Gobble gobble gobble

We're in high anticipation of Thanksgiving around here. I found this adorable Button Turkey idea at one of my favorite preschool idea blogs, Pink and Green Mama. You can check out her version here inspired by My Montessori Journey here. I highly recommend both blogs if you have young preschool aged children- they have super educational and fun ideas! Here's my take on the cute turkey to help kids practice their colors and fine motor skills. It really didn't take very long to make and was pretty simple- I just used felt I had in the craft box and a piece of brown corduroy pants I recently cut up for another project that I'll share about later. I was able to scavenge all the buttons from a collection of buttons that were Jon's Grandma Thwaits'. I love it when I can make something without having to purchase anything for it :) I added the red ribbon for the girls to practice tying with but Shazer thinks it looks silly. Even so, its been a big hit with both girls. It was also a nice quiet activity for them to do at church on Sunday before Sacrament meeting (we had to go early for Jon and Shazer to practice a choir number before church).

Here's our "thankful tree" to get us in the spirit of thankfulness- although we try to encourage that spirit all year ;) There are a ton of these out in the blogosphere but here was my main inspiration.

Some of the things written on our leaves that we are thankful for are:

plants, flowers, nature

music

good food

good education

technology

bikes

crafts

cool toys

backyard

movies

The Marx Brothers

Nintendo (Zelda, Mario, Kirby, Metroid, Pokemon)

family members

nice van

home

rubberized asphalt

recycling

photovoltaic solar power

Percy Jackson & the Olympians (the book)

Calvin & Hobbes

Harry Potter

Here are two of my favorite: 

Yes, Sally is thankful for Smurfette- if it weren't for her being such a girly smurf, humoring mom by watching such an old cartoon would have been unbearable ;)

And Shazer (I can tell from the hand writing) secretly wrote that he's thankful for the "gospel and Holy Ghost" after we had a discussion about the Holy Ghost after church yesterday. What a sweety. 

Sally had her preschool's Thanksgiving party today which culminated in a performance of Thanksgiving poems and songs. I got the whole 7 minute performance this time in its entirety (can you believe I actually remembered to charge the camera last night and clear the memory card?!- pretty amazing!) Blogger won't let me post the long video and I'm sure no one but us and the grandparents are really interested in watching the whole thing- so I had Sally just pick her two favorite song/poems and sing them especially for you -our viewing audience. Enjoy!