Halloween at the Chrysler Museum is one of my favorite things about the holiday. Each year, the staff dress up as works of art and wander the museum so visitors can find them. The costumes are always so creative and this year was no different, with staff dressing as works of contemporary and classical painting, sculpture, even glasswork! Each staff member gets to pick their art piece, and talking to them about how they came up with the concept of their costume is definitely part of the fun (this year's fave: the woman who covered herself in straw and roamed around as one of Monet's haystacks from the Agrarian Ideal exhibit going on now.)

The kids definitely enjoyed the special Halloween hunt, and marking off their finds on the scavenger hunt map (prize: candy) But they also enjoyed just spending time at the expanded play area at the back of the museum, and shuffling through the books, games, and toys there. Note to self: keep this in mind for blustery days this winter.

The Chrysler has some exciting programs for kids and families coming up this month, including Tickle My Ears, on Friday, November 3, and a wild-West themed Free Family Day on Saturday, November 12. More info here.

Anouk originally picked her own valentines this year -- some paint-with-water ones we found at Walgreens. But sadly, when we got home and tried one out, we discovered those store-bought valentines were kind of a bust. The paint didn't paint, the colors ran, the paper ripped as soon as it got wet. But A. was committed to the paint-with-water concept so it seemed we would have to come up with a DIY solution.

We tried a few versions, but our final and most successful valentine was made using watercolor pencils and card stock. I designed the card (according to A.'s careful guidance, there is nothing more micromanaging than a 3 year old) and then we printed them off and she colored them in with the watercolor pencils. (The more color we used and the harder we pressed, the more vibrant the end result turned out). We tested a few by adding water, and they went from patchwork to brightly tye-dyed, just as A. wanted.

I designed these size-wise to fit little envelopes we already had, for small thank you cards. We did include small brushes taped to the envelope with washi tape so our friends have everything they need to paint their valentines at home.



If you'd like to make your own, paint-with-water valentines, I've uploaded our template here.

I
I saw these adorable confetti push pops at Anthropologie over the Christmas shopping season,  fell in love, thought for a second about buying them at $12 a pop, and then came to my senses and realized I have everything I need to MAKE these at home already (starting with these old push-pop molds from Williams Sonoma; similar ones sold on Amazon here).

One of the simplest DIYs ever: Remove lid from the top of push pop mold. Fill with confetti. Replace lid. Pack in your bag for New Years' mini-vaca with friends for a burst of festivity for the little ones.

If you don't have the push pop molds but want to try this diy anyway, check out this tutorial using old paper towel rolls (and balloons!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Hampton Roads area is full of fun things to do and see all year long, but especially at Christmas! Below are a few of our favorite things to see, make, read, and eat during the holiday season, including a list of handmade gift ideas that even kids can make!


What have we forgotten? Let us know your favorites!

GO:

Bright's Christmas Tree Farm: Where you can pick your own Christmas tree, cut it down, and take it home with you.

Children's Theatre of Hampton Roads: Their don't-miss holiday offering this year is Uncle Wiggly's Christmas Carol. 

Children's Museum of Virginia: The CMV has several seasonal exhibits (including the free Snow Wonders.)

Chrysler Museum Glass Studio: Watch visiting artists craft handmade ornaments or make one yourself.

Eastern Shore VA: Kiptopeke is lovely this time of year, and the old Victorian houses in Cape Charles will put you in the mood for the season. (Cape Charles also hosts Festive Fridays through the end of December).

Garden of Lights at Norfolk Botanical Garden: The best holiday light display in the area (in our humble opinion).
Moses Myers House: Celebrate Hannukah at the historic home of Norfolk's first Jewish family.

Olde Towne Portsmouth: Ride the Elizabeth River ferry over to stroll the seawall or to get a glimpse of the Norfolk skyline at night.

Christmas in Colonial Williamsburg is charming. Christmas at the Yorktown Victory Center includes a look at a colonial village and a walk through a winter Revolutionary war encampment.

Virginia Aquarium: Featuring several holiday programs, including the famous SCUBA Santa!

Winter Wonderland at Hunt Club Farm: Petting zoo, light show, and more!

Winter Wonderland at Portsmouth Art and Cultural Center: Dozens and dozens of Christmas decorations and maybe even a snow flurry or two.



