FUN AND GAMES

• H Street Country Club (fun D.C.-themed indoor mini golf; good food; go early to avoid the “bar crowd”)
• Comet Ping Pong (play some ping pong while you wait for delicious pizza)
• Woodys Mini Golf:Perils of the Lost Jungle (rated “Top 5 Mini Golf Courses in America” by Newsweek; this course is awesome!)
• Reston Zoo (encourages animal interaction; wagon ride to see animals included with admission)
• National Zoo
• Water Parks (Great Waves, Pirate’s Cove at Pohick Bay, The Water Mine, Downpour)
• Gravelly Point (watch planes take-off and land at Reagan; also a nice place to walk along the parkway trail or have a picnic)
• National Harbor (nice place to walk around, new location for The Awakening statue, Children’s Museum coming in the future)
• University of Maryland Observatory in College Park, MD (observatory hosts free open houses twice a month during which visitors can listen to a half-hour lecture and then peer through telescopes that the staff has trained on extraterrestrial objects)
• Goddard Space Flight Center
  

IN D.C.

• Eastern Market
• Union Station
• Library of Congress (22 reading rooms and access to 650 miles of bookshelves)
• Biking around the monuments at night (I love seeing the monuments at night and the best way to get around and see all of them is on bike.)
• Fords Theater (newly renovated...check website for schedule of plays)
• Kennedy Center (free concerts every evening; open late...nice views from terrace)

OLD TOWN

• Torpedo Factory (watch local artists work)
• Boat rides on Potomac
• Fontaine Caffe and Creperie (yummy crepes...nice brunch spot)
• Wilson Bridge (start in Old Town and walk across the bridge to the Maryland side...nice views)
• Masonic Memorial (wonderful view at the top)
• Narrow house (check out the narrowest house in the country, on Queen St., only 7 feet wide)
• Good restaurants and shops

SEASONAL EVENTS

• National Book Festival (on the mall in September)
• Shenandoah Hot Air Balloon Festival
• National Cherry Blossom Festival
• Smithsonian Kite Festival (on the mall in the spring)
• Smithsonian Folklife Festival (on the mall in the summer)
• County and State Fairs
• Capitol Fourth Concert (go to the rehearsal the night before)
• Kennedy Center Open House and Opera in the Outfield
• Flower Mart at the National Cathedral

• FALL FESTIVALS

In Virginia:

Cox Farms Fall Festival
Centreville, VA
This festival is HUGE...plan to spend several hours. There are a lot of slides that are fun for the whole family. There are also rope swings, farm animals (including an interactive "goat village"), a great hayride, a silly corn maze, free apples and cider, a special area for children under 5, straw tunnels, and other activities. Admission includes a small pumpkin.

If possible, go during the week to avoid the weekend crowds. Afternoons seem to be the least busy.

Burke Nursery's Fall Festival
Burke, VA
Daily activities include slides, hay rides, farm animals, pumpkin fort, rope swing, and pirate and western-themed activities. Small pumpkin is included with admission.

Old Mine Ranch
Dumfries, Virginia
Through the month of October, enjoy pumpkin picking, hayrides, slides, petting farm, moonbounce and more. Open everyday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Spookfest every night except Sunday 7-9 p.m.

Hollins Farms Orchard
Delaplane, Virginia
One of the largest pumpkin patches in Northern Virginia. Pick a pumpkin, see farm animals and baby calves, take a pony ride, enjoy live music, hiking, and more. Open Wednesday through Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through October.

Heather Hill Gardens
Fairfax Station, VA
The Fall Festival includes pumpkins, a pumpkin fort, climbing ropes and swings for children.

Stribling Orchard
Markham, VA
Pick apples and choose pumpkins at this family farm which is more than 200 years old. Visitors can picnic at mountaintop tables and view farm animals.

Marker-Miller Orchards
Winchester, VA
Pick-you-own apples and pumpkins. There's an apple harvest festival Oct 10-11, and a pumpkin festival.

Virginia Farm Market
Winchester, VA
Pumpkinland features a pumpkin-lined path with red wagons and a pumpkin-filled wagon designed as a photo backdrop.

Great Country Farms
Bluemont, VA
This 200-acre farm offers hayrides to a pick-your-own pumpkin patch. Activities include pedal carts, a giant corn box and a 2,800-square-foot pumpkin jumpin' pillow for outdoor bouncing, five mazes, a twin 60-foot slide and a mountain made of tractor tires.

Pumpkinville
Leesburg, VA
The festival includes hay mazes, hill slides, a moon bounce and pumpkin fort. Pumpkins are available for picking. On weekends, children can fly down a 200-foot zip line and ride camels.

Ticonderoga Farms
Chantilly, VA
The Pumpkin Festival at this 1,000-acre, fifth-generation family farm features hayrides, a pumpkin patch, hillside slides, tetherball, face painting, a candy corn hut, a small petting zoo and refreshments.

In Maryland:

Butler's Orchard
Germantown, Maryland
Annual Pumpkin Festival is held weekends throughout October, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pick a pumpkin; take a hayride; explore a hay maze; and enjoy crafts, food, and family activities.

Homestead Farm
Poolesville, Maryland
Harvest festival is held weekends through October from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Take a hayride, pick your own apples or pumpkins, find your way through the hay maze.

Larriland Farms
Woodbine, Maryland
Annual Pumpkin Festival is held weekends throughout October. Pick a pumpkin; take a hayride; and explore a hay maze and more.

Sunprint Kit

When my friend Kristilyn came to visit awhile ago, she brought us a Sunprint Kit to try out. I had never used one of these and it was pretty cool. Amelia had fun finding leaves and sticks and other things to put on the paper. After you arrange some items on the light-sensitive paper, you leave it in the sun for a few minutes and ta-da! You have a lovely piece of art.

Poladroid

I lamented the loss of Polaroid awhile back on this post. But I've been having fun playing around with some software that will turn your digital photos into polaroid-looking photos. Although not the same as the real thing, the results are still fun.



Click here to get the software.

The Market Skirt

There is another fabulous tutorial up at Made for these adorable skirts.

(Photo from Made)

I want to make one today. But this week is already taken over with packing and cleaning and preparing for a trip out West. The sewing machine is definitely coming out when I return.