The Cutest Thanksgiving Party That Wasn't

So, it is a really long story, but the short version is this: I had wanted to have a Thanksgiving party for a long time. I love a party that is unexpected. I had set up a play date with a family I was recently introduced to (we haven't even met in person) and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to throw a little party! The short part: they all got sick and couldn't make it.

I had already set up all the decorations so even though my guests weren't coming, I finished the rest of the preparations so you (and my kids!) could appreciate a little of my hard work. The inspiration for having the party came from these adorable (and FREE!) printables! Paper Glitter has some of the cutest stuff, and these were easy to use, too! I used their "Thanksgiving" banner and hotglued it to some ribbon, and then I used parts of the "icon" banner to add a little more color underneath. I found it to be a good use for the paper tape that my friend had given me (from Target) and I am absolutely in *love* and am now on the hunt for other uses!

 

I printed off placemats, and napkin "rings". I really wanted yellow or orange plates, but they were surprisingly hard to find. I ended up just going with white ones from the Dollar Store. And after my guests cancelled, I was glad that I hadn't spent too much! I printed everything on regular cardstock from Walmart, and I wasn't disappointed.

I let these little cuties make one of the snacks I had planned for breakfast. I found the instructions for these Donut Hole Acorns and they really delivered. They are just as cute as the photo and so easy to make! She suggests Nutella, but I used chocolate frosting. 4 ingredients: donut holes, chocolate frosting, pretzels, and chocolate sprinkles and you get these:



I also used the printable food labels (Seriously, don't those things have some sort of name? What is it?!)  and it worked well because I made acorns and a turkey and they had little pictures of both those things!

I got this idea off Pinterest, the link does not work but you can see my inspiration photo here. I am pretty sure that they used caramel dip in the original, but I wanted something that wasn't quite so sweet, so I just filled a little glass bowl with peanut butter. I used Granny Smith, Pinata and Red Delicious apples for the feathers. The original is cuter, I think because they used a circular plate it worked better. But mine is still pretty cute!

 

I was going to have all the kids make these turkey cookies. You might remember them from my post a couple years ago! I made a few changes (I couldn't find the Little Debbie Chocolate Creme Pies, so I swapped in Oatmeal Creme Pies) and I added a gummy worm "wattle" which I think was a good move, I just snipped off the red part.

We were also going to make these gumdrop turkeys- not for eating, although you could. I was going to send them home in the little paper baskets by the placemats. I found the directions here. If you don't know where to find the big gumdrops, they have them at Walgreen's (I used them for my nativity scene last Christmas.) Her directions are good, so I won't embellish them.

I also wanted to incorporate some of the first Thanksgiving story, and I liked these bead bracelets. I chose to use leather cording instead of pipe cleaners. It is kind of hard to tell from my photo, but I used light tan beads where she uses cream ones. Basically it goes:

 

Black- the Pilgrims

White- sails on the Mayflower

Three Blue-long trip on the ocean

Green- land, Massachusetts!

Three White-long winter

Tan-Indians, especially Squanto, help the Pilgrims to plant and harvest

Red-cranberries

Orange-pumpkins

Tan-turkey

Yellow-corn

 

The pink bead is to help make the bracelet adjustable. I liked that it was a visual mnemonic device!

 

For favors I made my own version of Thanksgiving Blessing Trail Mix. I put in one bag of Bugles (cornucopias), 1 movie size box of Runt candies (fruits of the harvest), 2 cups pretzel sticks (because the Pilgrims would "stick" with it and survive the long winter), 2 cups candy corn (for the corn the Indians helped them to plant) and one cup M & Ms (for the sweetness of all our blessings!).

 

 

 

I also made these adorable hats-both the boy's version and the girl's bonnet. I used craft foam because I wanted them to be more durable. So when it called for folding the paper on the bonnet, I just cut the foam and glued it instead. On the boy's hat I just glued the headband part at the edges of the folded up brim instead of all the way across, because I bought 12x18 foam, instead of the 24 inch paper. It worked great! I will try to get pics of my kids wearing the hats because they are super cute!

 

You like? I think they are adorable!

 

So, don't you think it would have been a fun party? I tried not to be too disappointed, there are certainly worse things than planning a party that doesn't happen, and no one can be responsible for getting sick! I am taking the bracelet, gumdrop turkeys, turkey cookies, and acorns to share with our friends' on Thanksgiving, so those are not a total loss. And I have a great plan for a wonderful party next year!

 

 

 

 



 

 

 





 

Tasty (Chocolate!) Turkeys

I have the pleasure of celebrating Thanksgiving at someone else's home-with food someone else is making! So, because my only two responsibilities are making the sweet potatoes (yum!) and bringing rolls, I have time to turn my attentions to other things. I decided that since most children don't really loves turkey, cranberry jelly, dressing or sweet potatoes, it might be fun to have something just for the kids. I saw these "turkey" desserts at Our Best Bites, but since Jocelyn's birthday is tomorrow and she has requested a different kind of cupcake, I didn't want to have to make two batches. Then I saw this cute turkey on a different site. But those called for mini moon pies and I couldn't find those at the store I was at. So I decided to make my own version!
I used:
-Little Debbie Chocolate Cremes
-Mini Oreos
-Mini Chocolate Chips
-Candy Corn (great use for those pieces left over from Halloween!)
-a simple white icing (I mixed a tiny bit of butter, a drop of vanilla, some powdered sugar and a little milk-I didn't want to make a whole batch, so just mix and add more sugar if it isn't thick enough)

I shoved candy corn into the creme layer of the snack cake. Since the kind I chose was basically two cookies with filling in between, it was really easy. Then I pulled a mini Oreo apart. I used the icing to stick the Oreo (white side up) to the snack cake. I used too much icing, you really only need a little. Then, I used a tiny dab of frosting on a mini chocolate chip to make the "pupil" on each eye.
Attach another candy corn with icing as the "beak" and ta-da! You have a happy Thanksgiving turkey that will be appreciated by all the children at your celebration. I plan on making these with the kids on Thursday. It should be a pretty easy craft for a 5 year-old, a 6 year-old and two closely supervised two year-old boys! I think they will enjoy it.

In other turkey-related news: here is my little turkey showing off some of her Thanksgiving crafts. Isn't that handprint/footprint turkey adorable? She is anxious to use her placemat for the holiday, too.

This is the photo where you can actually see his cute pompom turkey. I guess doing hands is still popular at Thanksgiving. I remember making my fair share of turkeys by tracing my hand. I was never that cute though!
This is the photo where you can see how adorable my son is. He just radiates cuteness-good thing he's mine!