Thanksgiving Books & More Turkeys

Today I thank God for my creativity!

I am also looking for help in selecting the winner of the Best Halloween Costume Contest. Just visit and click like on your favorites!

Well this year for Halloween we gave away lollipops. Usually we go through 8-10 bags of candy, so I decided to go the inexpensive route this year. And of course we got about a quarter of the number we usually do, so we have lots of lollipops leftover. Luckily they are one of Hazel's favorite candies, however we are talking three large bags. So expect many lollipop crafts in the next few months. And today I will share our first one.

I bought these foam gourds at the Dollar Tree awhile ago for some craft I saw. Well, we made one up today. We stuck the lollipops in them for the turkey tails (and some in the back to get them to stay up) and then I hot glued the other shapes on and gave them eyes, beak, etc. Very easy.

We also have been enjoying some Thanksgiving books. So far we have read the following this year.

Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley is I think one of my favorites ever. The story is told by two children going to visit their grandmother. Their grandmother has a special hat that allows them to travel through time. This trip the girl picked going to visit an ancestor who was a pilgrim. They got to see what life was like in Plymouth Plantation and how the first Thanksgiving went. I loved this book because it gave information I did not know. For example, Squanto is not his real name, but the name the English called him. It is a great book to give a child the real view of life in colonial times.

'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey is an adorable story about eight children who go on a field trip to a turkey farm the day before Thanksgiving. They get to play with eight turkeys and all is well until someone asks the farmer about the ax they found. He tells them how he is going to kill the turkeys so they can be roasted for Thanksgiving dinner. The children become upset that their friends are going to be eaten and they sneak them away. That year the eight families have a turkey as a guest and have vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners.

Squanto and the First Thanksgiving by Joyce K. Kessel and Lisa Donze is a great story to learn more about Squanto. I always want to give the multicultural view to Hazel and being so close to Plymouth where their are demonstrations by Native Americans every Thanksgiving, I feel it is important for her to see both sides. To me the most amazing thing is that Squanto was willing to help the English after being enslaved by them twice, but he was. 

We have some more Thanksgiving stories to read and will share as we do. Enjoy!!

Sharing Saturday #45

Ok, before we start I have an amazing giveaway going on from Melissa & Doug!! Please go enter and also check out the other Melissa & Doug giveaways at the blogs below the Rafflecopter!

And I need your help on selecting a winner of the Best Halloween Costume Contest. Just go visit and click like on your favorite(s)!

Once again I was blown away by the creativity shared last week. If you have not had a chance to check it out, go do so (and show some blog love with a comment).

Our Most Clicked was from Wesens-Art again!

For my favorites this week, I have two categories: Fall/Thanksgiving Related Favorites and Personal or Must-See Favorites and Resources.

1) From Little Wonders' Days: November's 10 Ways to Show Your Kids You Love Them
2) From The Good Long Road: Autumn Decorated Tree
3) From Science Sparks: 20 Autumnal and Fall Science Activities
4) From The Good Long Road: Daily Thank You Cards
5) From Ginx Craft: Conkers--an explanation for those of us in the US
6) From Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails: Fall Hand Print Tree

1) From Art Mama Says: What Sandy Left Behind (A wonderful reminder of those in need after Superstorm Sandy hit and some ways to help!)
2) From Adventures at home with Mum: Car Wash
3) From Frontier Dreams: Finger Knitting (and dyeing yarn!) (Love the colors!!)
4) From Sweet Boutique: The Perfect Gift for Any Harry Potter Fan
5) From Waldorf By Me: A Lantern Round-Up (Perfect for Martinmas this Sunday! And yes we went on Hazel's first lantern walk tonight at school!)
6) From PlayDrMom: Favorite Children's Books about Anxiety (What an amazing resource!)
7) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk: Yarn Germs (Teaching kids about germs and washing hands!)

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Hostess:

Turkey Crafts: Nature and Paper

Today I thank God for love and light!

 

Now for This Week's Party   

A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow both hosts via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

Hosts are Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart. A reminder: Mia is taking a blogging break. Hopefully she will be back soon to host again!!

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post.

3) Post the button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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Melissa & Doug Terrific Twenty List and Giveaway

As you know Christmas is fast approaching and being a Waldorf mom, I love all natural toys. As much as I love to support the handmade crafters, financially I cannot always. So I turn to companies like Melissa & Doug. I love their wooden toys and often are getting them for Hazel. They are so creative and build the imagination and are well made. So when I heard about this opportunity, I jumped at it.

