From Thanks to Giving!

My little Viking serving up his treats!

So, Dear Readers...  Now that another gratitude-focused feast has been consumed and the leftover turkey is (almost) a thing of the past, I've decided that it's time to take a little break from the "Thanks" and move on to the "Giving."  What follows, is a little project I concocted to help my munchkins take some of the focus off of the vast piles of presents that are in their futures, so that they can start to learn a little something about giving.

But first, a few words about the research that has been done about happiness and generosity...  Here's the bottom line:  People who live generous lives also live happier lives.  There are literally hundreds of studies that document the relationship between giving to others and happiness.  People who orient themselves toward the happiness of others as opposed to focusing on their own pleasure are more satisfied with life over the long term.  Giving, it seems, is incredibly good for us and an important mindset to instill in our children.

So with the purpose of teaching my children the joys of generosity in mind, (served with a side dish of appreciation for nature), we embarked on a project to give our local birds a Thanksgiving feast of their own.  On one of my late night Pinterest frenzies, I came across the instructions for making heart-shaped, bird seed wedding favors.  You can find the original article here that linked to the instructions that I followed, and ultimately adapted below.  My vision was for my kids to make bird seed ornaments, using holiday shaped cookie cutters, which they would then use to decorate a tree in the front of our house.  This process would be used as a vehicle for promoting within them a spirit of giving.  

Bird Seed "Ornaments"

What You Need:

• 4 Cups of Birdseed
• 3/4 Cup Flour
• 3 Tbsp Corn Syrup, (Add more if you need more "stick")
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 1 Packet (2.5 Tsp), of Unflavored Gelatin
• Large Mixing Bowl
• Cookie Cutters
• Nonstick Spray, (or oil and paper towels)
• Chopstick, Pencil or other hole poking object
• Wax or Parchment Paper
• Jute, Raffia, String or Pipe Cleaner for Hanging.  (Note:  If you run into issues like I did, a Plate, or a Drip Pan for a Plant works in a pinch!)

Instructions:

Before we get to the instructions, I just want to give one quick word of warning.  Please refrain from the temptation of asking overtired, overstimulated, hungry children to engage in a project that requires enough focus to follow step-by-step instructions immediately before dinner...  Just trust me on this one!

Liam preparing for our project...

1.  Using the large bowl, mix together the flour, corn syrup, gelatin, and water.

This picture shows the potential origin of my failure to produce Martha Stewart-worthy results...  Note the Bird seed is already in the mix!

2.  Then add the bird seed and mix well!  The mixture should be sticky.  (In hindsight, my mixture was not sticky enough.  This may be due to my failure to follow step-by-step instructions as evidenced above.  Or, there may need to be more corn syrup in the mix to begin with.  Or, perhaps, I just should have added some nut butter in at this point.  Regardless, this is where things started to go wrong!)

The siblings unhappily taking turns with the mixing...  Much whining and redirection was had!

3.  Grease the inside of the cookie cutters using cooking spray or oil.

4.  On a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, firmly press the mixture into the cookie cutter.  

And here's the sensory part of our project...  My kiddos needed help figuring out how much pressure was enough but not too much.

5.  Using the "poking object," create a hole.  (I struggled with this for our "gingerbread" men.  Do you put the hole through the chest or right between the eyes?  Not a lot of good options, there!)  

6.  Gently remove the cookie cutter and allow at least 6-8 hours to dry.  We let ours dry over night which gave us a supplemental exercise in patience and delaying gratification.

7.  So here's the part where I'm supposed to talk about stringing up the ornaments so they can be hung on trees.  I am still in love with this idea in theory, and direction-wise it's pretty self explanatory.  My plan had been to use pipe cleaners and allow Liam to put them through himself.  I also had decided on pipe cleaners as they would allow me to easily find the "hangers" after the bird seed had been consumed.  However, when I did a trial run with several different mediums, the ornaments broke.  So...  We served ours up on plant drip catchers instead...

Would Martha Stewart poke a hole through the "gingerbread" man's heart?  I think not!

Both kids ceremoniously carried their plates and left them on our back and front porches.  They were so excited to be giving the birds, (or other local wildlife), a feast, and it was wonderful to see them enjoy their good deed.  

Feeding the Birds!

I had fully resolved myself to the fact that the local rodents, and possibly our dog, would be the primary consumers of our gifts.  However, the following morning, I was surprised to be interrupted during my shower...  Wait...  Let me try that again...  The following morning I was surprised with the news that there were eight blue jays feasting on the kids' "ornaments" in the back yard.  By the time I had dried off, dressed and joined everyone with my camera in hand, the feeding frenzy had ended and the blue jays were hanging out in the trees behind our house.  Sadly, I lack photographic proof of this magnificent event, but the smiles on my children's faces were priceless.  

So despite the whining, the botched end result, and the murderous acts committed on my "gingerbread" men, the intended lesson about giving was not lost.  My children enjoy checking their "feeders" every day and I am thrilled to have started a tradition that I hope to continue for years to come!