Today, We are Thankful.

For the first snow of the season.

Nana and Stella (seeing snow for the first time)

Happy Thanksgiving! Many blessings to you all!

Wishing For You a Blessed Day!

Are You In Need Of A Turkey Craft?

Today is going to be a very busy day for us! We have pies to bake, cleaning to do, and all the other prep work for tomorrow's big feast. Not to mention, making a few turkey crafts to decorate for our guests. If you have some time, here are a few links to some of the turkey crafts we made last year! Have fun!

Hand and Foot Turkey

Turkey Hats

Handprint Turkeys with a Twist

Toilet Paper Roll Turkeys

Friend Making Monday-Thanksgiving

 I decided to do something new and participate in Friend Making Monday hosted by Amber at {aefilkins}! Today it's all about Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday)!

1. Turkey or Ham? Turkey, of course!

2. Favorite side dish. Stuffing...no, sweet potatoes...no, mashed potatoes....oh, I like them all!

3. Favorite dessert. Pumpkin Pie!

4. Black Friday: Are you going or not? You bet! I love the rush!

5. If so, what's on the top of your list? I'm not sure yet. I guess it depends on the best deal!

6. Going out of town or staying close to home? Staying home!

7. Hosting or helping? Hosting! My parents come every year!

8. Name one family tradition at Thanksgiving. Watching the Macy's parade on TV and throwing candy to the little ones!

9. What do you do after dinner? Watch football, play cards, and nap!

10. What are you most thankful for this year?  My family! I would not be who I am without them!

I Just Can't Wait For Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday! Being together with my entire family, making a fabulous feast, and of course watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV is the best! Here is a little video from a Thanksgiving past!

I wonder how long we are going to be able to get away with that;0)

Our Day of Thanks

Wow, what a great day we had yesterday. Holidays just make me feel all warm and fuzzy. I love spending time with my family. Our busy lives sometimes do not give us the opportunity to just get together and relax. I really appreciate the holidays for allowing us to do that. Our day was fantastic. I got up early like every other turkey maker did, I'm sure. Spent a little time alone with my thoughts, some time with my bloggy friends, and a bit of catching up on the news. I then woke every one else to get them out of bed and dressed. My kids love to cook, so they were eager to get started. I showed Madelyn the turkey in the oven and all she could say was "Holy God". Waiting for Nana and Poppy to get here was like torture for them. They could not wait to start making chocolate pies and cranberry relish. They always do that with Nana. Brandon, our stuffing maker, was on standby. He asked a dozen times if we were ready for him yet. Aaron just wanted to be able to use knives. ( I really have to wonder about him sometimes.) I love this part of Thanksgiving. Tradition. Something as simple as making a pie with their Nana, makes them so happy. And me too! Our next task was to watch the Macy's parade. I set the DVR to record it so we would all be here together when they began to throw candy;) The girls collected a lot and still have no idea that we were the ones throwing the candy to them. Another successful year!
Before long, it was time to eat. We had a special guest for the day. My nephew, James called the day before and asked if he could join us. Of course, there is always room at my table! The boys were really happy to have him there for the day. They played video games and topped of the evening with a couple of games of Texas Holdem'. Big Daddy and Poppy headed off to buy an antique iron fence that Poppy has been dreaming about for a while and Nana and I watched Christmas movies with the girls. It was a simple, yet fabulous day. I hope that everyone else had a great day like we did!

