Thanksgiving tree

My parents have been putting up two Christmas trees for about four years.  They have a big floor to ceiling tree in their family room where everyone hangs out and watches TV and they have this smaller three that sits on a table in their living room.  For the past two years, they have left the little tree up through the winter and removed the Christmas decorations and put snowmen on the tree.  Well, truthfully, the grandkids decorate the tree with non-breakable snowman ornaments that my mom has collected over the years.  This year they decided to do something different and put the tree up early to have a Thanksgiving tree.  My mom put white lights on the tree and gathered some fabric leaves.  She also repurposed some springs of berries and whatnot from an old wreath that she had that has seen better days.  The grandkids made foam pumpkins and foam turkeys from one of those kits that you can buy at Micheals or Hobby Lobby or your local craft store.




Here are some action shots of two of my kids making their turkeys:

Some action shots of decorating the tree:

Fake fruit that used to live on my mom's fall wreath



Foam Pumpkin Ornaments

 



One tired tree decorator!



 

Back pack tags



At the beginning of the school year, my daughter couldn't decide if she wanted to ride the bus home from school or if she wanted to be picked up in the car.  She thought that she might ride the bus one day and then get picked up the next.  To prevent her from getting confused, I made her these little tags for her back pack so that she would remember which way she was coming home that day.  And it would help out the teacher as well!

I did a google search for a bus .svg file and a car .svg file.  I can't remember the name of the websites where I found them but they were pretty easy to find.  I used my Cricuit and the Sure Cuts a Lot software to cut out the pieces for the bus and for the car.  I made the car green because we have a bluish-green car.  The paper is actually a pretty close match to the color of our car!

After the bus and car were assembled, I glued them to a rectangular piece of cardstock.  Then I laminated the cardstock for added durability.  I used a hole punch to make a hole in the tags.  I even added her bus number to the bus in case she forgot what bus she needed to get on.





My husband found some little carabiner hooks in the camping section of our meijer.  They were the perfect size for her back pack tags.  We hang the tags on the hook where her back pack goes and we change them out in the morning as needed depending on how she is coming home that day. 



Turkey Hats

How cute are these hats? 

My husband came up with this idea while I was out shopping yesterday.  My 5 year old drew the turkey heads and made the feathers on the back.  My husband did the cutting and the stapling.  My 2 year old just ran around shouting "Gobble gobble!".  8 )

I came home to them wearing their hats and swinging on the swingset.  They were having a blast and so proud of their work!

Gobble Gobble!