Just-Because Cake

We got this idea from The Artful Parent, another project we did with Cousin K. A box of plain vanilla cake mix, a can of white icing -- a blank slate, if you will -- and two kids. What would they come up with?

The answer: A sheet cake, decorated with a LOT of pink frosting, some blueberries (as a nod to health or a color contrast I'm not sure), and a plastic princess for good measure.

This one was barely a craft, requiring minimal effort and I debated posting it. But in then I decided that I would as a reminder to myself if nobody else. In this age of competitive Pinteresting and overplanning, it's nice to just go with the flow sometimes, to have no idea how a project is going to turn out, to make a cake and have a celebration just because you can. It was a joy to watch the girls with their cake.

It was also pretty nice to eat it when they were done. Yum!

A visit to the Virginia Aquarium (and why to buy a membership)

Happy 2013! We celebrated the new year at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center with our good friends, Erin and Baby J. and Sarah and Baby A. (By the way, aren't there a lot of Baby A.s in our circle? Is A. a popular initial for your crowd, too?) We'd heard such good things about the aquarium and had been meaning to go for months. So spending New Years Day there felt right, like we were making good on a resolution at the very start of the year.

The first thing I did upon arriving was buy a year's membership, and here's why:

• Admission for just one visit is pretty steep: $21 per adult and $15 per child (aged 3 and up). We bought the cheapest membership (the Otter level, for $80), which will pay for itself in just two visits. 
• Speaking of numbers of visits, you'll definitely need more than one to experience everything the aquarium has to offer. We were there for two hours, and only managed to hit about 2/3 of the Bay and Ocean Pavilion. There's still a whole other pavilion, a library, and a theatre waiting to be explored (not to mention special events, like storytimes, nature treks, and boat rides).  
• Membership has some great perks, like express entry (valuable in the summertime, when the aquarium gets crowded) and substantial discounts for the cafe and IMAX movie theatre. 
• The aquarium is awesome. It's just plain awesome. And we loved it. 

Baby J. ain't afraid of no horseshoe crabs.

Some things we were especially excited about: the large walk-through tank, filled with colorful fish and coral; the up-bubble that allowed us to see into the Komodo dragon habitat and come face to face with the giant lizard; the stingray petting tank (I almost had a heart attack when a friendly ray leaped up to say hello); listening to the very knowledgeable docent tell us all about the crocodiles; watching the seals zoom happily through the water. And the sea turtles (Anouk said "turtle" for the first time!) -- and the turtle nursery -- and pressing buttons in the submersible play area -- and, well, you get the picture. It was all pretty great and we're already looking forward to going back.

We had lunch at the cafe, and I want to give a special shout out to the staff there -- who not only didn't mind when Baby Anne accidentally upended her plate onto the floor but told us not to worry about it, either. That kind of attitude is invaluable when you're out with a toddler and it was much appreciated.

Um, take a look at the scratches on those windows. Holy cow Komodo dragon!

What about you? How did you celebrate the new year? Are there any local landmarks you're looking forward to visiting in 2013?

Children's Museum of Virginia

Ever since we moved to Hampton Roads, we've had people telling us that we simply have to visit the Children's Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth. You know how sometimes EVERYONE tells you you just have to do something and then you do and it's not awesome? Our visit to the Children's Museum last Sunday was the opposite of that.

In fact, there was SO much to see and do that we spent nearly three hours at the museum and didn't even make it to the second floor. Over an hour of that time was spent in the bubble room; another good chunk was devoted to the train room. Each exhibit was so enthralling to Baby A. that when it was time to move on to the next one, she had a meltdown of major proportions. (No! No! Fun! HELP ME!) It seems strange to have a tantruming toddler be an indicator of a good time, but you'll just have to trust me on this one.

Greatest hits from our visit? The bubble room, where J. spent a long time trying to perfect the art of the human-sized bubble, the toddler play area, where A. and I lounged in the nest with the big blue egg pillows, and the replica HRT bus, where we spun the steering wheel and joined a crowd in as many refrains of the "Wheels on the Bus" as we could think of. There were no misses.

Anouk was so sorry to leave that I was afraid we were going to be arrested for kidnapping on our way out.

Yeah. It's that awesome.

Right now the Children's Museum, Porstmouth Art and Cultural Center, and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum are offering a Winter Wonderland Holiday Pass: $12 admission to all three sites, valid through December 31. It's an amazing deal and one we made sure to take advantage of! More details here.

Kid Zone at the Pretlow Library

After something like ten straight afternoons of thunderstorms, Baby A. and I have both been suffering from bad cases of cabin fever. Today we finally couldn't stand it anymore, all of our usual afternoon activities had worn pretty thin (Not another crayon!) So we decided to brave the rain and headed out to the Pretlow Library in Ocean View in hopes of finding a much-needed change of pace.

The Pretlow Library is one of my all-around favorite places to spend an hour or two (it also houses the Ocean View Station Museum, which I love and plan to write about in a later post, and a great selection of books and genealogy resources). But the obvious draw is the Kid Zone, which takes up the entire top level of the library. There are whirling and spinning light features, a soft play area with tumbling mats, a kitchen nook with all sorts of play food and utensils, stacks of blocks and puzzles and trains and books and pretty much everything a stimulation-starved kid could desire in a rainy-day destination (including a bank of computers with games for the older kids).

Some of the toys are a little moth-eaten, honestly, but in light of the age-old rule that toys that aren't your toys are always more fascinating, Baby Anne didn't seem to mind very much and happily carried around one of the saddest baby dolls I've ever seen as though it were an especially hot-ticket item.  After she tired of that, she spent a good long while feeding plastic play food to the other kids (and having a few "tastes" herself) and generally making a big old noisy happy mess.

 Just in case you needed more convincing, here's how we looked by the time we left (much cheerier, no?): 

What are some of your favorite rainy day places?