Our Thanksgiving -a Pinterest Project

A few Pinterest inspired ideas helped to make our Thanksgiving this year more meaningful and fun.  Check them (and more fun ideas for holidays) out here on my Holiday/Seasonal Pinterest board .


1. A fall wreath made with one hand print from each of my grandma's great grandchildren who were present at our CA Thanksgiving celebration!  They each chose a color and the ones who could write their own names did. I filled in the names of the ones who can't write yet and put the wreath together for the host of our celebration: a wonderful, generous, loving woman that we call Grandma.

Next year maybe I'll be really organized and have all my siblings send a hand print of each child early in the month and put together a wreath with ALL the great grand kids all across the country. 

2. Place cards to write what you are thankful for.  We even asked the kids and it made for some nice dinner conversations and even went beyond the dinner table.  Each card reflected the maker's personality so well. 

3. A hand print turkey.  I saw this using paints, but we did one with construction paper instead.  I forgot to take a picture and the girls wanted to give it to Grandma as well to decorate her house for Thanksgiving.  

A beautiful reminder.  We should be thankful everyday for the blessings God has given us, even when we don't recognize them.  

Here are a fraction of my grandmother's great grandkids (less than half)  

hahaha, they would not look at the camera and smile.  Perhaps it's because my brothers were making really strange noises and faces behind me trying to get them to look our way....

Fall leaf projects

Some fun ideas to do with the kiddos in the fall!

I found a lot of these basic ideas on Pinterest and modified them a bit as needed. 

Tree leaf craft

Cover leaves with glitter glue and let them dry

Draw a tree trunk and let the kiddos glue on brown leaves

Use yellow, green, orange, red, whatever fun fall colors you can find for the top of the tree

I covered it with modge podge to help keep the leaves from drying out and cracking off the paper.

And it made it nice and shiny!

Hedgehog craft

hedgehog face

Same basic directions as the tree!  Cover with glittered leaves and modge podge

Our guy is kinda quirky. The nose is a little funny and
we needed a longer piece of paper to make his little hedgehog body a bit longer,
but he's cute nonetheless.  The girls love him.

Water color leaves

Cut out leaf shapes of all kinds and add glue to make the leaf veins
Allow the glue to dry. 

Use food coloring and a bit of water to make your own fall colored watercolors

We let them sit to dry on paper towels

Then decorated the house with them...

They would also look lovely spread on a table runner with some other fun fall decor...something like this:

Wine glasses upside down with pumpkins and candles

Vase with popcorn kernels and candles

Candy corn vase decor