Tot Tip Tuesday- Easy Tips for Turkey Day with Little Ones

 

By now you have realized that one of the secrets to a successful Thanksgiving is happy and busy kids right? Whether you are hosting Thanksgiving or just on the guest list here are a few things to try this week with the kids on the big day or while they are off school to get that last bit of Thanksgiving in before Christmas hits in full force.

Make Nutty Boats

Walnuts to be exact. Adults can help crack the nuts and hollow out the shell. This might take more than a few tries to get right. While adults are cracking, give children a small piece of paper, 1 inch x 1 inch, and have them design their sail. 

 Once the nuts are hollowed out and sails are made simple bend the paper and insert a toothpick. Use a glue gun to glue the sail to the bottom of the boat. Apply a few layers of hot glue to make sure the sail is set, and give it time to dry.

 Use the boats for place settings at Thanksgiving Dinner if you like, and then take them for a sail if you live near water. If not a shallow baking dish of some kind with a towel underneath works just as well, and keeps you indoors if its cold out.

Happy Sailing! A word to the wise..... You may want to have several sails ready to change out when the boats get wet and little ones get upset. Believe me on this one. We are on our 4th set of boats for the season. Kids of all ages LOVE these!

Dollar Store Decor

Hit the dollar store for some fun art supplies for little or big ones. A roll of white or brown paper will both save your table from spills, and create a blank canvas for little artists. Just add crayons and stickers. Even if you don't use it for your Thanksgiving table, it will keep little hands busy while you are baking and prepping in the kitchen. 

Easy Turkey Tee's

While there are cute turkey tee's everywhere on Pinterest, we opted for simplicity because well, its easier. The past two years we have made Turkey Tee's for our kids. If you can buy a cheap T-shirt somewhere great do that. If not, use something you already have, that you are fine with having Turkeys on it. They will fade with washing but will not completely disappear. Get the little hands out, coat them in paint and get creative. Kids will love showing them to the relatives come Thanksgiving Day.

 HaPpY ThAnKsGiViNg! 

Follow us on Instagram: @MegynJordyn

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Love You SNOW Much :DIY Kids Snowman Valentine

Being housebound with sick littles will make you get creative real quick. After two weeks of being stuck inside we decided to make Valentines yesterday out of the pads I use to remove my makeup. Everyone has seen the snowmen out of cotton balls so when I noticed these on the bathroom counter I thought why not. 

So, we made a few for Grandma and Grandpa. I used a dot of hot glue on each of the circles and the eyes, and then drew the rest with crayon. When one of my little guys wanted to help I said, "sure" and handed him one of the circles with a dab of glue on it. Wouldn't you know he grabbed right where the glue was, got it stuck on his finger, started crying because of the heat, and as I removed it saw a tiny burn blister from the glue (of my low temp glue gun). Major mom fail! I thought being right next to him I could help him do it. Not so. Word to the wise, just let the kids stick to the coloring and taping on of suckers. Not worth a burn on a little one.

These don't have to be Valentines. They could just be snowmen, a and a fun art project to do with the kids anytime in the winter. I thought about going out for a walk to find small sticks for the arms and some type of buttons for the front of them but we had too much snow but that would have been fun too. Anyway, just thought we would share some of the product from our days of cabin fever.

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Tot Tip Tuesday: Making Valentine Wax Paper Hearts

Suffering from cabin fever? Us too. Luckily, February is here which has given us a few new things to do indoors to cure our boredom, because at this point we are just as done with winter as the kiddos. Here is our attempt, tips, and what not to do, for making the crayon wax hearts that are popping up on Pinterest looking oh so easy, for Valentines Day. 

Needed Items:

Crayons. You choose your colors. We used only reds and pinks.

Grater of some kind.

2 sheets of Wax Paper

An Iron

Baby wipes or paper towels.

Cookie cutters or other traceable heart shapes.

PATIENCE-Crayon grating is not a quick ordeal. 

How to: (Our Way)

• Place wax paper (roughly 2 feet) on the counter and place grater on top.
• Start grating your crayons on the smallest size of grating holes. (Is that what they are called?) See picture below. No worries the wax washes off really easily with hot water and soap.

• Grate all of the crayons you will be using. If you have small children this is an adult task. You don't want them grating their fingers, but if you are supervising let them help out if you wish. 
• Note to self: be prepared for crayon shavings on the floor and all over tiny helping hands. They want to touch touch touch. You can't blame them it does look cool!

• Make sure and get all the shavings out of the inside of the grater. 

• Spread out the shavings evenly on the wax paper leaving at least two inches between the shavings and the edge of the paper. 

• Place another piece of wax paper directly on top of the shavings so they are completely covered.

• Use your iron on the lowest setting and place lightly over the wax paper until the crayon shavings melt the two pieces of wax paper together.

• IRON should be used by an adult. DO NOT use small chunks of crayon left over from shaving. It will rip the wax paper and get colored wax on your iron!