Christmas of Dreams Blog Party Day 11

Woo Hoo! Day 11 of the Momdot Christmas of Dreams is here. Although I have missed a few days. I have to say that it has been so much fun! I have really enjoyed checking out every one's blog and meeting new people!
The question for today is: If you could only pick one food to eat on Thanksgiving, what would it be? Do you have a home-cooked meal or eat out? Does your family dress up?
Well, this one is actually easy for me because I am in love with stuffing! I always make twice as much so I can have lots of leftovers. Weird huh? We always have a home cooked meal. My parents come over and my mom and I cook. The kids get in on the act too. They love to be in the kitchen and any job I can pass off to them is one less I have to do:) The truth is, I love doing this for my family so its more fun than work! As for dressing up, We don't really. I, of course always put dresses on the little girls because they are still at the age that they do not protest. Everyone else just wears what they are comfortable in. I want everyone to be able to relax and have a great time. So, no dress code.
This is sort of off the subject but I wanted to share a funny story with you any way. Last year, when my girls were 2 and 3, we told them that they were going to watch the parade on TV. Well, the last parade they could remember was our town's Halloween parade where they got tons of candy. Of course hearing the word parade got them all excited about candy. So, when they sat in front of the TV, we tossed candy to them from behind. They still, to this day, think that candy was coming from the parade inside the TV. Needless to say, they can't wait to watch it again tomorrow. A new tradition was born.

Sponsors: Day Eleven Blog Party Question is Brought to you by Shishu Style and Mimsi Bags.
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Handprint Turkey with a Twist

Today we made a classic hand print turkey, but with a twist. My kids love to be in the kitchen with me. I think that is a wonderful way for them to learn. I learned how to cook by watching my mom and I would love to pass that on to my kids. Sooo, I thought I would see how well they are paying attention. I asked them this question:

How do you cook a turkey?

Here are their responses:

I attached their recipes to the bottom of the hand print turkeys. I hand wrote the responses, but they would look a lot better typed and printed out. (If my printer was not broken.)

Here are the finished projects. It was a lot of fun hearing what they were thinking and they were super excited to tell me how to do it!

Toilet Paper/Paper Towel Roll Turkeys

These turkeys turned out absolutely adorable!


I started off by cutting a paper towel roll into thirds. You could just use a toilet paper roll if you like.

Next, we painted the rolls with brown paint.

I then cut a piece of construction paper in half and the girls colored it with fall colors.

Fold the paper accordion style.

Then, fold the accordion in half.

Tuck it into the top of the toilet paper roll.

Glue on a face, wings, and feet. Now you have a very cute turkey to decorate your Thanksgiving table!

Toddler Theme Day-Turkeys

Teaching Tiny Tots at Mommy School has given us a new theme this week-turkeys. We first got into the theme by reading a funny story:

And then we made our turkey hats that I posted yesterday.

For some other turkey ideas, check out our hand and foot print turkeys and our rainbow turkeys. Please go check out more Toddler Theme Challenge at Teaching Tiny Tots! It's a great site with wonderful ideas for your tiny tot!

Turkey Hats

Today we made these adorable little bobbing head turkey hats! They are very silly as the heads bob up and down while the girls "Gobble, Gobble" around the room doing the "Turkey Strut"!

First thing you need to do, is trace a circle shape for the head.

Next, cut two strips of paper that will form the headband part of the hat.

Then, we colored the parts we cut out. You could just use brown paper for this if you like. My girls just love to color.

Tape the paper strips end to end to make one long piece.

Fit this piece around your child's head to fit snugly and secure with tape.

Make a turkey face on the circle.

Attach the head of the turkey to a small strip of paper folded accordion style.

Cut out some feathers.....

...and some wings.

Attach all the parts to the headband that you created and you have a bobbing head turkey hat!

Rainbow Turkeys- a reader's suggestion

I received a comment after my toddler theme rainbow post from Dee Light. She suggested that we could add a face to our paper plate rainbows and create a Thanksgiving Turkey. So, I did just that and here it is. Thank you so much for the idea my girls loved it and it gave us a chance to transform something that they created into something else to hang for Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble-Hand and Foot Print Turkeys

I know that there are a dozen different ways to make a turkey with hands and feet. Here is one way to make them that is very easy. (Sorry about the blurry pics, I'm having camera issues again.)

First, you will need to trace your child's foot. I used white paper so that the girls could color it brown while I worked on the next part. You could use brown paper if you wanted to.

Next, I traced the girls hands. You will need several cut out hands. I did 3 of each red, orange, and yellow.

After the body (footprint) is colored, glue the feathers (hand prints) on the back around the outside of the body.

Last, glue on a face and you have a very silly turkey:) Gobble, Gobble!