Thankfulness Tree

A few years ago we started a little Thanksgiving tradition - to make a Thankfulness Tree.  We collect leaves, decorate them with paint pens, and on these beautiful leaves write what we are thankful for.  The girls love drawing all over the leaves, and then when we ask them what they are thankful for they say something like "you" or "my family."  Hey, I can't complain about that!

 last year's tree which we kept on the mantle in our playroom all year long

 something I am thankful for

 one of my hubby's leaves (isn't he an excellent artist!)

 the first step is to head out and collect leaves

(some little ones would rather sit in the middle of the path and not chose a single leaf)

begin a pile of leaves 

find some pretty ones!

begin decorating them

and keep going....

and going...

until you have a nice collection!

Then use a hot glue gun to attach them to branches, and you are done!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Philadelphia's Magic Garden

Have I mentioned that I am a visual person? This place blew my mind:

If you have a chance, I highly recommend a visit (kids love it too!).

Art with the gals

Yesterday I decided the girls and I were going to make some new art for their bedroom walls. After seeing melted crayon paintings all over the web, I realized I had to give it a shot. Ok, so I did most of the actual work, but we all had fun and the girls enjoyed having their own box of 96 brand-spanking new crayons to sort through and play with. With a little help from their mamma, the girls chose the colors for their own painting. P wanted a bunch of colors (we did remove the browns, blacks, and dreary greens!):

L loves purple and blue, so we stuck with those colors (mostly!):

Perhaps as time goes on we will add colors? Who knows?