Melissa & Doug are giving away a toy each day on their Facebook page. They started on Tuesday. Go over and enter to win something each day!!

Now since Hazel cannot read I can tell you that Santa is bringing her Melissa & Doug's Castle Blocks. I am going to sew a back side to Hazel's zoo playmat to be a castle play mat and that will be her main present from us. Then she and Steve will have a wonderful time building and playing with her castle. She is so into princesses now. Steve still has his Lego castle from when he was young and she loves to look/play with it, but it comes apart easily.

Now for the exciting part!! Melissa & Doug have offered to send me one of their Terrific Twenty Holiday Gifts for 2012 and one to one of my followers!

It was hard to choose what to get and giveaway, but I have decided on the Big Rig Building Truck Wooden Play Set, because Hazel loves to play with her tools and build/fix things and I would love for her to have some wooden tools as well as something they actually work on. Right now she has plastic ones and just pretends with them. This will actually build some fine motor skills as well as her imagination. So if you have a little one or a big one who would love to play with this and live in the U.S.A. (sorry to my international followers), please enter below. We will be following my Giveaway Rules. Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also there are other blogs giving away Melissa & Doug toys. Make sure you go enter for these great ones:

Living Life Intentionally   -  Glittering Muffins  -   Let Children Play   -  
 Royal Baloo  -  Reading Confetti  - This Reading Mama   -   Putti's World  -  KC Edventures   -  Creative Learning Fun - True Aim Education   - 
Hey, Mommy, Chocolate Milk   - No Twiddle Twaddle   -  In Lieu of Preschool  - Coffee Cups & Crayons  -  School Time Snippets  -  Toddler Approved  -  Preschool Powol Packets  - Home Learning Journey  - The Enchanted Tree  -

 

More Holiday Fair Crafts

Today I thank God for my faith because I know with it all things are possible!

So there have been several emails about the shortage of things for the Holiday Fair at Hazel's school. Even though I have done more than what was asked of me for donations, I figured I would keep working until the fair next week. I made a felt bird similar to the one I made last year with the pattern from Living Crafts Magazine. I didn't take a picture of it. Sorry! I'll have to find the one I made last year for Hazel and get a picture at some point.

Then I made a felt duck. I used the free pattern Lucky Ducky from Nosey Nest Pattern Shop. Hazel of course loves this duck and wants it. I promised her I would make her one after the fair.

Next I made for the Pocket Lady a small felt bunny. This was so easy and quick. I will probably make some more of these and maybe put some on barrettes for the Wee Folk Shoppe. I got the idea from Artemis Moon. I just drew a quick pattern for myself.

Then I made a baby penguin with the tutorial on Holloughby. I printed the picture of the shapes pinned on the felt full size and used that as my pattern. I sewed everywhere and did not use glue.

I have a feeling I will be making another one of these as well after the fair. Anyway, I chose to do some hand sewing since I can do it in front of the television without disturbing Steve as well as while Hazel plays. I figure I will keep making things until the 17th. If I do one or two a day, at least it will get them closer to their goals.

ThanksgivingTurkeys and Mayflower Crafts

Today and yesterday I thank God for my mother-in-law who let me sleep to feel better from a cold and for my life with which I am very happy.

Yesterday I started to fight a bit of a cold, so I took it easy. This morning Hazel and I did some Thanksgiving crafts. We took two of them from Crafts for Thanksgiving by Kathy Ross. We started by making a Mayflower puppet out of construction paper, paper towel roll, yarn and glue. You can pull the yarn to make the Mayflower go back and forth and hit Plymouth Rock. My only complaint about this craft is the masts are really not strong enough and I should have used cardstock or something stronger for them.

Hazel made the Plymouth Rock herself and cut it out. I wrote Plymouth Rock for her and she then "copied" it.

Then we made a handprint and footprint turkey. In the book it looked like this:

I gave Hazel free reign however. I traced and cut out her handprints and footprints but she glued them where she wanted.

So ours came out like this:

Then ages ago, I saw a cute idea of making a turkey from a gourd. I bought two gourds at the time for this craft, but one of them rotted. I can't remember where I saw it or what the tail was made of, so we used extra handprints.  (To be honest I haven't gone back to look where I saw the craft.)

We glued handprints to a small paper circle and then glued it on to the gourd and added eyes, beak, etc.

We are waiting for the glue to dry before we stand him up.

Today we have lunch with friends and a couple of errands to run but for the most part we will be resting and of course waiting for the next big storm to hit. Steve was suppose to have the day off, but has to work because of the predicted storm. Hazel keeps telling him she cannot wait until Saturday when he is home again.