• Once the wax is melted and cooled. Place your heart shapes or cookie cutters on the paper as close together as possible and trace shapes. 

• Cut out and hang as you wish. They work well in windows as sun catchers. 

• We found these work best hanging in the window as if you handle them too much the wax paper begins to pull away from the wax.

 

We were only able to get 4 hearts from 2 feet of wax paper so we added in paper hearts to our window display and then had fun with pictures pretending we were blowing the hearts into the air. Perfect for a Valentines Day Photo Op to turn into Valentines.

 Love, Megyn & Jordyn

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Tot Tip Tuesday: Mini Snowmen

Do you want to build a snowman? Yes. (You just sang that in your head didn't you. Us too. ) Do you want to roll giant balls of heavy wet snow in order for it to happen? Didn't think so. Little hands should equal little snowmen we decided so we gave it a try and the kids loved it. While you may will still have to help out, it is quite a bit easier to make different sized snowballs and stack them than the alternative. How to: Read on.

We cut out felt circles, rolled them, and hot glued them to form a hat. Add a pom pom or cotton ball on top if you'd like. The scarf is just a long piece of felt. We found small twigs and a red berry from a tree for a nose. Next time we'll search for eyes and buttons. 

Make them as sturdy as you can because they may get carted around the yard like the stuff animal they are not. :)

If you have boys they'll most likely ask not if, but when, they can "wreck the snowmen." So, until another day, goodbye little red hatted snowman friend. 

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Tot Tip Tuesday- Thanksgiving Books, Buns, and Baking

Books, Buns, and Baking top our list for fun things to do with the kiddos this week. 

Best Turkey Books

 First off books. We love reading with/to our kids but sometime the same old books get pretty old. Enter, holidays and the perfect reason to change books and have fun with the holidays. Here are a few of our favorites that are somewhat silly and perfect for the season. While we read all of these stories to our toddlers (we simply tell the story and point out pictures with the ones with more words and a deeper story). We have broken it down to ages we feel they would fit best if you are looking for that type of thing.

Age 5 and Under

10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston and Illustrated by Rich Deas

*Bright pictures, simply rhymes. 10 fat turkeys falling off the fence one by one.

The Turkey Ball by David Steinburg

*A simple rhyme book telling of turkeys getting dressed up for a ball, dancing, and trotting home come morning. 

Count Your Blessings by Patricia Reeder Eubank (Lift the Flap and "find it" Book)

*Darling illustrations of Mom, Dad, brother, and sister bear, their home, and life in the forest. Each page talks about what they are grateful for and asks you to find different things in the picture. 

Age 6 and Up

A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman Illustrated by Jeff Shelly

*All the Turkeys have fled the town to avoid being dinner. One turkey falls for the plan to be a turkey model, and gets away in the nick of time leaving the townspeople to eat only veggies and wheat for Thanksgiving. 

A Turkey For Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting

*Mr. and Mrs Moose host Thanksgiving for their animal friends. Mrs. Moose wants a turkey for dinner so Mr. Moose and friends set out to find one. He ends up being a guest at dinner rather than the main course. (This is my 3 year olds favorite.)

T'was the Night Before Thanksgiving By Dav Pilkey

*Set to the Twas the Night Before Christmas Poem the story tells of children on a field trip to a turkey farm. Upon learning about what happens to the Turkeys before Thanksgiving each child smuggles a Turkey onto the bus and back home to be a Thanksgiving guest.

Funny Educational 

You Wouldn't Want To Be An American Colonist by Jacqueline Morley

*With funny pictures and witty one liners this book tells children the ins and outs of what it would have really been like to be an American Colonist. 

Turkey Baby Buns

If you have been on Pinterest you have seen some form of the turkey bottom onesie. We opted for sheer simplicity because frankly who has time for some of this crazy business. We used a white onesie and some orange/copper ribbon and a glue gun.  Cut a few ribbons to a similar length place it where you'd like and glue it on. Insta turkey tush. It will pull at the Grandparents heartstrings, and have everyone saying, "ahhh". We used a stamp pad and ink to add the gobble but you could easily leave that plain.

Baking with the Babes

Roll out sugar cookies. Yes, it will be a mess. Most likely a big one. But, when you tell yourself that going in and you'll make it back out. Think of the memories. Kids LOVE these. Use your go to sugar cookie recipe or if you don't have one you love grab a package of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix. You just add egg and butter. There is a variation recipe on the back for rollout cookies that is perfect. 

Best part about these is they ARE NOT turkeys. Hit IKEA for these forest animal cookie cutters. They are cute and cheap and if your kids love animals as much as ours do they will love stamping out cookies shaped as moose, porcupines, squirrels, foxes, and bears.

Frost and decorate as you wish. I think I'm still picking up pieces of dough and flour. Oops. :)

Happy Tuesday! 

Follow us on IG: @MegynJordyn 

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