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Holidays

ZannaLand’s Top Thanksgiving Day Kids Crafts

23 November 2009 by Suzannah Otis 10 Comments

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Thanksgiving Table Crafts
Thanksgiving Table Crafts

Inspired by some of my fellow bloggers as well as my favorite, Family Fun magazine, I thought I’d share my family’s top Turkey Day crafts! I have to admit, almost all of the crafts my children have done over the years are thanks to their amazing grandmother, my mom. She has an agenda when it comes to the holidays and always makes sure the kids get to create something new each year and feel like a big part of the festivities. I have come up with a few of my own over the years though, so this list combines both.

 

 

 

Turkey Cut-out Napkin Rings

Personalized Turkey Cut-out Napkin Rings
Personalized Turkey Cut-out Napkin Rings

This was one of my mom’s crafts last year. The kids just cut out card stock turkey shapes, rectangles to write everyone’s name on the front, then made rings out of the card stock, using cut cardboard tubes as reinforcement. They came out really cute and of course depending on the age and skill level of your artists, you could have some really unique turkeys! Another option we’ve done in the past is one I found instructions for on Family Fun – Turkey Napkin Rings from flat wooden craft spoons. I have another similar project using the craft spoons below.

 

Cornucopia Nut Cups

Cornucopia Nut Cups
Cornucopia Nut Cups

This was another from last year. Growing up, my grandmother always had painted scallop shells filled with mixed nuts at everyone’s place setting for the holidays. I may or may not have gone around picking all the cashews out of those shells, as a child. (whistles innocently…) Anyway, while we don’t use the shells anymore, we do still enjoy having mixed nuts out for the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays. My mom found this craft to make a fun, reusable decoration. The kids just drew out their own cornucopia pictures on the front of some construction paper. My daughter wanted to color hers in, while my son chose to leave his just plain (and really I was quite impressed with their creations!!) then they attached the paper to a ring using glue sticks, so they stood up on their own. Next she just put some mini cup cake liners in the ring and you fill them with nuts of your choice. You can then remove the liners and put new ones in for the next event. Of course you can fill them with whatever you like: candies, mints, anything! You could also make bigger rings to fit larger liners if you’d like the cups to hold more items.

 

Wooden Craft Spoon Turkeys

Wooden Spoon Turkeys
Wooden Spoon Turkeys

Another fun craft item to decorate your Thanksgiving table are these wooden craft spoon turkeys. Gather about 5 of the craft spoons and glue together with wood glue. Next glue another stick to act as the holder for the turkeys. Cut out felt for the head and the beak/waddle parts. Attach those parts and googly eyes with glue. We cut out pilgrim hats with construction paper and glued those on as well. You can then color in the ‘feathers’ any color you like with markers or even paint. The possibilities for creativity are endless! We just placed them around the table and on plates for decoration, but you could probably put them in tall cups full of nuts or candy, or even flower pots.

 

Pine Cone Turkey Place Cards

Pine Cone Turkey Place Cards My mom made this one with the kids a few years back but unfortunately I do not have pictures of their creations, so I found a similar craft with instructions on Family Fun’s site.  We just added little cards with guest’s names on them to turn them into place cards for the table. These are especially fun to make because you get to go on a nature walk to collect the pine cones first!

 

Oreo Turkeys

I saw this on a baking group last year and had to make them. They are so simple to do, yet involved so the kids loved making them. For each turkey you make, you’ll need 2 Oreos, a mini Reese’s peanut butter cup, a Whopper, some candy corn, white frosting for ‘glue’ and yellow frosting/gel for the feet. You can also use some blue or other color frosting for the eyes.

Oreo Turkey - edible crafty fun!
Oreo Turkey - edible crafty fun!

Stand one Oreo up on top of a flat Oreo, and use some of the white frosting to attach them. Add 5 or 6 candy corn white part down, into the top Oreo’s filling to make the ‘feathers’ of the turkey. Be VERY careful with this because if you push too hard you will split open the Oreo. We went through quite a few, but no one complained. Cut the Reese’s mini cup in half, and attach with a bit of frosting so the cut part is facing down onto the Oreo. Attach the Whopper on top of the Reese’s cup as the head, with a bit more frosting. Next add 2 candy corns, with the white tips facing up, to the Reese’s cup, as wings – this is optional if you’d rather have a turkey without wings, it looks cute without too. Cut off the tip of another candy corn and attach with frosting to the Whopper as the beak. Next use the white frosting to make eyes, using a colored gel if you’d like for pupils. Use the yellow frosting for feet on the bottom Oreo. You can also get red frosting or gel to make a waddle, but we forgot that step last year! This year we might experiment with chocolate-filled Oreos, or maybe even save some Halloween orange-filled ones next year! The best part about this table decor is everyone gets to eat their creation!

Oreo Turkeys
Just re-made these for an appearance on iVillage.com so I thought I'd add the new photo!

 

Oreo Turkey
Mr. Turkey-O!

