Happy Blogiversary! and The Post That Started It All

by Tiffany · November 21, 2013

We can’t believe that it’s been two years since we started this blog! It has been two years of ups and downs, fun and heartache, crafts and disasters, and lots of growing, but it’s been two years that we wouldn’t trade for anything.

So, in honor of our blogiversary and Throwback Thursday, here is the post that started it all:

Welcome to Play Eat Grow! We’re so glad that you stopped by. For the next few weeks we’ll be tinkering around with the space, so be sure to check back often.

Every Monday we will be sharing a Play activity that is fun, easy, and inexpensive. Sometimes we’ll make them up, other times we’ll try out an idea we find somewhere else. While we have children that are between the ages of 1 and 4, we will be featuring activities for a variety of ages, sometimes even for us moms!

Our first Play activity comes right in time for Thanksgiving. In preparation for my family’s big Thanksgiving dinner, we made leaf placemats for each guest. Not only will they serve as a table decoration, but it is something our guests can bring home as a token of our Thanksgiving celebration.We spent about 30 minutes searching for a variety of bright leaves. We picked up way more than we thought we could use because we wanted the option of a lot of different color, size, and type combinations. We also included some brown ones that were large and intact to complement the orange, red and yellow that we were finding everywhere.

Next, we came back inside and spread our leaves around the table. The kids had a great time arranging the leaves on laminating sheets, and then sending them through the laminating machine.

When using a machine, we found that it’s important to take off any thick stems before sending the sheets through. If you don’t have a laminating machine, no problem. You can easily press the leaves between two sheets of contact paper to achieve a similar effect.
Here’s the finished product!

The only thing I would have done differently if I had had more time is press the leaves for a few days in order to get them a little softer and flatter. Other than that, they turned out great and the kids are excited to be sharing them in a few days!