Fun with Thanksgiving

These past few days have been a lot of fun for us, since we've packed them with Thanksgiving activities. I've found so many cute holiday crafts and treats on my new addiction, Pinterest, that I couldn't wait to try them all out.

We kicked things off on Monday by making sugar cookie turkeys. We just used some store-bought cookie dough and baked it up in circle shapes. Then I put a line of vanilla frosting across the top of each cookie and gave Charlie and Lily candy corn to put on top of it. Charlie and Lily have recently discovered that they LOVE candy corn (as do I!) so it was challenging at first to keep them from eating it all. Charlie got mad at me for telling him he couldn't eat any more, so he half-heartedly tossed a handful of candy corn on some cookies and stalked off. But Lily enjoyed the activity.
Later that day we made Indian headbands. Charlie and Lily colored some paper, then I cut it to fit around their heads. They picked out feathers and I stapled them onto the bands. In hindsight, I should have had bigger feathers and made the bands thinner, but Charlie and Lily didn't care. Lily wore her "hat" ALL evening.
The next two projects are by far my favorites. We made these hand print turkeys this morning. I painted Charlie and Lily's hands with the different colors and they pressed them onto the paper to make turkey feathers. Once the paint dried, they glued on the pieces of the turkey body and their favorite element, the googly eyes. I just think they're so cute!
And finally, for lunch today we made these turkey peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They were a huge hit and both kids ate nearly every bite.
Today I saw a quote floating around the Internet that I really liked - "It's not that happy people are thankful, it's that thankful people are happy." It struck a cord with me because I feel like it describes Joe and I perfectly - we live happy, thankful lives. We are thankful for the wonderful family and friends who have stood by us during the hardest years of our lives. We are thankful for our blog readers who offer constant support, and who love our children even though they've never met them. We're thankful for each other and the fact that we are still happy and in love after all we've been through. And most of all we are thankful for our amazing, beautiful children, who give us so much joy each and every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!