The Thanksgiving Beast Feast

We read this book several times leading up to Thanksgiving Day and it inspired us to leave our own feast for the beasts that live near us.  Before heading out to dinner yesterday we selected some items from our exploration station to set out for the neighborhood creatures.  We included cracked corn, popcorn kernels, Indian corn, walnuts and a sliced apple.

We made some guesses as to which would get eaten first.  Eva thought the Indian corn would be the first to go.  My guess was the apple.

Amazingly, nothing has been eaten.  Either all the animals have hibernated/migrated or we have some very picky eaters living around here!  We hope all of you had your fill to eat yesterday and were able to enjoy time with your friends and family.  We will be back on Sunday with our Hanukkah theme all set to begin!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving (or a very happy Thursday for those of you outside the States)!  Be sure to take a moment to today and count your blessings and may they be many!  I know mine are and I count all of you among them.  But here are my greatest blessings- my wonderful husband who provides us with a life so full of love, laughter and happiness, and the sweetest little girl, my Eva, who brings us more joy than our hearts ever thought possible.

It's Just Not Thanksgiving...

without pumpkin pie!

Of course, this one isn't edible but it was fun to make.  Eva started out by painting the rim of a paper plate tan.

Then she painted the center a fun pumpkin color we mixed up.

While the paint was still wet, she sprinkled some pumpkin pie spice in the center to make this a yummy smelling craft.

After everything dried, I cut the "pie" into slices and Eva added a dollop of cotton ball whipped cream to each slice.

Yum!  Yum!

Thanksgiving Book

The other day we were reading one of our favorite books, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, when I realized we could write our own Thanksgiving version!

Eva told me what she wanted each thing to see and I typed it up and printed it out.  After printing, I drew in the pictures and Eva has been helping color them in.

When she finishes I will staple everything together but we've been having fun reading it as is.

Thanksgiving Place Settings

We are going to Eva's cousins' house for Thanksgiving dinner so we are having a special Thanksgiving breakfast at home instead.  In preparation we made placemats and napkin holders.  The placemats are just sheets of card stock decorated with stickers.  Eva wrote everyone's name on them too.

After all three were complete, I covered them in contact paper for easy cleaning.  Unfortunately, camera flash and contact paper do not go together well so I don't have any decent pictures.
For our napkin rings we decorated toilet paper rolls with paint dabbers.

When they were dry I cut each roll in half and now we have some pretty fancy napkin rings.

I'm planning on making this yummy french toast for us to eat while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday morning.

Paper Bag Turkey

I completely forgot to post this guy!  We made him last week.  Eva helped me stuff a brown paper lunch bag with newspaper and then she cut out feathers I drew on a few of her old paintings.

We glued them to the back of the bag, tied off his neck and head with string and added eyes, beak and feet.  His waddle would not stay on no matter what we tried!  He now resides by our November calendar and leads us in our turkey poem:

A turkey is a funny bird,

his head goes wobble, wobble.

And the only thing he ever says

is gobble, gobble, gobble!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving week!  We don't have a ton planned for this week but we have lots to be thankful for.

Crafts
Placemat- we are heading to Eva's aunt and uncle's for Thanksgiving dinner so we will make a placemat to help keep their table clean

Thankful Chain- we'll decorate the lounge with links listing all the things we are thankful for

Napkin Rings- toilet paper rolls will become fashionable table accents for our feast

Pumpkin Pie- we'll transform a paper plate into a scrumptious smelling pie craft

Activities
Beast Feast- we won't be the only ones grateful for food this Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Lunch- we'll have our own little celebration with traditional Thanksgiving foods

Hide the Turkeys- this game has been so popular we are carrying it over into this week

Thanksgiving Book- we wrote a Thanksgiving story based on Brown Bear, Brown Bear What So You See that we will be coloring and reading throughout the week

Books