 

Laminated Thanksgiving Artwork Place Mats

Our Thanksgiving Place Mats
Our Thanksgiving Place Mats

A few years back a neighbor of mine invited a bunch of us over to have the kids create Thanksgiving place mats. The kids decorated large sheets of construction paper using markers, crayons, glitter and leaves they’d collected from outside. (Keep in mind we live in Florida, you can probably find much prettier leaves in the northern regions!) I may have helped a bit with some of the drawing. 😉 Then they colored their names in with stencils and the moms printed out Happy Thanksgiving with the year on them. Our neighbor then took them down to the local print shop and got them laminated for just a few dollars. This will be the 6th Thanksgiving that we’ve used these place mats, they are a treasured keepsake! I can’t wait till the baby is old enough to make his own place mat to add to the table.

…

I hope you try out some of our family’s Thanksgiving crafts, I know my children enjoy the traditions they created so much and love showing off their handi-work each year. So many of these can take on a personal twist and embellishments from your own family will make these one-of-a-kind decorations something to be thankful for.

tday5
Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

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Filed Under: All blogs Tagged With: crafts, Family Adventures, Holidays, kids, Oreo turkeys, parenting, Pictures, pinecone turkeys, Projects at home, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving crafts, Thanksgiving table decor

Grim Grinning Ghosts, Come Out to Socialize!

31 October 2009 by Suzannah Otis 3 Comments

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“When hinges creak, in doorless chambers. And strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls. Whenever candlelights flicker, where the air is deathly still, that is the time when ghosts are present. Practicing their terror, with ghoulish delight!

…Your cadaverous parlour, betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis.”

With these famous lines from one of Walt Disney’s greatest attractions, the Haunted Mansion, I thought I’d celebrate Halloween in ZannaLand by sharing some photos of our family during our visit to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. Don’t forget to check out my other Halloween posts showcasing the Headless Horseman ride, part one of the Boo to You Parade, part two featuring the Villains, and the Halloween Castle!

Our darling Cereal Killer, Coraline, my ghoulish
Our darling Cereal Killer, Coraline, my 'Scare-ista' costume, and Spider-Mickey!
This was the sign I made to go with my costume, hope some Disney fanatics get the jokes!
This was the sign I made to go with my costume, hope some Disney fanatics get the references!

Continue for more pictures >>

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Filed Under: Walt Disney World Tagged With: Disney, Disney Special Events, Family Adventures, Halloween, Holidays, Magic Kingdom, Pictures, Walt Disney World

Too Cool for Ghouls…Halloween Help?

17 September 2009 by Suzannah Otis 6 Comments

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nsshp1 I announced earlier this week on Twitter that the family is heading to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Personally *I* am super excited about it because it’s one of my favorite events at Disney World. The Boo To You parade is worth the price of admission alone, I feel. The parade starts with the Headless Horseman fiercely galloping down from Frontierland to Main Street on his horse (a horse who’s only job is this parade!). My next favorite part of the parade are the gravediggers from Haunted Mansion. They will definitely keep you alert as they stomp and drag their shovels along the pavement – causing sparks to fly!

a blur of gravediggers (& the Malfoy family in the background!)
a blur of gravediggers (& the Malfoy family in the background!)

Then of course there is the trick-or-treating throughout the park. Various spots are set up in the different lands where kids and adults can collect candy treats together (there are non-candy alternatives available at each location as well). My favorite section is the walkway from Toontown to Tomorrowland, where characters from Alice in Wonderland are set up. During our first time at the party, they actually had an entire tea cup from the Mad Tea Cups ride FILLED with candy. The spooky-themed HalloWishes fireworks display is a spectacular end to the night, it really can’t be missed.

We didn’t make it last year, because I was 9 months pregnant and had our 3rd child on October 28, 2008. For that reason I was even more excited to attend this year. My original plan was for all of us to be different characters from Alice in Wonderland. A few years ago we saw an entire family dressed up as the Malfoys from the Harry Potter movies and I loved it. I don’t think that’s going to work out, time just snuck up on us, but maybe next year! My daughter has decided to be Coraline– her haircut makes it a perfect choice. I know it’s not a Disney character, but the director also did The Nightmare Before Christmas, and it’s unique enough that she probably won’t see 20 of herself there. I haven’t figured out the baby yet, but I will find something cute I’m sure. My problem is my ten year-old.

Cjoker1 Last year with his longer hair, he was a PERFECT fit for playing Heath Ledger’s Joker from Batman. Once we got him all dressed and made up, he was less than thrilled about actually going out. So it’s no surprise that this year, while he’s excited to go to the party at the Magic Kingdom, he does NOT want to dress up. I decided to ask Twitter for some ideas on how to help, and thought I’d ask here as well. Of course I’m not going to *force* him to dress-up, but I’d like to win the challenge of finding something that actually excites him enough to want to wear. My friend Kristen on Twitter suggested an “I’m too cool to dress up” t-shirt, but I wonder if he thinks he’s too cool to wear an “I’m too cool” shirt?! Help me, friends of ZannaLand, you’re my only hope! 😉

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Filed Under: Walt Disney World Tagged With: Disney, Disney Special Events, Halloween, Holidays, Magic Kingdom, parenting, Pictures, Walt Disney World

And the winner is….

16 September 2009 by Suzannah Otis Leave a Comment

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Halloweenstation

Main Street Train Station in the Magic Kingdom – Halloween style! (click to enlarge)
Thanks to all who voted in the poll – Halloween won as of right now, but you can keep voting!

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Filed Under: Walt Disney World Tagged With: Halloween, Holidays, Magic Kingdom, Pictures, Wordless Wednesday

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