Chalkboard Thankful Tree

 

Hello my friends, how is your November going?  This is one of my favorite months of the year, and we always try to do some activities to help us be more thankful and cultivate an attitude of gratitude.

 

  Unfortunately, more often then not, I come up with a super cute and super unrealistic activity that takes lots of effort and usually fizzles out by the second week of November...can anyone else relate?!  This year I decided to simplify, and thank goodness I found THIS genius idea on Pinterest...

 

A Chalkboard Thankful Tree!

 

 

In our study I knew I wanted a HUGE chalkboard, and since I could never find one that I wanted we just slapped some chalkboard viny on the wall and framed it with this great Ikea frame.  We have used it tons already, but it really came in handy for our Thankful Tree.  As you can see, we just drew lots of branches on our tree and every morning after breakfast we go into the study and take turns saying one thing we are thankful for.  Some are silly and some are serious, but I LOVE that for 10 minutes out of the day we are thinking of nothing but ALL we have to be grateful for.

 

We just started this 3 days ago and our bare tree is really starting to already fill in!

 

 

How do you help your kids show more gratitude this month?  Keep checking back, we have a few simple service projects we are doing and as always some yummy treats and crafts...have a fantastic day!

"A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" Munchie Mix!

 Hello my friends!!  Are we all geared up for Turkey Day?  I am so excited to spend the day with family and just RELAX :)

One of our favorite Thanksgiving-time traditions is watching "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving".  I remember being little and wishing I could have a Thanksgiving dinner made out of popcorn, toast and jelly beans ;)  This year I thought it would be fun to make a yummy treat for the kids to munch on while we are watching one of the only Thanksgiving movies I know of.

I give you our...

"A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" Munchie Mix

This was a quick and yummy snack I whipped for the kids this weekend as we watched Chuck and the gang celebrating Thanksgiving.

For our Munchie Mix I just threw together Crunch 'n Munch for the popcorn, Cinnamon Toast Crunch for the toast, and jellybeans for the...jellybeans :)

I threw them all in a bowl and mixed up all the goodness.

Then I dished them out into individual servings and served up the kids (and the adults!) a yummy treat while we enjoyed the show.

This would be a wonderful activity for the night before Thanksgiving, or even for Thanksgiving Day when everyone is needing a little down time.

Thank you SO much for stopping by today and I hope you all have a most wonderful Thanksgiving with your families!

Turkey Pancakes!

 And no...I do NOT mean pancakes made out of real turkey! ;)

This morning I realized that Thanksgiving is in just 2 1/2 weeks...and we haven't done one turkey craft, activity or treat.  Unacceptable!  I guess that's what happens when your boys (7 months old and 4 years old) battle strep and double ear infections for 10 days.  Oh man...last week was one of those mommy weeks where you just want to run away from it all.  Luckily, most of the kids are all better this week and I was able to get away for the weekend and get some much-needed girl time with my mom, aunt and sister-in-law.  I came home ready to tackle life and get back to enjoying this wonderful time of year with my favorite people :)

This morning as I was preparing our breakfast (trying to console my crying kids because we had NO milk for cereal and they ONLY want cereal for breakfast EVERY single day) I thought maybe I could add a little something to our normal pancakes to start the day off with a little fun.  What we came up with were these Turkey Pancakes!

All you need to make some of your own are 2 pancakes, one a little bit smaller for the head.  Then slice up an orange and an apple and arrange the slices to make the turkey's feathers.  Finally we made chocolate chip eyes, candy corn beak and red frosting for the wobbler-thingy (really need to find out what that is really called!) and we had a darling little Turkey Pancake Breakfast.

Thanks so much for checking out Blue Skies Ahead today!  We have some fun crafts, treats and activities to share so come back again soon :)

Happy November {November Re-Cap!}

Happy November everyone!  I am so excited to kick off our month-long celebration of GRATITUDE!  I have all sorts of ideas about how to teach my kids (and myself!) how to have a more grateful heart.  Today I whipped up this printable to serve as our daily reminder...