MAKE:

Cardboard roll bird feeders: A little treat for the ones who didn't fly south.

Last minute holiday crafts: Instructions for making baking soda clay ornaments, pinecone pom-pom Christmas trees, and an easy star garland.

Salt crystal paintings: Wintery art that even the smallest can do. Great for gift tags and cards!
Stained glass solstice lanterns: These festive oiled paper lanterns would be nice around the house or as gifts.
Tissue paper bowls: Use holiday-colored tissue to make seasonal decor or someone's favorite colors to make decorative gifts.

Three snow day activities


COOK: 

Homemade Saltwater Taffy: Great for a gift or just for yourself! Add red and green sprinkles and peppermint flavoring for a holiday treat.

Red Hot Apples: From a friend's family recipe.

Hot Buttered Lemonade: perfect on a cold day as an alternative to hot chocolate.

Snow Candy: Just like they made in the Little House books!

DIY Marzipan Christmas trees: Festive and delicious.

Tahini Halawa: a Middle Eastern candy that is easy to make and tastes delicious.

GIFT: 

Custom state prints: use Photoshop and a special font to create custom nursery and wedding prints.

Foam sticker stamps: Use wood blocks as a base, add in a few colorful inkpads, and make a handful to give to your best friend (or teacher!)

DIY Bath Bombs: Kid-friendly and a big hit for all ages.

Create-Your-Own Postcards: An inexpensive way for kids to design and send holiday greetings.
Herb-infused sugars: These flavored sugars add an oomph to baked goods and are so simple to make.

Popsicle stick bracelets: A fun and personalized gift kids can make for friends.

Tangrams: use foam sheets to make a puzzle that will build creativity and problem solving. Find a wood version here.

Terrariums: Make a miniature landscape under glass.
And don't forget to make your own gift wrap!  Use dot markers, apple stamps, or tissue paper rosettes to embellish!



READ:

Kids' Books about Winter

25 Holiday Picture Books

Recently,  our friend Mylinh (who I met through this very blog!) returned from overseas bringing us a delicious marzipan lion to devour. Just a few days later, I saw this post on making marzipan tree decorations for cakes on Oh Happy Day and it was perfect timing because Anouk had been asking for more "lion candy." We decided to have our friends over and give it a try. We also decided to go a little further than the original project though and make our own marzipan instead of using pre-made almond paste. Because how hard can it be, right?

Turns out it isn't hard as much as it is tedious, blanching and peeling all those almonds. But once you've done that (or if you find almonds already blanched), it's pretty much the easiest thing ever.

Homemade Marzipan

Ingredients:

1.5 cups ground blanched almonds
1.5 cups powdered sugar (with extra for dusting)
1 egg white
2 tsp almond extract

NOTE: This recipe calls for raw egg. If you are a little weirded out about eating raw egg, you can use the egg white substitute in the refrigerated section of the grocery store; it is pasteurized. 3 tbsp = 1 egg white.

Directions:

First, blanch the almonds: Bring a pot of water to a boil and dump almonds in for 30 seconds. Drain, and immediately transfer to a bowl of cool water. The skins should pop right off when you pinch the almonds. Dry with a paper towel before grinding.

Grind the almonds in the food processor until they are very fine powder. Mix the almonds with the powdered sugar, add the egg white and almond extract. Mix in a stand mixer until the ingredients come together into a ball (like bread dough). Turn out onto a surface coated in powdered sugar and knead until smooth. The marzipan should not be sticky -- if it is, coat with extra powdered sugar and knead some more.

To make our marzipan Christmas trees, we made cones out of the marzipan and rolled them in green sprinkles and shredded coconut (for snow) before inserting a pretzel stick into the base for the trunk. Oh Happy Day's recipe mentions wetting the marzipan very slightly before adding the sprinkles, to help them stick better. Next time, we'll do that.

We found that letting the trees sit for an hour or two led to a more stable tree but most of them didn't last that long.



 
 We also found that marzipan and pretzel is a combination that is pretty legit. Ritter Sport, why aren't you on this?

