Our First Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

(Knock, Knock!) ~ Come In!  Come In!  Please help yourself to a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Feast of popcorn, pretzels, wheat toast and jelly beans, grab a spot to sit back, and prepare to enjoy a big-screen showing of "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" and party with the Tepker Kids!

Since having kids, I am super sensitive to "kid-friendly" restaurants, parties, events, best parks, etc.  I came to realize that I also ought to be sensitive to "kid friendly" holidays.  Of course, most holidays have tons of kid-based fun, such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, Halloween.  BUT Thanksgiving is traditionally NOT super kid-friendly.  Unless you get together with like-aged cousins or friends with like-aged kids, which somehow we rarely do for Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving is really for the adults.  Lunch is usually skipped.  Dinner is usually planned early, then served late.  The house is supposed to stay clean for guests, and the house usually fills so there's little room.  No roughhousing.  And after dinner everyone sits around, completely full, and watches football or plays "adult" games (I mean, cardgames, etc., People).  Not a lot of "kid" fun in THAT holiday!

So, Kevin and I started talking.  The whole idea was that we'd invite the neighbors and a few close friends to create not just a kid-friendly, but nearly a kid-driven, kid-based pre-Thanksgiving Tradition to create a little more excitment and anticipation for our kids before and during Thanksgiving!

Fast forward to the party.  Everyone arrived at 2:00 (school got out at 1:15).  And I nearly panicked.  I thought the whole concept was going to flop because the power strip running the projector and surround sound kept shorting, and I couldn't get anything to turn on.  Yikes!

Thankfully, I had activities like color pages, crossword puzzles, word searches, to fill the time gap.  Kate colored at least five pictures of Charlie Brown!

And even more thankfully, Kevin, who had taken my parents to the airport, arrived in the nick of time and tackled the power situation. Within 30 seconds, the party was back on track, and only 15 minutes behind schedule.  Phew!

"Now playing in a theater near you (literally, if you're our neighbor!):  A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!"




Collin was psyched for the show!  And for some of our friends, it was a premiere viewing!

Everyone settled in and began watching the silly antics of Chuck and the gang.  When the show ended, I tested comprehension and hosted a Q&A on the highlights and classic scenes that made the show such a hit.  I was shocked by how well each kid had actually paid attention!

But as fun as the show was, Owen was itching to PLAY!  He wasn't the only one!

When the show was over, kids teamed up at game tables for chess, checkers, Connect 4, Mancala, and Memory:












The gaming was shortlived inside for the boys though because the sun started shining!!  They headed outside for, according to Lucy, the greatest Thanksgiving tradition:  football!

EVERYONE had an AWESOME time!  We had 19 kids, including ours, attend in all, and the boys continued their football fun ("flyers up") until way past dark, which of course is now around 5:00.  After all the guests had left, my kids and I cleaned up the garage/basement in less than 15 minutes (no joke!!), and the boys were ecstatic about the fun they'd shared!  The party was a complete success!!

**If you're interested in hosting your own Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, check out my Pinterest Board "Autumn Spirit!"  On it, I've pinned links to good resources and ideas, including Q&A samples!  Enjoy!