Right?!

I hope to teach my kids that EVERY day is a great day to be grateful :)

I thought it would be fun to kick off the month sharing a few things we have done in past years to celebrate the month of November!

 

The kids loved making this Fruity Turkey with pears, cantaloupe and grapes.  Super easy and healthy snack for your littles! 

We spent a week doing fun crafts, activities and making snacks all about Indian Corn!

Make sure you check out our Tom the Turkey Family Home Evening as well.  Its a great lesson about learning to control our tempers and even has a darling Turkey Cupcake recipe to go with it ;)

Finally a great way to help your children think and ACT on things they have to be grateful for...Don't be a turkey, give thanks!

There are just a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing!  Make sure you come back next week for some new snacks, crafts and activities to enjoy with your family!

Don't Be a Turkey...Give Thanks!!

Hello everyone!!  I wanted to share with you one of our families favorite Thanksgiving Traditions today.

I love the month of November.  I love the weather, the smells, the FEELING of it all.  I mostly love teaching and focusing on gratitude with my children.  Several years ago I realized it would be more fun if we could not just talk about things we were grateful for...but then put that gratitude into action!!  

I came up with our own kind of countdown to Thanksgiving, here he is...

This is our cute little turkey that we hang up 2 weeks before Thanksgiving.

In case you want to join us...I made one for you guys too :)

 

Once I printed out my turkey and feathers, I cut out each of the feathers.  Then on the back of each one I write something we are grateful for, and then a corresponding activity to go with it!

Here are the activities I used...you could of course come up with your own that are more applicable for you family :)

I am thankful for good teachers....make treats and notes to deliver at school.

I am thankful for a strong and healthy body...play tag, ring-around-the-rosy, and the Hokey Pokey.

I am grateful for good books...go to the library and check out some new Thanksgiving books.

I am thankful for my daddy...make handprint turkeys and deliver to his work.

I am thankful for my imagination...act out the first Thanksgiving with props and costumes.

I am thankful for good neighbors...make and deliver yummy treats.

I am thankful to live in America...read about the pilgrims and make pilgrim hat treats.

I am thankful for my grandparents...color them pictures and write letters to mail.

I am thankful for a warm and cozy home to live in...make blankets to take to the homeless shelter at Christmas time.

I am thankful for my family...look through scrapbooks and old pictures.

I am thankful for enough food to eat...go to the store and buy food to donate to the food bank.

I am thankful for this beautiful earth...go on a nature walk through the neighborhood.

I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father...do one random act of kindness today to pass that love on to others.

I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ...read stories about Him and write down my testimony.

Once you have all your feathers filled out and your turkey hung up, you let your kids pick one feather and focus on that activity for your day!  It is a wonderful way to teach your kids to be grateful, spend time with them, and enjoy the real reason for this Thanksgiving season :) 

My kids were very excited to wake up yesterday and see our Turkey up and ready to go! ;)

Have a fantastic day everyone!!

Fruity Turkey your kids will "Gobble" up!

Let the Thanksgiving fun begin! ;)

I cannot believe how fast time is flying...Thanksgiving is exactly 2 weeks from today!  I knew I needed to get cracking on the Thanksgiving fun before we were moving onto Christmas.  I thought this fun Fruity Turkey would be the perfect after school snack for my kids and their friends!

All you need to make a turkey of your own is a pear, some grapes, cut up cantaloupes, and some toothpicks.

 

Once you have your feathers made from the cantaloupe and grapes, I just used mini-chocolate chips for the eys, a slivered almond for the beak, and some red frosting for that red-hangy thing I can never remember the name of ;)

When you are all done you have a darling Fruity Turkey that your kids will "Gobble" right up...and you will feel good knowing they had a healthy after-school snack!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today friends!  It is so fun to see you here, keep coming back for a really fun way to focus on gratitude every day with your kids until Turkey Day!!

