Crafts in November

We made a cute turkey out of plates. I got the idea here: www.jennwa.blogspot.com/2008/11/paper-plate-turkey.html
It was super easy and Alice really enjoyed it. All you need is one Chinet dinner plate and one Chinet dessert plate, brown paint, feathers, plastic eyes, construction paper, and a pipe cleaner. This is Alice working on her turkey.

And here is the finished product. She wanted to hang it on her bedroom door.


I put popcorn kernals in a bucket with cups and spoons for Alice to play with. At first she played with it as I intended.



As time went on, she had her own ideas....


We made a turkey pinata. I got the idea at www.familyfun.com
This was a week long project. We did one layer each day. I did most of the tissue paper. We took it to Sunday Night dinner and hung it in the Link's basement. It was a little difficult to hang, but Patty figured it out and the kids really enjoyed it. We were a little scared by how hard they were hitting it. Maybe a little built up aggression?








Even little Will got to take a swing.


A big reward for all that hard work. Gus cracked me up. He was so focused on picking up a much candy as he possibly could.



I added feathers, eyes, and turkey cookie cutters to her playdough supplies. She had so much fun making turkeys all month.


We made apple turkey. All you have to do is slice an apple in half. Lay it on a plate. Attach small colored marshamallows on toothpicks. Gently push into the back of the apple. Attach a large marshmallow on a toothpick and gently push into the front of the apple. We used raisins on toothpicks for the eyes.

It was so much fun, we did it again with Alice' pal Gus.


We made noodle necklaces. We dyed pasta by submersing the pasta in rubbing alcohol and food coloring. We let the noodles dry overnight before making the necklaces.

This is Alice making her necklace. She also made them for her friends.


I discovered muffin-tin meals this month. I am still looking for Christmas silcone muffin tins. I got these cute little picks from IchibanKanUSA.com
Here is Alice's lunch from today...

This is Alice eating with her new picks. She loved it!


We are working on Thanksgiving treats for her friends. More to come later...

Catchin' Up

Will's first birthday was on the 5th. Mom and Dad flew out to help us celebrate. We had a small party with the Sunday night crew. I had a cute birthday shirt made with his name on it. Here is the website: http://initiallyyoursmonogramming.blogspot.com/search/label/Birthday%2Shirts
I made a Very Hungry Caterpillar cake. The cake fell and stuck to the pan, so we did the best we could. It had tons of icing.


Will was reluctant to taste the cake at first, but I kept putting frosting on his mouth. When he finally tasted it, he loved it and dug in.

And We're Back

For some reason, the last few posts haven't shown up, so I'll try to recap.

Halloween: I bought Alice a purple fairy costume a month prior to Halloween. Before taking the tags off, I made sure she approved and was sure that was what she wanted to be.

She was very excited about it, however as the big day grew closer, she changed her mind. I told her that I was not going to buy another costume, but we could make something. After several days of debate, and searching the internet, she settled on a bag of jelly beans, which is perfect for her considering candy is her most favorite thing in the world.

We had to assemble the costume three seperate times- once for school, once for the church carnival, and once for Halloween night. The first few times went off without a hitch, but I didn't do such a good job the last time. She left a trail of balloons behind her as she Trick-or-Treated.


This year we all meet at Dallas and Laura's house for pizza, followed by Trick-or-Treating. Will was an elephant. I bought his costume one morning very early. It was his first Halloween, so I needed a cute costume, so of course I went to my favorite baby costume site http://www.babystyle.com/ . At first I was going to buy a lion costume, however Gus and Nash were both going to be lions, so I bought the non-refundable elephant costume. The first thing Brad said when I told him about the costume was, "He's going to be an elephant so close to the election?" I hadn't even thought about it. I immediately began brainstorming solutions to the elephant problem. I decided on an "Elephants for Obama". When it came down to it, I ran out of time and just stuck and Obama sticker on the front of his costume. Perfect.

These are the cute treats I made for Alice's preschool buddies. I got the idea at The Tip Junkie. http://tipjunkie.blogspot.com/2008/10/halloween-is-this-friday.html


The Election:
I am so glad the election is over. I have been a stressball for the last 4 months! I watched more television during that time period than I have in the last 4 years. I never learned anything new, but was obsessed. Brad was working for Obama, so needless so say, he was very busy. It is wonderful to have him home again. We spent election night at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. The moment Obama's victory was announced was surreal and I'll never forget it. There was crying, laughing, shouting, and rejoicing. What a amazing change for our country. Brad's back to Link Strategies http://www.linkstrategies.net/ Most of his friends are off to Washington to run the country. Jackie, his boss from the campaign has been chosen to be Michelle Obama's cheif of staff. Very exciting.

Mom bought Alice a really cute dress onsale after Fourth Of July. It was the perfect "election day dress". I made a huge deal about voting and about how excited I was to vote. As we were walking to the car after voting Alice said, "that wasn't really that fun, was it Mommy?" Probably not if you are three!