Feathered Friend Favors

The kids and I made some Turkeys out of egg cartons and hand prints yesterday. We are having Thanksgiving Dinner with Matt's side of the family this Sunday. So we made one for each family member - 9 total. We are going to fill them with peanuts and M&M's and put one at each person's place setting! I found the idea HERE. But I had to change it up a bit.

First I cut the Turkey shapes out of the egg cartons. It was a little tricky at first, but I got it after a couple tries. If you decide to make these too, hopefully this picture will help you out!Then we had a tempera paint party. The girls were giddy with excitement! I didn't have any brown, so I tried mixing every color I did have on hand...And it worked! The girls were super impressed with my mad skills. The painting process started out relatively mellow, under control, neat and clean.But rapidly got more and more messy! They had fun. And thankfully I had put a big sheet of butcher paper across the kitchen table first!

And what does your 14 month old do while you referee Tempera 101? He climbs up on a chair to get ON TOP of the art table and chows down on markers, rubber stamps and ink pads, of course?!You are about to scold him, but then he gives you this mischievous LOVE of a face and you melt. Spare the rod, spoil the child you say? Oh well. I'll admit...this Munchie makes me a big softy. And it's all washable and non-toxic after all!

We washed up and let the paint dry. Oh yeah, and changed our clothes. (Do your kids wear only one outfit a day? Because mine don't. At least two...more often three or four costume changes are required in our daily play! Especially Molly. She's in a new something every time I turn around!)

I didn't have any feathers handy, so I had the girls trace their hand prints on different colors of construction paper, and then color and cut them out. We turned the hand prints into the "feathers" instead!

I was impressed at how well they did with all the tracing and cutting. (We needed 18 hand prints after all!)

While the girls were busy tracing and cutting, I hot glued googly eyes, beaks and gobblers on to the faces of the Turkeys. When the girls were done coloring, I added two hand prints to the back of each bird. I think they turned out super cute!

I love all the colors and Megan and Molly's scribbles.

I especially love that their little hands made them, and that they are made OF their little hands. Most of all, I love that we had so much fun together! Today I am Thankful for my Faith. Daily I am reminded that without it, I would be lost. When I take a few moments each morning to refocus my attention towards Him, the rest of the day goes so much smoother. I have more patience, more direction, more energy, more love. And when the going gets really, really tough, it's surprisingly peaceful to know that I am not in control. Thank you God for You!