Linking up HERE

Turkey Family Home Evening

If you have followed this little blog for a while, you may have already seen this family home evening. However, since a lot more people have found us, I thought I would post it again if anyone needs a last minute family home evening for tonight. This is what we are doing at my home tonight :)

I originally found this story on Sugardoodle and made a few changes so the wording was a little more simple for my young children. I typed it up for you here, so you can just copy and paste into a word document and print off. I always love to have a visual, so for this story I printed out and colored turkeys in brown ,red, blue, purple, green, yellow, and white.

Then I just made individual feathers in all the different colors to stick on Tom as he gets each new colored feather...this will make sense after you read the story :) I just used tape to attach the colored feathers to the brown turkey.

The Turkey With the Terrible Temper

Once there was a little BROWN TURKEY who had a TERRIBLE TEMPER. He often flew into rages and ranted around until he was a nuisance in the farm yard. One day he lost his temper about some little thing and got so angry he flew into a rage and went RED as a beet. The other turkeys laughed at him and said: You're RED, RED RED as a BEET: RED from your head to the tip of your feet. Tom Turkey didn't like anyone or anything so he ran away and hid. He sat and sulked for a long time. When he calmed down and came out of his hiding place he was really RED all over. His head was RED and his neck was RED- he was RED from head to his feet.

He hurried to the edge of the farm to visit Dr. Owl how was wise and knew all the answers to everything. "You will have to learn to control that temper of yours!" hooted Dr. Owl. " If you don't remember in time you will end up being a very sorry turkey." The next morning Tom Turkey was brown again except that he had a red feather in his tail. He was very glad to be brown again, but he still thought it was everybody else's fault that he gotten so angry the day before. Tom's mother called him to help with the Monday wash.

But Tom got the BLUES as soon as he started working. He moaned and groaned until his mother said he was acting like a baby. You can guess what happened next- he lost his temper again. This time he went BLUE ALL OVER! As he was running away to hide all the other turkeys yelled: You're BLUE, BLUE from your head to your toe, BLUE all over wherever you go. This time Tom Turkey sat and sulked and blamed his mother for losing his temper.

By morning he was BROWN again but now he had a blue feather next to the red one in his tail. You can guess what happened the rest of the week. On Tuesday Tom didn't want to clean up the yard. He said he hated cleaning up with a PURPLE passion. Just as soon he had said he was in a rage he turned PURPLE all over. The Turkeys shouted: You're PURPLE, PURPLE, that's all we can see, you'd better go hide under your favorite tree. Of course Tom Turkey sat and sulked and blamed everything onto to everyone else. On Wednesday morning he was BROWN again but he had a PURPLE tail feather added to his the RED and BLUE one. He was beginning to feel ashamed that he couldn't control himself when he wanted to. He went out for a walk when he saw a big ear of corn that his turkey friend was eating. Tom was GREEN with envy.

He thought the farmer had no right to give someone else the cob of corn. And before he knew it he had turned GREEN all over, and was in another terrible temper tantrum. The turkeys all turned on him and yelled: You're GREEN, GREEN GREEN as the grass. Why don't you get wise and stop all the sass? And of course again, Tom Turkey went to his hiding place to sulk and feel sorry for himself. On Thursday morning he was BROWN again but now he had a GREEN feather amongst the other brightly colored tail feathers. But something was happening to Tom Turkey. He was really beginning to want to change. He wanted to keep his temper. He didn't feel like being ashamed of himself. He was determined to try hard and do just that. Of course all the turkeys liked to tease Tom and while they were playing a game of Gobble and Waddle someone called Tom a coward. Before Tom started to think he had flown into another tantrum.

