Turkey, Leaves, & Mr. Scarecrow

For the last couple of weeks we've been learning about Thanksgiving and having fun with fall activities!

Our memory verse: "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good." Psalm 106:1



The other day we learned about turkeys. I let Finley listen to different turkey sounds online and we practiced our "Gobble, gobble!" We also had fun strutting like a turkey and I had a cute little poem about turkeys for Finley to learn.

Finley painted two paper plates brown while I cut out a beak, wattle, feathers and feet. After the plates were dry I cut the center of one out (for the head) and cut the rim in half (for the wings). Next I printed a picture of a turkey and set it up on her table. I glued our turkey's body together and put it on a tray with googly eyes, the cut out feet, beak, wattle, and feathers. Finley got to "build a turkey." She decided where each part went.



Isn't he cute? We talked about our turkey, how many feathers he had, his beak and wattle, etc.

We read a non-fiction book about how leaves change colors in the fall and then went for a walk around the neighborhood to look at the different trees. We also wrote in our tree journal. Then we came home and made our own fall tree! I traced the girls hands, from elbow to fingers onto brown construction paper, cut them out, glued them to a piece of white construction paper and then let the girls dip their fingertips in the paint to add leaves. Rowynn LOVED that she got to paint. She always enjoys anytime she gets to be a "big girl!"

I love how it turned out!

We also did some letter matching. I got a package of leaves at the dollar store and they've been in our fall sensory tub. Well, I dug them out and wrote a letter on each of them-lowercase on some, uppercase on the others. This was one of our tot trays this week. I had a basket of all the letters, but that was a tad overwhelming. She knows just about all of her uppercase letters, but doesn't really know lowercase. So I whipped up this activity as a jumping off point--something simple and easy to introduce the concept. Since it was her first time, I just pulled out four or five for her to match up. I did it with her at first and after a few times she was starting to recognize the letters.

When we got tired of letter matching we took the basket of leaves into the living room and threw them up in the air. About a million times. It was a big hit!

Little sister loved watching the leaves fall! She even got in on the action!

This is a sweet little book that is in our fall basket and Finley enjoys reading it..again, and again, and again! Since she really loves this book, we decided to make our own scarecrow! I just googled "scarecrow craft" and I found this little fellow. Super easy! The squares are construction paper that she glued down. I cut a slit on each side and slide a Popsicle stick down for the arms. I wrapped the top 1/3 in masking tape and Finley drew the face! She's really into drawing faces. The hat is a cupcake wrapper and the hair is constriction paper!

Mr. Scarecrow is a huge hit! She carries him around like this, using him as a puppet. Oh, how I love her sweet puppet voice!

Later in the day the girls were playing with their barn and I noticed that Finley had stuck Mr. Scarecrow out in the field. He's done a terrific job, we haven't seen one nasty crow! Hehehe!

Day 6 & 7

Day 6: God made animals & people
Day 7: God rested in His Heaven!

So many moons ago we learned about the days of creation and I posted all of our fun activities, but with the hustle and bustle of October and all our fun outings, I forgot to post Day 6 & 7. So here it is. We took about two weeks total to do this theme and it was a lot of fun.

Day 6: Animals & People

This was a pretty easy one. We talked about different animals and she had some fun with animal stickers.

We added a picture of the girls and talked about how God made everybody!

I found these animal window cling stickers at the dollar store and the girls had fun putting them on our window. They're still there in fact!

I printed off pictures of differnet animals and people put them in a basket and had Finley sort on two different plates-one for people, one for anmials. Little sister "helped."

For Day 7, we just talked about how God rested. We played in the bed, under the covers. I couldn't really think of a fun Day 7 craft, so that was it!!!


We've also been teaching Finley resposibility and how to take care of things...that's why she has Bob the Beta. She loves to feed Bob, "lunch!"

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We also got her a plant that she loves to water! Hopefully we won't kill it!

Anyway, I've got about 10 blogs to post...how'd I get so behind? But I wanted to finish up Days of Creation!!!

October=Fun

I'll warn you, this is a LONG post. But if I don't get it all in, I'll forget and I want to remember all the fun stuff we've doing lately.


