Last week CO and I put together a Friendsgiving for our crew. Friendsgiving is an annual event among a group of my friends and we thought it could be really fun for the little’s to do this year as well! C and I love nothing more than planning a themed mini party for our crew. It gives us both an excuse to put the right side of our brains to good use, which lets be honest, after some days of chauffeuring our kids, attending meetings for volunteer activities, and working, our right brains are screaming for an outlet. Once we confirmed the idea and the date we got to work!
This Friendsgiving party was “easy as pie” (a new saying from my 5 year old) to throw together and we had a lot of fun planning it and getting in the holiday spirit. It was also a great way to kick off the season and give the little’s an opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving together.
First we prepared for the party by getting the crew together to create our Friendsgiving Thankful Hands Tablecloth. (We used the same basic idea as our DIY Dropcloth Tablecloth for valentines day.) This time I bought a 6×9 dropcloth and we cut it in half. The half was the perfect size for a kids table. I also picked up a few colors of paint from the Kids Made Modern line at target.
We painted each of their hands with the rose gold color to make the handprint on the tablecloth. After that we let them go to town decorating with the other three colors, sponges and paint brushes.
When they were done and the paint dried we wrote their name, what they said they were thankful for, and their age. It turned out to be a really fun activity and it is seriously adorable.
For the party, we set it up in the backyard with my outdoor kids table. CO’s kids chalkboard made the perfect backdrop.
To make it festive we used a Friendsgiving banner from the target dollar spot, fall themed paper plates, our Thankful Hands Tablecloth, and a Thankful tree (which I found at Target). What would we do without Target?!
We planned two activities for them to do during Friendsgiving. First they made Teepee Cakes (which I completely stole the idea from my daughters preschool class- it was too cute not to replicate). To complete this activity you need:
- a box of yellow cake mix
- melting chocolate
- sugar cones
- fall sprinkles
You prepare the cake mix as instructed on the box. Then you spoon the batter into the sugar cones and bake them. This is where I ran into some trouble. My daughters teacher used a cooling rack to keep the cones upright in the oven. I believe I put too much cake batter in the cones and they started to fall over. We are going to test this one again to see if we can figure out where I went wrong! Regardless, cake baked into the cone and they were still useable for our party. Once they bake you dip the bottoms into the chocolate and then let the kids go to town with the sprinkles.
After the Teepee Cakes, CO came up with a Turkey Mask craft for them to complete. To complete this craft each child needs:
- half of a white paper plate
- half of a brown construction paper circle for the body
- one white construction paper circle for the face
- two orange construction paper rectangles for the legs
- one orange construction paper triangle for the beak
- one red construction paper gobbler
- two black construction paper circles for eyes
- a glue stick
- watercolor paint
First they paint the paper plate with the water colors to give the Turkey’s feathers some color. Once that is complete you assemble to construction paper on the plate to look like a turkey. The girls really enjoyed this craft.
All said Friendsgiving turned out to be a fun after school activity to help everyone get in the spirit of the holidays. It was simple enough to throw together and the kids loved it because it was a “party”! This is definitely something that can be thrown together for your little and their closest friends this week or weekend leading up to thanksgiving. Remember to discuss what everyone is thankful for during your party!
Happy Friendsgiving!
(C and I are thankful for these two’s friendship which allows us to experience our childhood friendship all over again!)
LO
LO + CO FILES 