Joy's Misadventures: DailyBuzz Moms' Kids Friendly Thanksgiving Table 9x9

Once again, I'm participating in the monthly 9x9 by DailyBuzz Moms. This month's theme is making a Thanksgiving Table Setting. Thanksgiving is the time when the good china and silverware comes out but when you have little ones, it isn't always the best choice. I wanted to create a kid friendly table. That was friendly enough that my kids could feel comfortable sitting at without getting told how to behave or not to break anything.

I had to get The Daughter involved. The best way to do this was to make decorations that both I and The Daughter would create together. The first project we tackled was a table cloth. It drives me crazy when my really nice table cloth is stained with something like juice because it takes me multiple washes to get the stain out. Instead I reverted to my Filipino upbringing and decided to put a sheet of vinyl over my nice table cloth so it would be easier to clean up. I couldn't just leave it plain, I had to decorate the vinyl to go with my thanksgiving theme. I decided to make turkeys out of the kids' hands. The Son's didn't work out as well, he wouldn't lay out his hand flat.

I painted her palm and thumb brown while the other fingers altering with red, yellow, and orange paint.

I than helped her press into the vinyl to create a hand print.

I drew an eye, beak, and legs to finish off the turkey.

We then decorated some wooden squash (at least it looked like that to me) for the center piece. The Daughter used a sponge and she had the choice between 4 fall colors. At first to tabbed it than she decided to smear the paint instead. I kinda took control and went back over some of it to make it look a little more unified. I couldn't help myself. I couldn't stop her with all of them, she was able to put some purple on one of them.

Another project we made was name tags out of pre-cut pumpkin shapes. We each decorated ours to our liking except for The Son of course. As you could see, The Daughter had to use little hearts and pink everywhere.

I than turned my attention to the kids' cup. I used plastic dollar store clear cups - I wouldn't fear breakage from The Daughter, she is a little accident prone - and decorated it with the edge of some scrapebooking paper I had in my bin of o-stuff. One of my many types of stationaries I had contained a fall leave scene on it. I just cut it out and use glue dots to make it stick to the cup. I heart glue dots.

I also used the same paper to decorated some of my serving platters. This method worked well with my cake stand that will serve as a way to display the sides and/or condiments for the meal.

Another way I added a fall theme was to add some fake leaves that I was able to find at my local craft store. I placed them on some of the serving dishes instead of purchasing a Thanskgiving set just for the occassion.

For the center piece, I used the squash looking pieces we painted ealier, pumpkins from Halloween (yes, they survived this long....I'm amazed too), the fake leaves, and a serving platter I already that just so happen to be orange. I just arranged them to have a outdoor fall scene look.

This next craft I thought of, I was actually at the store. I found a little sign that had orange, yellow, and red dots boarder for sale. I decided to make it into a chalk board by painting chalk board paint in the middle. I had the husband do it for me. As it dried, it amazed me how it turned into a chalk board. I'm easily entertained.

I'm so going to make more chalk board looking crafts from now on. I think it is just so cool! I am planning on writting my menu on it. I was able to get two so one for entrees and one for desserts. It isn't center due to my shooty tape job I did.

I was trying to think of some thanksgiving traditions I could incorprate for the kids. The first thing I thought of was saying what we were grateful for that year. Instead of saying it at the dinner table, I decided to display them on the same pre-cut pumpkin shapes and each one was decorated by each person in the family. O.K. The Daughter throught of most of them and her godmother helped her decorate each one.

We accidently wrote this one twice. I guess she really loves her brother. I should remind her of this when they are older and they are fighting non-stop.

I wanted to make something with the stack of foam I had. I was googling some ideas and I came across quite a bit of ideas. I came up with a pilgram napkin/silverware holder. I free cut all of the shapes but to make it easier for you, I drew up a pattern. Click here for the pattern. I would have put a napkin and silverware for the picture but The Daughter messing with my table as I was taking the pictures and I wasn't temped to provide another way to annoy me.

I went outside to find a bunch of leaves in our front yard. I figured, why not use them since I had them in my decoration "plan". I used my christmas platter and glued them (again by glue dots) to the side of the platter so it wouldn't look so Christmasy. Luckily with glue dots, they are quite easy to remove when needed.

I had a fairly small dining room table so I am utilizing my buffet table for most of the sides. While the table will hold the turkey - the most important part of the meal.