We had a super busy month in October...and we aren't slowing down much, but I love it! I love this time of year and all the fun stuff to do! I'll eventually finish up Day 6 &; 7 Creation Day stuff, but for now I'll post some cute pictures of all the fun we've been having!

We made two trips to the local pumpkin patch; one on October 15 with Dada and on the 25th the girls and our playgroup. The girls loved it! Finley kept talking about the "punkin patch" for days! She and Rowynn both really loved the bounce houses. And Finley kept trying to pick up every pumpkin she saw.

October 20 was the busiest, longest day ever! The day looked a little like this:
9:00- Head out the door and drop Kyle's car off to be inspected
9:30- Board the dart train
10:20-Arrive at State Fair & meet up with Kyle's parents and grandmother
10:30-3:00-Fair
3:00-3:30-Wait for train
3:30-4:30 Ride train back to the station
4:30-5:00-Go back home and load up the car and hit the road to Louisiana
11:30-Arrive in Many and unload and get the kiddos settled
12:00-Pass out from exhaustion and wonder what we were thinking....

We had so much fun at the state fair. We took the train to save on parking and the girls love riding the train, it's always a big hit! It was the first time I had been to the Texas Fair and hopefully not the last! As soon as we got there we took pictures in the photo booth, we've got quite a collection of photo booth photo strips and it's so funny how they turn out with two little ones! We then watched a senior group of ladies dance, and Finley wanted to join in. She and Rowynn danced along. We had so much fun walking around. We ate, and ate, and ate some more. We looked at farm animals, Finley rode a few rides, and she and Rowynn played some games. I was glad we found some rides for Finley, she was 35.5 inches tall, and MOST require that kiddos be 36 inches...so annoying! And poor Rowynn couldn't ride anything and she didn't like that! Maybe next year they can both ride more rides. We felt very blessed to be able to go and were so thankful that we got to spend the day with Kyle's parents and grandmother.

The next day, while in Louisiana, we went to my former high school for the football homecoming game. It was my dad's 30 year reunion, my cousin (who's a senior) played his last homecoming game, and I also had a cousin who was a freshman maid. It's always so fun to get back to my hometown. It's a small community where everyone knows everyone. I went to the same high school (and even had some of the same teachers) as my parents. My grandparents still live in the same area, heck, even my great-grandparents lived in the same area. I love big city living but I do miss small town charm and feel bad that my girls will miss out on that. If we lived in Many they'd be going to school with kids whose parents and grandparents all went to school together. Crazy!

Anyway, we had good time at the game. We tailgated with a big group before the game and that was a lot of fun. Before the game started they invited all the alumni out on the field as the football players ran out. My dad thought it would be fun to take Finley with him out on the field. Bad.idea. They got out there and all was grand until they started setting of fireworks. Super loud, right next to them. Needless to say, this did not go over well with her. And then all of the senior football players had their trucks next to the field and their dads were in the trucks racking the pipes. Sidenote-I was telling this story to some friends, and they didn't know what "racking the pipes" meant. Needless to say, IT'S LOUD!! So my dad came back to the stands carrying a screaming two year old! She kept saying, "No, we go get in Mimi's car and go home...it's too scary!" Broke my heart. We all took turns trying to calm her down, walk around, bribe her with food. You name it. Finally, she was content to lay down on a blanket, under the bleachers, (by our feet), covered up, playing with Mimi's phone. It was surreal. Here was Finley, Little Miss Outgoing, in the fetal position, chewing her hair,(okay, not really) and Rowynn, who is Little Miss Shy, just a smiling and eating up all the attention. She was clapping and trying to go home with the Tiger mascot. Kids, they keep you on your toes. Finley finally came out and started enjoying herself.

The next week Finley & Rowynn hosted their first slumber party. We had their little friend, Cadence over. We love that sweet girl and had so much fun. We played outside, blew bubbles, painted pumpkins, played dress-up, ate pizza, and I gave them mani/pedis. We also piled up in the living room and watched Tinkerbell while they wore their tiaras, held their wands, and special cups full of popcorn. I also picked up a box of chocolates and they each got to pick one special piece. Note to self: never buy a box of chocolate...that much chocolate is not good for me...or my hips. The girls played so well together and at such a good time!!

Whew...that was a beast of a blog...but it's done! Be back later with some fun fall learning that has been going on!