Happy Thanksgiving!!

I come from a VERY large family.  I am the oldest of eleven children.  We are all married and we all have children and with the exception of one, we blessed to live within an hour of each other.  At last count, there are 53 neices and nephews.  Two more will be added to our noisy bunch this spring and we've only just begun!  The first cousin was married in May. 

Years and years ago, we started having a Bouwhuis Bash every month.  On a Saturday, we all get together for dinner, conversation and to par-tay!!  Each time we come up with something for the cousins to do for the missionaries in our life.  My son, Mason is the first of the cousins to serve (Ohio Columbus Mission) and my parents are currently serving their second full-time mission (New Mexico Farmington Mission).  It's fun for the cousins to write to them and it helps the missionaries to feel connected to those at home.

Materials needed:

white cardstock

craft paint -

brown, red, orange, yellow and green

markers -

brown, yellow, red and orange

paper towels

(for cleaning tiny hands)

This month my sister, Kim came up with this brilliant and simple activity. Painting everyone's hands we made handprint turkey's on white cardstock. After the paint had dried the kids drew in the wattle, beak and feet using markers then glued a googlie eye in place. Make sure you have everyone write their name on the paper prior to stamping their handprint. A lot of our children are still quite small so this month we didn't add messages but you could easily allow family members to write notes to the missionaries or write the things they are thankful for. Another idea would be to write the things they are thankful to the missionary for or what they love or miss about them. We put this activity in the same box as the Gourmet Caramel Apples. Have fun and Happy Thanksgiving!!