Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy all of the things that you are thankful for!

The First Thanksgiving Bracelet

 

 
 
 
 
I made these bracelets with the children in my playgroup at our Thanksgiving party to help them understand and retell the story of the first Thanksgiving. Each bead represents an important part of he first Thanksgiving and the events that led up to it.

 

 

The first brown bead represents the pilgrims who fled England seeking religious freedom.

The second bead is white, it represents the white sails of the Mayflower, the ship the pilgrims sailed on.

Next, is 3 blue beads that represent the huge ocean that the pilgrims sailed across to reach the New World. It was a long, long trip.

The green bead represents the land that the pilgrims finally saw!

The 3 white beads represent the very long and hard winter and all of the snow that came during the pilgrims first winter.

The light green bead represents the arrival of Spring.

The tan bead represents the Native American Indians that helped the pilgrims and taught them how to plant vegetables and live off of the land.

The last four beads represent the first Thanksgiving feast:

red for cranberries,

yellow for corn,

brown for turkey,

and orange for pumpkin.

Before the Native American's and the pilgrims ate, the all joined hands (twist the ends of the pipe cleaner closed) and spoke of everything that they were thankful for.

 

Tissue Paper Leaf Sun Catcher

We had a blast making our Tissue Paper Leaf Sun Catchers at our playdate last week, they were so much fun that we had to make another one! This is a great craft for a playdate or for a Fall party because it is easy to do and is very inexpensive. 

 

 

You can pick up everything you need in the dollar store-- clear contact paper, colored tissue paper, and construction paper. You will also need a pencil, a piece of string, scissors, and a hole punch.

 

 

Fold 1 piece of construction paper in half. Draw or trace (Google leaf template images) a leaf onto the paper and cut it out. Then cut small squares out of the tissue paper. A little goes a log way, I cut 1 strip off of each piece of tissue paper and then cut it into small squares.

 

 

Cut a rectangular piece of contact paper that when folded in half, will fill the leaf window that you made in the paper. Remove the paper from half of the contact paper and cover it with small pieces of tissue paper. Be sure to overlap the piece of tissue paper like you are making a collage.

 

 

Remove the paper backing from the other half of the contact paper and fold it over the side that has the tissue paper.

 

Open your construction paper and place your contact paper/tissue paper sandwich inside, covering the leaf window.

 

 

Glue and/or tapethe contact paper to hold it in place between both sides of the construction paper.

 

You can leave your sun catcher as is or trim it with your scissors.

Punch a hole in it and put your sting threw to hang it.

 

The sun shines nicely through it-- today was not a very sunny day, it actually snowed and rained all day, but you get the idea!

 

I am planning on making more of these with my little one in different designs, I will keep you posted!

 

Cute Toilet Paper Roll Turkey

 

My little guy made this adorable little turkey tonight before he went to bed. It is simply made using   a toilet paper roll, feathers, a small cardboard circle, foam paper for the beak and the gobble, googely eyes, and feather. Oh yeah and the best invention ever-- Glue Dots! My son made this in minutes, I helped him with the glue dots and he handled everything else. I reinforced the feathers with scotch tape to be safe. This turkey is ready for Thanksgiving! Are you?

Cereal Glove Turkey

 

 

We had some fun today creating our little cereal turkeys! Our turkey's feathers are Fruit Loops cereal. My little guy really enjoyed sorting (and eating) the Fruit Loops! Our turkey's body consists of Cherios and Alphabits cereal. I made the beak and gobble out of foam paper, but you could also use construction paper. I tied the glove closed with a small rubber band and stuck a small circle of cardboard on the bottom to help him stand. He is very colorful and absolutely delish-- Just ask my little guy! These are cute to add to your Thanksgiving table, especially at a child's place setting, and would also make a great Thanksgiving treat for any child!

 

Simple No Sew Fabric Advent Countdown Chain-- Each Link has an Activity for Our Family to Do!

With Thanksgiving just days away, I have to start preparing for Christmas. I love Christmas, it is my absolute favorite holiday.  Christmas will be here in a month and I still have so much to do!

I figured I better get to work on our "Christmas Countdown Chain." Last year, I made a paper one with my kids and they loved it! Tearing a paper link off first thing in the morning was the highlight of my little one's day. Every morning, as soon as he woke hope, he would rip one link off and then count the remaining links so he knew exactly how many days were left till Santa came. I will probably still make a paper one with him, but I wanted to make a fabric version that I could reuse  year after year. Another idea that I had thought of, was to write a family activity inside we could do each day. This was the easiest and quickest way that I came up with to combine both ideas.

 

I picked up red, green, and white satin ribbon, and self adhesive Velcro circles from the dollar store. I pulled out white address labels from my stash (they also carry these in the dollar store).

 

I used my pinking shears to cut the ribbon into small strips.

 

I cut the address labels in half long ways to make small strips that would easily fit on the ribbon.

 

On each label, I wrote a different activity that we will do each day. Some of the different activities are: Cook Dinner with Mommy, Wrap a Present, Bake Cookies, Read a Christmas Story, Make an Ornament, Make a Christmas Craft, Watch a Christmas Movie, Popcorn and a Movie Night, Spend the Night in the Living Room, Make Reindeer Noses, Ice Cream Sundae Night.....

 

 

I put the labels and the Velcro circles on the ribbon strips and arranged them in the order that I wanted them in.

 

 

We will remove the first link the day after Thanksgiving, our activity will be to start decorating the house. Saturday's activity is to go cut our Christmas Tree down and on Sunday we will decorate it.

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