Thankful Tree

I saw this last year & really wanted to make one. We are loving the Thankful jar. {Today is "I am thankful for mom" day...I can't wait to see what they come up wth!} I wanted to "inspire" the boys to come up with their own thing to be thankful for. We will each {including hubby & me} write on one leaf a day until at least Thanksgiving. I would like to take it to the end of November, but I may change to Christmas before then!!! Then we will stick the leaves on our tree. By the end of the month..our tree should be FULL!!!

First, I used a roll of kraft/packing paper to make my tree. I just drew a tree freehand onto the paper & cut it out. I used tape to hang it up on a closet door...so that we could see it often. (Sorry about the picture...it is on a really strange angle.)


I used construction paper for the leaves. At first, I wanted to cut out cute oak leaves, but decided that I would get tired of cutting those out. I went with a very simple leaf. After I cut out the leaves...I creased them down the center for a bit of dimension. I will show you the progress of our tree in a bit!

Festive Finger Puppets

Now..I want to start out by saying...I DON'T SEW!!! We made these cute finger puppets last year as an activity for the kids to do while they anxiously awaited Thanksgiving dinner. It went great & the kids loved the activity & then they had something to play with.



As I said...I did this last year & didn't do a tutorial or anything. It was pretty easy. I just started with felt & cut out a finger puppet shape. You need a front & a back. If you want to get really fancy...use pinking shears. Sew around the edges leaving the bottom open.

Then cut out your embellishments. I am not an artist, but it was really simple. We just attached the embellishment with felt glue.

**If you want step by step directions...let me know.

Thankful Jar

This Thanksgiving month..I really wanted to make my boys focus on being thankful & giving. AND we ♥ countdowns in this family. So, when I saw this super cute thankful jar idea...I was SOLD!! I have seen this at 3 different places, but can only remember 1. Sugar Doodle has cute cards that you can print out. My printer is currently having issues...so I just wrote mine out on paper strips. Then I folded up each word strip.



Then, I took a cute jar that I had & tied ribbon around it. I was going to decorate it all up, but decided that I wanted to be able to use the jar for other things too.



Everyday the boys will pick out one word strip & we will do whatever activity the strip says. I am also excited to do these things as a family!