Play Group: Thanksgiving "feast"

I've been taking Savannah to do things with this little play group (that my good friend, Jamie, included us in) since Savannah was about six months old. We've done so many fun things with the group, but as of recently (especially now that every one has had baby number 2) we generally just meet up at one of our houses. It's so much easier to let the "big kids" play while still attending to the younger ones of the group. We also only get together about once every 4 to 6 weeks now, working around everyone's schedules.

There are 6 other moms, also with two kids each. We all have a 2.5 year old (4 girls, 3 boys) and a baby ranging from 5 months to 1 year (3 girls, 4 boys). For November, we were planning a Thanksgiving "feast" and a busy-bag swap. I offered to host and was excited when I learned that everyone was more than willing to make the drive out to the "country" since I live the furthest away from big D.

Everyone brought a dish of food for our "feast" and it was all so good! A honey baked ham, baked potato casserole, green bean casserole, rolls and a pumpkin pie! 

We had a good time chatting while all the kids had fun playing. Well, all the kids except for Savannah. She is so shy around other people and I guess since we only see these friends less than once a month, it's hard for her to warm up to them all at once again. Not to mention how overwhelmed she probably felt at the sight of so many kiddos in her play room. Oh well, at least she's not mean and bossy...she just hung out by my the whole time watching everything that went on.

The box "house" was a huge hit! Glad we've kept this box) that contained the rocking chair for Hudson's room) for well over 6 months now.

Jamie got the big kids playing with the hula-hoop. They all, minus Savannah, huddled inside the hula-hoop while Jamie sang "Ring Around the Rosie".

                                                         "...and they all fell down!..."

We were able to line up the second round of babies for a picture. In birth order, from left to right, they are:
Riverson (12 months), Ava (11 months), Conner (8 months), Cooper (8 months), Holland (6 months), Abbey (5 months), and my sweet boy, Hudson (5 months).

*Conner and Cooper are not twins. Abbey and Hudson are 6 days apart.... to the minute! Abbey was born on May 21st at 11:57 a.m. and Hudson on May 27th also at 11:57 a.m.  Funny, huh?

We attempted getting a picture of the all the toddlers, but you can imagine how that worked out for us! We did do our busy-bag swap and we each got such fun things for our toddlers. Here are the things made by the moms of the group:

Lace up shapesMade with foam paper.

Felt cupcake 

Each part of the cupcake is an individual piece for the toddler to make his own cupcake.

Popsicle stick puzzle

Catch a bug kit 

A little bug cage, foam sticker creatures, and bug catching net.

 I-spy bag
This little bag was filled with rice and small toys. The card on the left has a picture of each toy so the toddler knows what to find inside the bag.

And I made this:
Brown Bear, Brown Bear matching game(You can print this game here. I also laminated each piece.)

Each game was made for every toddler to have one (so 7 of each game) and each game was in a zip lock bag for easy travel. These will be great for in the car, out to dinner, at home and anywhere you need something to entertain your toddler without a mess! If you are part of a play group with toddlers, I'd highly recommend getting your group to do a busy-bag swap. 


I enjoyed having everyone over to my house. The food and fellowship is always so enjoyable and having 12 kiddos playing everywhere is fun to watch! We're looking forward to our Christmas play group get-together!