fun with turkeys

Well, I have successfully posted our turkey blog before Thanksgiving.  I wasn't sure we were going to make it!  We've done two crafts in the past week or so that have helped us decorate and get ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow.  M's favorite was the apple turkey....

M doesn't always have the patience for activities that require a lot of fine motor work but this kept his attention (I think because it used marshmallows).  For this project you need an apple, toothpicks, something for a turkey face, and small food pieces that can be put on the toothpicks.  We used marshmallows and Cheerios.  If you're health-conscious you could do blueberries or small grapes.  Anything works as long as it goes on a toothpick.  

Here is M filling his toothpicks.  It took a bit longer because he enjoyed putting them on then biting them off....

Here is our finished turkey....

We also did a toilet paper roll turkey that included my favorite- handprints. We made our handprints on thicker cardstock.  M painted them with yellow, orange, and red paint then I cut them out and glued them to the paper roll, which makes the turkey's body.  Unfortunately I can't find the pictures I took while we did this so we only have an "after" picture.  This poor turkey has been a little man-handled and also survived one dog attack so he's a little worn but he's made it to Thanksgiving!

Hopefully we have a few more blog posts coming soon.  We've done a few keep-busy projects since little G has arrived but haven't had time to post about them.  Hoping to get caught up soon!

simple birdfeeder

Yesterday we tried an idea I found in a parenting magazine (can't remember which one) while I was waiting at my OB's office.  The article was summer activity ideas for different age groups.  This was actually in the 3-5 year old column but M enjoyed it and was excited to put it outside for the birds yesterday.  M needed a lot of help with it but a child a little older than him could do it on their own.

It's pretty simple and fairly quick and easy.  You need a pipe cleaner (we used two) and Cheerios (which are always in our house).  You have to string the Cheerios onto the pipe cleaner then fasten it into a loop to hang it.  M put on a lot of Cheerios so we made our loop then attached a second pipe cleaner to hang it from.  It's fantastic for fine motor skills and I was actually surprised with how well M could get those Cheerios on if I held the pipe cleaner very still for him.  His only problem was wanting to put 5 or 6 on at once but we able to say that each Cheerio needed to "take it's turn" which another thing we need a lot of reminders for so it worked out.  There really isn't much more to it than that.  Here are a few pictures....

Finished product- we added the extra pipe cleaner through the little loop at the top to attach it to our deck: