Footprint Birdie Birthday Card

Sometimes we plan out projects that we know will turn into a post, and sometimes something turns out so cute we just have to share. That's how it was with this Footprint Birdie Birthday Card we created for a family member this week.

This week was our "Pamma's" birthday, and the boys were excited to pick her out a hummingbird feeder as a gift. To go with her present we decided to put together this sweet card. 

A Treasure Box for Daddy

We made this box last year for Daddy for Father's Day. We couldn't share it then as we wanted to keep it a surprise. But with Father's Day 2014 right around the corner it seemed like a great time to share.

Around this time last year I noticed that many little trinkets were piling up on my husband's dresser. The pile especially included little surprises created by Big Brother, as well as a few other special items. 

I spotted an unfinished photo box at Michael's and knew we could turn that into a wonderful Father's Day Gift. 

Painting with Feet as Inspired by Dr. Seuss

Last year we had so much fun celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday (March 2) that we're already starting to read some of his books and create new fun around them. Today's read was "The Foot Book."

The read inspired us to do one of our messiest projects yet . . . painting with feet! 

Painting with Feet

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Turkey Projects for Little Hands

We're a little behind in posting this week, so we're going to share 3 projects in one update. All of the projects, with varying adult assistance, could by done by toddlers through elementary aged kids. They all use craft supplies you probably already have on hand, so they can even be done last minute Thursday morning just after the real turkey goes in the oven.

Salt Dough Place Setting Turkeys

We actually made these last year the day before Thanksgiving as a way to decorate our table. I made the salt dough using a basic salt dough recipe and then shaped the dough into small birds. Big Brother (who was two at the time) put the feathers into the backs of the turkeys and dotted their eyes with sharpies. We also added beaks and wattles using red and orange pipe cleaners cut into small pieces. We let them air dry over night.

Turkey Paper Plate Hat

This was a fun project we created recently. I was inspired by these great, long feathers I found at Wal-Mart. First we painted the bottom side of a paper plate brown. After the paint had dried we cut out a bird shape with a circle behind it. The bird shape is able to prop upwards and the circle is to be worn like a visor on top of the head. We then taped the feathers onto the back of the bird body and glued on an eye, construction paper beak, and construction paper wattle. 

Handprint & Footprint Turkeys

There are a lot of different ideas on Pinterest these days about how to create a hand print turkey, this is our spin on it. First we painted Big Brother's hand, each time a different color and printed them onto the paper in a semi-circle. We then painted his foot and big toe brown with his little toes orange, and printed it onto the paper upside down. After everything had dried we added googley eyes and a construction paper beak. 

We made a couple of different turkeys, and even had Little Brother make one too! 

We've been having lots of fun creating these different projects. Do you have a favorite turkey project that you like to do with kids? We'd love to have hear your project ideas in the comments. 

And just because I couldn't resist, here's a quick snapshot at what out kitchen floor can look like when we're having fun. 

This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties. 

Rockin' Robin Footprints

On this beautiful morning we were reading a children's collection of spring poems before we went for a walk. A few of the poems were about robins which prompted Big Brother to look through the floorboards of the deck at an old robin's nest.

More to my surprise than his, there was an egg in the nest! He was excited about his discovery and quickly spotted the mother robin in the yard nervously watching us. Big Brother connected the nest discovery to Jan Brett's book The Easter Egg in which a bunny keeps the robin's egg warm. He was worried the mother was not sitting on her nest. (We gave the area space during the day so the Mommy would come back.) Although impressed with his literature connection, my connection to the discovery was remembering a cute foot print project I'd seen on Pinterest a while back. We decided to delay our walk for a little bit so we could try the painting project. I knew we also had some shredded gift basket paper saved from Christmas which would make a perfect nest.

For this project we used red and green poster paint, white glue, white and blue card stock, crayons, and our recycled basket filler. 

We mixed red and green paint in order to make brown. Following the mixing we painted Big Brother's foot brown and printed it onto paper. We repeated this step several times.

Big Brother thought it would be fun to paint Little Brother's foot, so we tried that too and added his print to the papers. 

On one set of footprints I showed Big Brother how to paint red half circles next to the prints so they looked like red bellies. He repeated this on one of the other sheets of paper.  

We then talked about what else a robin had which we would need to include in our picture. It was a great opportunity to talk about how birds were different than people. In the end we decided to include beaks, legs, and eyes. I worked on my model and he copied on his. He did ask me to draw the beaks so he could color them in. 

Now it was time to make the nests using card stock ovals, the shredded material, and blue egg shaped cut outs. We glued these to our foot print papers. 

In the end, we had very cute sets of robins. Each had a baby and an egg in the nest and a "Mommy" robin. Although inspired by Pinterest, which often looks perfect, I love how Big Brother's picture is clearly created by a kid. (My model is on the left, his is on the right. Notice the extra legs on his.)

And One More Cute Kid Connection:

Throughout the rest of the day Big Brother continued to look for robins and keep an eye on the nest. While painting I had downloaded "Rockin' Robin" by Bobby Day and we played it multiple times. (For those of you who don't know the song, the word "tweet"is repeated several times in the chorus.) Just before dinner we were listening to Pandora when an advertisement came on which mentioned "tweeting" in reference to Twitter, the social network site. Big Brother thought this was one more great connection and shouted out, "Mommy, they said tweet just like the robins!"