Hi--here's an idea for a Thanksgiving activity that we did tonight: We decorated cupcakes to look like turkeys (idea from the Family Fun magazine--November issue) http://familyfun.go.com/

You frost a cupcake with chocolate frosting and put brown sprinkles on it. Then put a Nutter Butter cookie in the middle, standing straight up (for the head). Then put white frosting with chocolate chips for the eyes. The feathers are fruit roll-ups cut into feather shape and wrapped around a toothpick, stuck into the cupcake. Then we chose some families in the ward and gave some of these cupcakes to them to thank them for being good examples in each of the values.

Gobbling-good Cupcakes

1. To make each turkey, press the lower portion of a Nutter Butter cookie into a frosted cupcake for the bird's head.
2. Use tiny dabs of frosting to stick on mini-chocolate chip eyes and a red fruit leather wattle.
3. For each turkey's tail, use a butter knife to cut out a dozen feather shapes (about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide) from fruit leather.
4. Lay 6 of the feather shapes on a flat surface and place a wooden toothpick lengthwise atop each so that one end of the toothpick extends about an inch below the feather. Layer another fruit leather feather layer atop each of the 6 shapes, sandwiching the toothpicks between them.
5. Press the 2 layers together to make them stick, then fringe the edges of the feather with a butter knife. Now your child can stick the colored feathers into the cupcake behind the cookie head.

Materials:
Paper Towel and Toilet-paper cardboard tubes (or gift wrap ones cut down to size)
Dried corn husks (can be bought in packages at a craft store)
Plastic pony beads (yellows, creams, browns, beiges, whites...)
Twine
Hot glue

Directions:
Hot glue pony beads next to each other (either all yellow, or multi-colored for Indian corn) from one end of the tube to the other. Make 5 rows. Keep the beads right next to each other. Wrap corn husks lengthwise around the tube, leaving open the rows of "kernels". Leave excess husk on one end. Tie with twine. Make two or three of varying length and color. These look really cute hung on the front door for Thanksgiving. Just picture an ear of corn, and you'll understand exactly how to make these.

Have you ever heard of the turkeys made with various sizes of gumdrops? They are cute and (especially for the younger kiddies) fun to make. Plan on getting extra gumdrops because a lot of tasting takes place. You could have them make one for each place at the table.

The entire turkey is made with Gumdrops (different sizes) with toothpicks holding it together. Cute

Contributed by: Kristen thomcat@favorites.com