Things to Do in Burlington

Professional artists M. Theresa Brown and Stephen Filarsky channel more than 20 years of experience at the easel to guide students during two-hour art workshops, parties, and afterschool kids’ programs. Workshops elucidate the process of re-creating stunning artworks that depict abstract felines, rustic tobacco barns, and fractals grazing in wintry landscapes. The instructors supply all of the materials and techniques needed to craft masterworks, and encourage participants to hang their take-home paintings in high-traffic hallways. Adult students supply their own beverages at select BYOB classes, and young aesthetes expand their horizons in kids’ classes that encompass drawing, painting, sculpting, and telekinetic printing.

Hot Shots Family Fun Center enchants guests of all ages with four outdoor attractions that offer both terrestrial and aquatic recreation. Three streams, six ponds, and a waterfall line the par-40 miniature golf course, cultivating peace of mind as players grapple with creative hazards. Friends can douse one another with water cannons built into the cockpits of electric-powered bumper boats or attack one another with a barrage of cushy Nerf balls in the Cannonball Air Blasters bounce house. Atop the glassy surface of Hot Shots' outdoor pool, guests propel themselves inside buoyant, 8-foot hamster wheels, which enable them to traverse the waters immediately after eating at the Nineteenth Hole Cafe.

As a child, Ruth Warren learned to value creativity over consumption. Her parents—who grew up during the Great Depression—taught their children to make ornaments from magazines, matchbooks, and bottle caps, paper dolls from catalogs, and even their house from salvaged wood and nails. As an adult, Ruth still celebrates these values as an artist and the marketing coordinator for The Scrap Exchange. The nonprofit company collects materials from more than 250 industries within a 100-mile radius, looking to repurpose everything from foam, paper, zippers, test tubes, fabric, and vintage goods into art and craft supplies.

Staffers have aims beyond just reducing waste and promoting environmental awareness: they hope to create a vibrant community. Alongside merchandise, their shop makes room for craft classes, an art gallery, and an artists’ marketplace of items created with discarded materials. Everyone is welcome to work inside a 400-square-foot design center, outfitted with sewing machines, a serger, a die-cut machine, a button-making machine, T-shirt hot press, and more than 300 reference books. The inspirational space earned a feature on Apartment Therapy, as well as Santa's nice list.

Before visitors to the Virginia Museum of Natural History greet any tour guides or scientists, they have to meet the doorman—a towering allosaurus skeleton looming just inside the glass-walled main entrance. Once inside the Great Hall, they peer into tall windows to see scientists and their assistants cleaning, categorizing, and playing catch with each animal fossil. Though founded less than 30 years ago as a private foundation, the museum and its staff have assembled more than 10 million specimens in seven collections, which cover vertebrate paleontology, marine science, geology, and archaeology.

At the Uncovering Virginia exhibit, recreations of six Virginia research and dig sites draw visitors into 700 million years of local history. Interactive displays include the modern Grundy site coal mine, complete with tracks, carts, and buildings. When visitors push a button, the display shifts—altering through video animation and changing physically as museum curators channel the power of Zeus—to reveal what the site looked like as a 300 million-year-old swamp. The Hahn Hall of Biodiversity looks into the world of African animals, boasting full-body mounts of a lion and antelopes. The forthcoming Dinosaurs and Dinosaur Discovery, opening in 2013, will bring in skeletal casts of dinosaurs displayed alongside a dinosaur-themed maze to puzzle children, adults, and adult-sized children.

Engines roar across a tire-lined track, where single, double, and junior go-karts speed through turns and on toward victory. This is only one of the attractions that greets visitors to The Zone. Baseballs soar across the batting cages' mesh big-top tent, and the mini-golf course dots its baize landscape with obstacles such as miniature barns or tiny warehouses filled with smaller replicas of the mini-golf course. Indoors, video games fill an arcade with a symphony of electronic beeps, while party rooms play host to shindigs with themes such as princesses and activities such as crafts.

There's no doubt that you are a real adult when you have been an aerospace engineer for over 10 years. So for Kent Gold, it was a momentous life change when in 2001 he rediscovered his inner child and founded SoccerTots—a soccer-based program that helps 18-month to 10-year-old kids develop their motor skills and build their confidence through fun and athletic games. Now, a decade later, the program is offered at more than 150 locations, including Canada and Peru, and has expanded to include HoopsterTots and PartyTots.

Each SoccerTots program is helmed by a team of skilled instructors who engage little ones with fun activities, such as dribbling balls and playing scrimmages, that fuel their motivation to learn and challenge their athletic abilities. To ensure a supportive learning environment, classes are broken down by age and use only soft, child-size equipment. SoccerTot instructors also get kids ready to learn by sending them into super-concentration mode, which encourages little ones to concentrate and try their hardest at a task to help strengthen their muscle memory and their ability to levitate other players on the field.