This time his face turned YELLOW and his neck was YELLOW and the turkeys were saying he had a YELLOW streak down his back. They yelled: You're YELLOW, turkey. Just like we said, Why don't you go home and hide under the bed? Tom Turkey had turned YELLOW all over because he had forgotten to control his temper. But this time he sat under a tree and thought a long time about everything. He had only himself to blame for his mistakes. He was beginning to realize that he was the only one who could make things better. When he awoke in the morning he was brown again with a new yellow feather in his tail. He didn't say a word to anyone, he just went about his business and said to himself: " I can do it, if I try hard enough !" Mother Turkey asked Tom to keep an eye on the little turkeys when she went to the store on Friday. While she was gone all the baby turkeys ran through the house with muddy feet. When Tom saw what they had done, Tom almost lost his temper.

But this time he just held his breath as long as he could. He turned as pale as a ghost , but he didn't lose his temper. The turkeys yelled: You're WHITE, WHITE but your temper didn't show. Maybe you're changing, we really hope so. All Saturday and Sunday he kept calm and was tickled PINK to think he had gone two days without a terrible temper tantrum. He was still a little BROWN turkey, and a very happy one too. He reported back to Dr. Owl on Monday and Tom Turkey thanked him for his help. Dr. Owl told Tom he had earned the right to wear the brightly colored tail and that he should show it off proudly from now on. So when you go to the farm and see the turkey with his fan shaped tail all unfolded, remember this story about the turkey with the terrible temper.

Isn't that a wonderful message? I absolutely love anything that can help me reinforce to my children that they have a CHOICE! I think young children often feel helpless and out of control, I want my children to learn the things that ARE within their control. They may not always have life go as they want, but they can always try to choose happiness and make the best out of whatever comes their way.

We LOVE to make these fun Turkey Cupcakes, and here are some pics from when we made them last year. They are SUPER easy, you can get the recipe from Family Fun here:

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/sweet-t-o-m-turkeys-687045/

Hope you have a wonderful Family Home Evening with your dear ones. I will be back later with an awesome post about how I spent my weekend...it was amazing!! :)

Indian Corn Fun

Today we had SUCH a fun day doing some activities that all had to do with Indian Corn! Other people must have had the same idea because when I went to the store this morning I nabbed the very last Indian Corn :) I wanted to give my kids a visual of what we were going to be learning about, aren't those colors gorgeous?!

After we talked all about how the Indians taught the Pilgrims all about corn and some of its different uses we decided to make our very own Fingerprint Indian Corns. I printed off the template HERE and then just traced and cut several corns. Then I put a little bit of paint on a plate for each child and let them go to town!

I loved the finished product on these, this one was Skylar's and I thought it turned out SO cute!

The kids always love any kind of fingerpainting or mess-making so this craft was definitely a hit! It was also perfect if you have a range of different ages. My 6 year old did hers almost perfectly while even my 2 year old had a fun time...and just look how precious those little hands are! :)

Once we finished with our craft we made a fun treat that I found years ago on Family Fun. I modified it a little to go with ingredients we had on hand and I think it turned out great!

First up you make the traditional recipe for Rice Krispie treats...only you substitute Corn Pops for Rice Krispies (very tasty!!)

Once you have it all mixed together you add drops of red and purple food coloring throughout. Don't mix it too well...you really want the different colors throughout.

Once its cooled a little you take a popsicle stick and mold the treat around the stick in the shape of a corn cob (or something similar ;)

Finally you take a green fruit roll-up and cut some triangle-sized pieces to make up the corn stalk. Your treats will be very sticky so it will be easy to attach those stalks :)

These were a yummy after-school snack that the kids had fun helping me make. I love how excited they get about learning and that as soon as Daddy comes home they are excited to tell him all about Indians, Pilgrims and Corn :)

I hope you are all having an absolutely wonderful Holiday Season so far. We definitely are, and I am trying to just soak up every single minute with my little family. I have been humbled and overwhelmed with so many feelings of gratitude this month, and a desire to not let one mundane, average moment of my life go by without acknowledging the blessings I have been given :)