Giving Thanks for the Little Surprises!

I have horrible sleeping patterns.  I get up at weird hours during the night.  This morning's wake up was at 3:55am.  This works out well for blogging, though.  At least I'm not up watching reruns of The Nanny or knitting another hat.

Well, this morning I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me in the kitchen!

I stumble in to make some of this:

(Sorry for the obnoxious flash!  Remember, it's 4 o'clock in the morning and the sun isn't out yet!)

And what I saw was this!

Aren't these the cutest things ever?!  I made them last night for Little Bits Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast.  I didn't even take pictures along the way thinking these would turn out "okay" at best.  They're K'ers, they don't care about table decorations!  

But the results blew me away!

So here's a quick rundown of what I did.  It's super simple.

Supplies:

• small pumpkins
• a Cricut personal cutting machine
• a Paper Dolls Dress Up Cricut cartridge (thanks for letting me borrow this Kendra G!)
• brown craft paper
• markers
• Mod Podge
• foam brush

First I cut out the shapes I wanted using my Cricut and Paper Dolls cartridge.  They came out with some accent lines cut into the paper that were hard to see.  This is where the markers came into play.  I just used them to highlight where the cuts were (the musket and the hat were colored in completely).

Next I put down a layer of Mod Podge on the pumpkins using my foam brush.  Then I put my pictures on top and covered with another layer of Mod Podge.  I just used my fingers to smooth it down as much as possible.  Flat paper + round pumpkin = lots of bumps!  Mostly smooth is good enough (it feels very secure this morning).

Then I went to sleep and woke up to this wonderful surprise!

I also made some candy corn trees.  Just bigger versions of what Mitzi A did on her kids Thanksgiving table (see my post Home for the Holidays Part 1).  In fact, she gave me two of her little trees and two leftover bags of candy corn!  The pots I had out in the shed and the limbs I cut from the trees behind our church after work yesterday.  Total cost:  $0!

And I couldn't resist putting this in.  It's what my Little Bit is thankful for this year.

Ethan, Blair (two friends from school), Dad, Mom and Miss (his teacher).

Pardon me while I get a tissue! (sniff, sniff) 

I can hardly wait to give thanks with Little Bits class this morning!  I have so much to be thankful for!

"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"

2 Corinthians 9:15

Have you given thanks to God today?

If you liked what you saw (and I really hope you did!), would you consider following me or leaving me a comment?  That would make me very happy!