 Last year we really enjoyed cutting down our own Christmas tree at Bright's Christmas Tree Farm, but this year we decided to get our tree a little closer to home at the Norfolk Farm Market. Because it's so close to our house, Norfolk Farm Market has become a holiday tradition in our family -- it doesn't really feel like Christmas until we've been. We have a ritual of visiting every year in the first week of December to see the decorations and to let Anouk pick out an ornament of her very own (hard to believe this is her third one so far!)

Sadly, Santa wasn't there on this visit, but we did find the perfect tree, a spruce with the featheriest branches. And A. found the perfect reindeer ornament (she is a little bit obsessed with Rudolph right now). After visits to the poinsettia house and a cup of hot apple cider, we declared the Christmas season officially kicked off.







Over at Fun and Free Hampton Roads, I blogged about a FREE Holiday Yule log bonfire happening at Town Point Park tonight! Click here for more info. It sounds so fun!

Forest Lawn is the newest of Norfolk's public cemeteries, established in 1906, and is known for its beautiful art deco architecture (the community mausoleum features stained glass by Frank Lloyd Wright). Points of interest in the cemetery include the 111th Field Artillery Batallion and the 29th Infantry Division Memorial, erected in honor of fallen WWII soldiers in Europe, and the Seaman's Friend Lot, which serves as a final resting place for foreign soldiers who passed away at sea or upon arrival in Norfolk. Forest Lawn is also a natural arboreturm featuring dogwoods, crape myrtles, magnolias and holly trees and is absolutely meticulously cared for by staff.

As for the egg hunt -- it was the first year this event was held and it ended up being a little crazier than the organizers expected, with hundreds more people showing up than registered online. The result was that there were vastly more kids hunting for eggs than there were eggs to find. Anouk and her friends ended up scoring two or three each but that may have been largely due to parental involvement (I will say nothing further on this point for fear of incrimination -- but let's just say that I was pleasantly surprised to find that I can still outrun a gaggle of six-year-olds). Nonetheless, they had a blast just being there (except when the Easter Bunny popped up -- Anouk was having none of that and I'm not sure I blame her).

Before we left we walked around the graves (wouldn't these ones with Chinese calligraphy make AWESOME grave rubbings?) and found some amazing names (I think Iola was my favorite, never come across that one before) and even visited some of our family that was buried there.

All in all, it was definitely the most interesting egg hunt we've been to yet, and despite the kinks, we hope it will become an annual thing. To read more about how to donate to the Norfolk Society for Cemetery Conservation, which the hunt today benefitted, click here.

Have you hit up any egg hunts yet this season? How'd you make out?

When I was a little girl, my mom used to let me pick out a brand new Easter outfit every year, and they almost always came with hats. I still remember how fancy it felt to go to Easter dinner with my new frilly bonnet on, the elastic tucked firmly under my chin.

Kids' clothiers don't really do Easter hats as much anymore as they did when I was small, so I thought it would be fun to make DIY Easter bonnets with Anne, inspired by our tissue paper bowl craft from last year (which I'm also planning on using to make A.'s Easter basket this year). The technique is similar, with only a few tweaks, and the results are pretty fun and surprisingly wearable.

You'll need: balloons, a large bowl, tissue paper in at least two colors, Elmer's glue, a paintbrush, and trimmings (if you want them).

Here's how to do it: Blow up the balloon until it's roughly the same circumference as your child's head. Place the balloon in the bowl, knotted side down, so that it stands up on its own.

Place a sheet of tissue paper over the balloon (this will be the innermost layer of your hat). You can cover the balloon in Saran-Wrap to make removal easier later (we didn't and it still came off pretty easily). With the paintbrush, cover the top half of the tissue that touches the balloon with watered down glue until you have the basic hat shape (you'll want to leave a good-sized "brim" untouched).







Place another layer of tissue on top of the first layer, and cover with glue. Repeat this step until you have your desired thickness (we used four sheets of tissue per bonnet, varying colors by layer).

Wait a few hours. When the top of the bonnet is dry and hard to the touch, pop the balloon and peel it gently away from the tissue. Fold back/fluff the brim of the bonnet to show all of the colors underneath. Trim with all kinds of festive decorations! We used tissue paper flowers, pom-poms, and crepe paper for ribbon.



Voila! Now you're ready to be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.