Thankful in November: Day 15 to 18

Day 15: Chocolate covered pretzels for our friends, teachers and neighbors - delicious and so simple! Dipping the ends of pretzel rods is so much easier than dipping entire pretzels and I think they are just as pretty. I bought white, yellow and orange chocolate pieces and fall themed sprinkles and the end result was so pretty!

Day 16: Dylan's footprint turkey. I painted the boys hands to turn into turkeys too, but I haven't been able to convince them to decorate them yet. Guess that's for another day!

Day 17: Sorting people vs. food cutting and gluing activity from Mama's Monkeys. I can't believe how much better the boys are at cutting since they started preschool this year.

Day 18: Delivering the Thanksgiving bags that our church collected and distributing them to families in need (not pictured)

Thankful in November: Day 11 to 14

Day 11: Kool-aid coloring pages! We used a cornucopia coloring page and outlined it with glue, then sprinkled different colors of kool-aid over the different fruits. They smelled so good!

Day 12: Color by number cornucopias from 3dinosaurs.com. She has a ton of great printables (many of which we'll be doing in the coming days). We turned it into a dice game and they colored in the items that matched the number they rolled. They aren't great at staying in the lines, but at least they are getting better at staying on task the whole time.

Day 13:  Follow the directions Thanksgiving coloring page. It was a 'find the circle with the pilgrim hat and color it green' kind of game and they seemed to like it. We had to change it up a little towards the end and only do outlines (it took almost an hour to do this game!) but we made it to the end!

Day 14: We made treat bags for their preschool friends (found the idea on Pinterest). They are filled with bugles and Runts and look like tiny cornucopias!

Almost halfway through the month and it's been great so far! Lots more to come : )

Thankful in November: Day 7 to 10

Day 7: Scarecrow dice game (not pictured). 1+1+1=1 has a great Fall Tot Pack with tons of cute scarecrow and leaf activities. We had already done many of her coloring games a couple days ago so we tried out the dice-and-graphing game and they loved it.

Day 8: Paint StripTurkeys (idea from here)! How cute are these little guys?! I was at Walmart and grabbed a selection of paint strips for the boys to choose from, rounded the tops, cut out a beak and a gobble and let them go to work creating their turkey heads. After that part was finished we asked them what they are thankful for and wrote each person/thing on a strip and drew a little picture to go along with it. It's held together with a brad and a bent in half pipecleaner is the legs. These might be my favorite craft so far : )

Day 9: Number puzzles. These are from here, here and here. I cut all the strips out and mixed them up, then the boys had to find their pieces and put them in the right order. I helped with the glue, but the big boys did the rest and I helped Garrett to finish.

Day 10: Filling Thanksgiving bags for families at our church (not pictured). We wrote a little note and filled the bags with all the goodies needed for a yummy Thanksgiving meal!

The fun continues!

Thankful in November: Day 5 & 6

Day 5: Color by Number turkeys and a peanut butter turkey snack!

Color by Number pages are becoming increasingly more popular with the boys these days, especially Owen. I have to get a little more creative with Eli, letting him use the easel, or pretending to race him to color a certain space or rolling dice to decide what color to use next, but the end products turn out great and they are so proud of their work.

Day 6: Scarecrows! We used a Color by Number page, a leaf coloring page and a 1-20 maze today, all from here. There are so many cute resources available!

Thankful in November: Day 3 & 4

Our theme this weekend was Apples! 

Day 3: Homemade applesauce and Apple Cider Caramel Cookies. The boys were excellent caramel unwrappers and cookie stuffers! (Great fine motor skill practice ; ))

Day 4: Painted apple cores and a roll-an-apple game from Mama Jenn's blog. We play this game in so many different ways - each person chooses a row and tries to fill it first, everyone gets four caramels and we all try to roll the same color, everyone works together to try to fill the whole page and the person who rolls the last apple color wins. So simple, and they love it!

Thankful in November: Day 1 & 2

I'm so excited to get back into daily activities with the boys - especially Thanksgiving activities! I found so many great things to do, treats to make and games to play on Pinterest, and then came up with a few of my own to fill in the blanks. We have the next 28 days planned and the first 2 already under our belts - and some super cute art to show for it. Play along with us this month, and be sure to leave a comment if you're doing something fun too!

Day 1: T is for Turkey (added bonus, T is the letter of the week at preschool this week)

Day 2: Tie Dye Turkeys. You can't mess this up! No matter how much or little the kids colored the coffee filter, they all turned out beautiful! The water ran the colors together quickly and they were practically dry by the time we were done assembling the turkey bodies. I think I'll tweak this later in the month and use their footprints for the turkey bodies.

Making 'the Kid's Table' Memorable

A thought recently occurred to me: in most families, each 'sub-family' is generally asked to bring something to contribute to the family holiday meal. Whether you're in charge of dessert, a side dish or wine, everyone contributes something so no one is burdened with the responsibility of feeding the entire family.

Another thought occurred to me as well: why doesn't someone take charge of the kids' activities this year? There are so many crafts and projects that are simple to organize and will keep the kids busy and entertained so the adults can catch up with each other and enjoy the holiday too. Age appropriateness needs to be taken into consideration, but maybe you could pair up older cousins with younger ones and have a creativity contest that the rest of the family can 'judge'? Everyone can get involved that way - and who doesn't love prizes?!

If you're hosting the party, you could use these projects before the party to have your kids create decorations for the centerpiece, mantle and placesettings. Holidays are more fun for kids when they feel that they are involved and can contribute! (Click on each title for instructions)

Village People

Pilgrim Place Cards

Pilgrim Pal

Make Your Own Hats

Thanksgiving Tree

Advent is a countdown to Christmas. It readies our hearts and keeps us in the right frame of mind for the meaning of Christmas. This year, why don't you make a Thanksgiving Tree with your kids to help them get in the mood of Thanksgiving?

Trace your kids' hands on construction paper and cut out enough to countdown to Thanksgiving. You could even color code each child's handprints with their favorite color. Ask them what they are thankful for everyday leading up to Thanksgiving and write their response on their handprint. Find a prominent place in your home (dining room, entry way, front door) to tape their hand prints every day, forming a tree as the days go on. Make sure that you and dad include what you're thankful for too! This would be great as a dinnertime activity - talk about what happened that day in school, at home or in the world.

When Thanksgiving is over, be sure to collect the handprints and save them to look back on some distant year in the future when your kids come over for Thanksgiving dinner with families of their own and you can all remember what they were thankful for as little boys and girls.