Janice Ferebee, founder and CEO, National Council of Negro Women
• Erin Fuller, President, Alliance for Women in Media
• Marie Gallo Dyak, Executive Vice President, Program Services and Government Relations, Entertainment Industries Council
• David Honig, President and Executive Director, Minority Media Telecommunications Council
• Sherri Hope Culver, President, National Association for Media Literacy Education
• Myung Kang-Huneke, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Sesame Workshop
• Jean Kilbourne, Creator of the "Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women" Film Series
• Linda Kinney, Vice President for Regulatory Affairs, Motion Picture Association of America
• Jeanine Liburd, Executive Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs, Black Entertainment Television
• Vicki Lins, Chief Marketing Officer, Canoe Ventures
• April McClain-Delaney, Washington Director, Common Sense Media
• Cindy McConkey, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Scripps Network
• Lesli Rotenberg, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Children's Media, Public Broadcasting Service
• Katherine Schwarzenegger, author, "Rock What You've Got"
• Ann Shoket, Editor-in-Chief, Seventeen Magazine
• Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Director, Miss Representation
• Dr. Nancy Snyderman, Chief Medical Editor, NBC Nightly News
• Belinda Van Sickle, President and CEO, Women in Games International
• Alexa Verveer, Senior Vice President, Discovery Communications
• Jess Weiner, Author, Self-Esteem Expert and Dove's Global Self-Esteem Ambassador

Eight teen Girl Scouts were also selected to serve on the Commission: Allie Lundell and Jasmine Dent of Maryland; Caitlin Claire O'Brien of Texas; Kulsoom Ahmed of Illinois; Katie McGrath, Maggie Burgos and Caroline Tydings of Virginia; and Toni Guiterriez of California.

The first meeting of the Healthy MEdia Commission will take place next week in Washington, D.C., and we hope that we can bring you live reporting from the event - stay tuned! 

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