Thanksgiving Touches & Free Prints

I have never done this before, but this year I've decorated our house for Thanksgiving! It isn't drastically different from my fall decor or my Halloween touches, but I've added a few new prints, a slightly different color scheme, and a turkey :)

Astleigh and I want to see how your homes are decorated for November, so if you've got a post to share, definitely link up below!

Here's the thing. . . it seems like our stores skip right over Thanksgiving and go straight to Christmas. My Walmart was completely decked out for Christmas the second that Halloween was over. This can make finding Thanksgiving decorations difficult. Our TJ Maxx (my go-to store) just had a tiny little Thanksgiving wall, and I didn't really see anything that I liked. I think I need to go scouting around at craft fairs in the area for country-style wooden Pilgrims and hand-painted turkeys. :)

This little turkey outline was on clearance at JoAnn Fabric. It was a plain wood color, so I spray-painted it white, and then added a purple with gold polka dot scrapbook paper behind it. I love it!

The M&Ms are "Pecan Pie", and their colors are perfect for late autumn.

My friend Kellynne made this beautiful calligraphy piece for me. Her shop on Etsy, "Hello Yellow", is here.

If you like this glittery "Blessed" print that I designed, feel free to print one for yourself! It is here. It looks great as an 8x10 printed on cardstock.

The other side of the built-in bookshelves has my favorite light-up pumpkin, and a few touches of red to match the red-leaf bunting on the fireplace.

To complement the "Blessed" print, I also designed this gold antlers print that I want to share with you! For "Always Be Thankful", click here.

And our butcher paper always has to have something new to say :)

I think our decor is simple, but festive! I say this a lot, but I love decorating the mantel because it's the one surface my boys can't reach and destroy. Hopefully someday, I'll be able to decorate the dining room table and coffee table, too ;)

Grab our graphic below and link up with us! Remember that next Thursday, we are sharing our Thanksgiving traditions and recipes!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tomorrow, I'll be sharing my Friday Favorites! It's going to be a great weekend!

Indian Corn

 

Yesterday afternoon, I found the cutest little Thanksgiving craft! It's Indian Corn made of a brown paper bag and cereal. I had all of the materials at home, which was great. I helped Nolan cut out a corn-cob-shaped piece of yellow cardstock. Then I cut down the center of one side of a roughed-up brown paper bag. I stapled the cardstock to the paper bag, and I gathered the bottom together with a piece of baker's twine.

Then we squeezed out a thick layer of Elmer's glue onto the cardstock. Nolan went to work choosing pieces of brown, yellow, orange, and purple cereal for the corn, and placing them on the glue.

He was so happy to make a project, and the cereal gave us a double purpose of craft AND snack time :)

Come back tomorrow: Astleigh and I are sharing our THANKSGIVING TOUCHES! If you have Thanksgiving decor out, snap a few photos and link up with us tomorrow! 

 

Day in the Life

 

A Monday as a stay-at-home mom of little ones isn't the most exciting day in the world, but I know these are the days that I will miss the most when my sons are older. Day-in-the-Life posts written by my friends are my favorites to read, and I know that I will cherish looking back on my own post in the future :)

 

The time change has made our household quite confused in the mornings. The dog is wide awake at 6, Nolan is up at 6:30. And Ephraim? He's my good sleeper, and yesterday morning, he slept until about 8. :)   Getting up hasn't been easy for Steve and me since we stayed up too late watching the five World Series games.

 

Also, this photo has been the background on my phone since last December, and I still love that 10-month-old baby!

 

Nolan and Ephraim came downstairs and went to work right away building Duplos. Nolan is a loud and energetic morning person. Ephraim takes a little while to wake up.

We brewed hazelnut coffee, packed Steve's lunch, and sat down to eat together. The boys eat oatmeal every morning, and here Ephraim is finishing up Nolan's bowl too :)

 

Daddy headed off for his long commute, and we settled in for the morning.

While the boys watched some Daniel Tiger on PBS, I snuck away to shower.

After we were all dressed, the boys played at their rice table in the kitchen. A rice table is a BRILLIANT idea for when it gets too cold outside to do water and sand. However, it does make a big mess. I sweep up so much rice every day!

 

Ephraim loves to "accidentally" drop handfuls of rice outside of the table.

After a second cup of coffee, I was ready to take them out of the house for a little while.

We first took a visit to the candy shop downtown. We tried a few sample raspberry and mint meltaways, and then we bought a half pound of mixed chocolates. 

 

The store owner gave the boys free chocolate ghosts because Halloween is over :)

My kids and I have a weekly lunch date downtown with ladies from church. Yesterday, it was just us and our friend Jeanie. We had a great time! The boys order fries with ketchup every time, and we fill up on the best Italian bread in the world. :)

We got home around 2, and I set Ephraim down for a nap. He takes between a 2 and 3 hour nap! Love this boy! The rest of the afternoon flew by (I can never seem to get much done!)

Steve got home, and he and Nolan played Duplos and filled a few pages in Nolan's stickerbook.

For dinner, I made scrambled eggs with ham and toast. It is always a toss-up whether the boys are going to clear their plates or pick at their food!

After cleaning up dinner, Ephraim decorated my jeans with Paw Patrol stickers. He knows the names of those dogs so well!

Our typical day ends with a walk around the neighborhood. But now that it's dark at 5:30, I'm not really sure what to do with all that extra time at night. We decided to watch an episode of Doc McStuffins.

And then the boys took a bath! They played cars and FaceTimed with MorMor while in the water.

Nolan loves reading his Bible storybook before bed. We read a couple of stories, sang, and said our prayers. Since Nolan doesn't nap, he is always out like a light.

Once the boys are in bed, the race begins to do as many things as possible. I folded laundry, loaded the dishwasher, and vacuumed the first floor.

I started writing this blog post while Steve graded papers and worked on his dissertation. 

I rode the stationary bike for 20 minutes--an exercise routine that I just started doing about two weeks ago. 

And then, we curled up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn to watch the last episode of White Collar Season 2 before bed. I look forward to this time alone every night!

And that's a typical Monday for us!

Linking up Andrea. 

Yo Ho Mateys Away!

 

"There'll be treasure and adventure today!  . . . " We had a great Halloween on Saturday! Nolan had decided sometime in early September that we needed to be Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Nolan adores Jake, his enthusiasm, and his love of adventure. It was a no-brainer for Ephraim to be blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Cubby. I fit in as the only pirate girl, Izzy. And after we convinced Nolan that Daddy wasn't going to be the parrot (Skully), Peter Pan was a perfect choice :)

We've never dressed up in a family theme before, and it was a lot of fun! Our costumes are homemade, so they took a little bit of effort and minor sewing. I'm so glad that they turned out so well, and no serious cash was spent!

These boys!!  They're my absolute favorites!

Nolan was ready in his Jake costume at 9:00 in the morning! It took a lot of patience on his part to wait until 5 pm for Trick-or-Treating and a Halloween party.

 

Pure joy to be Jake! His vest is a blue polo shirt from Goodwill. We cut off the sleeves, cut straight down the middle, lined the edges with yellow duct tape, and sewed on four yellow buttons.

Ephraim's shirt is a similar blue cutoff. His red shorts were from Goodwill with an added orange patch sewn onto the right leg :)

We went to a Halloween party with 85 guests at my friend Amy's house. Amy and her husband decorated every inch of their house, and they even made their garage into a haunted house with blacklights and blow-up aliens :)  It was an amazing party with festive foods and themed desserts. I loved having so many friends and their kids in one place!

 We made some great memories! Hope you enjoyed this weekend, too!!