A time for Thanksgiving

I can hardly believe that next week is Thanksgiving. How on earth did it get here so quickly? Sheesh, I haven't put away all of the Halloween decorations yet! Okay, I know it is a little past time for that. But, still, Thanksgiving has really sneaked up on me this year!
I have been running across some cute Thanksgiving ideas around the web and wanted to share them with you...

I love this!! I fully intend to do this with either the daisy or brownie troops that my girls are in, or with their classes. How cute!

And, this is too cute. I didn't find any instructions to go along with the picture... but I am going to try to figure it out!

No Way! Perfect for our drama queens!

Our neighborhood "family" consists of roughly 20 or so kids, and most of them girls. So, when I ran across this Thanksgiving skit today, I couldn't believe it! How perfect for our little drama queens (and kings) to perform at our Thanksgiving dinner!
Thank you, Oopsey Daisey, for posting this fantastic idea!

I can totally see the adults participating and having a ton of fun with this!

Idea I'd like to try...

Since we have been blogging here about Thanksgiving decorating, and table setting, and all things Thanksgiving, I have really had it on the mind!
Well, I was headed out of my front door today and realized that I still have my halloween countdown calendar on the wall beside my door. Yikes! Time for that to go!
So, I was thinking it might be neat to do a Thanksgiving blessings tree.
So, I ventured out to the blogosphere to see what I can find about how to best to go about it. I am thinking a fairly small tree, something that is in proportion to the little people in my household! So, I am hoping I can find the time to create a fabric tree and then put leaves on it with our blessings...

What do you think - should I give it a try?

Infarrantly Creative shows us how to do it with liquid starch, and when I am ready to take the tree down, just use water!

More Thanksgiving Decoration Ideas...

Blog surfing again today and found more Thanksgiving fun...

Do you have a great frame on an entryway table that is just begging for something festive? Here you go! Ready Set Create has one with your name on it! Well, it actually says "Gobble" on it, but you get the picture! ;)


And those cute pumpkins she shows beneath her gobble picture...
She teaches you how to make them, here...

The Kid's Table

So, we are covering the tables with brown kraft paper, we are putting out coloring page placemats, and crayons. And, the turkey... so cannot wait to create this turkey!


And, we are loving this idea, so simple, just use a tiny piece of white foam to turn our straw into a mast and sail!


And, since I am working with brown paper bags to make that awesome turkey, why not take it one step further and use small brown bags to make each child their own turkey leg placecard?



And, while the kids are hanging out at their uber-cool table, they can do a little Thanksgiving trivia! One Charming Party has this printable trivia sheet (and the answers!) we plan to use!


After dinner, we will do the activity we did last year, we will make a blessings mix. Each family will be asked ahead of time to bring an ingredient to add to the blessings snack mix. We will talk about the symbolism of each ingredient as the children add their ingredient to the mix. The kids loved snacking on their mix after dinner. You know, when they said they were hungry, 10 minutes after dinner was over!


You can print out a great copy of the legend from another of my favorite blogs, Blonde Designs. I have gotten so many great ideas from their blog!

Thanksgiving Subway Print

LOVING THIS!!!

Free. Totally free. Yep. You heard me right!

All you have to do is print this awesome picture out, throw it into a frame and you have instant art!

I really, really love this!

Thank you, Today's Fabulous Finds!

More of a Mod Thanksgiving

If more of a Mod Thanksgiving is more your style, you are totally in luck. One of my all-time favorite blogs, Hostess with the Mostess, has designed a free printable Mod Thanksgiving collection in support of Operation Give Thanks

Another of my favorite party designers, TomKat Studio, also donated a printable party decoration collection in honor of Operation Give Thanks. It has owls and polka dots - too cute!

Thanksgiving Banners

I have found so many really cool Thanksgiving decoration ideas, some of which are these terrific banners - totally free - just print them out from your computer!

Paperglitter has a fantastic free Thanksgiving printable set - it includes all of the neat stuff you see here!

Just print the banner, cut it out, punch holes and thread some ribbon through!

Second Street offers this banner, they have printed it on brown paper, but you could print it out on whatever color you want!




If you have a fancy cricut or other die cut machine, you could do something like this one from Organize Your Stuff Now...



If you don't want to take the time or effort to make your own banner, then consider buying one on etsy! There are so many to choose from and the prices aren't too bad!



Next time I will share more Thanksgiving goodies...

More Thanksgiving Ideas

Here are more fun Thanksgiving ideas. In my last post, I shared the idea of covering the tables with brown kraft paper and drawing sharpie placemats for the adults. I am also thinking it would be fun to put out crayons - for the kids and adults.
Here are a couple of ideas for that...

One Charming Party uses small baskets to hold crayons


AlphaMom suggests making a coloring page crayon holder

Definitely check out her site for lots of great coloring pages - a placemat, napkin ring, and the crayon holder!

At the Fiskars site, the pilgim's hat is beyond adorable, although it does look the most labor intensive...

Preparing for Thanksgiving

If you are like me, now that Halloween has passed, you are looking forward to Thanksgiving. And, if you are really like me, you are hiding from Christmas altogether!
For the second year in a row, we are not going to be able to travel back East to spend Thanksgiving with our families. So, we will have our Thanksgiving meal with our large neighborhood "family" instead. We are so very blessed to have such wonderful friends and neighbors to have Thanksgiving dinner with. Last year, I hosted the dinner at my house, but this year, it will move across the street. I have been asked to help with the "crafty stuff". So, I have been on the look out for good ideas and fun Thanksgiving decor. We have 23 children in our "family", so kid-friendly is a must!
Here are some of the wonderful things I have found...

This photo is from One Charming Party - my new favorite blog! It is beyond fabulous!
If you visit here - she tells you how to create the turkey with brown paper bags, and you can fill it with popcorn for a snack for the kiddos!




I love the idea of forgoing tablecloths and covering the tables with brown kraft paper instead. How cool is this for the adult's table? Sharpie placemats!! This idea comes from Today's Creative Blog.



More tomorrow...