Happy Thanksgiving!

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, New York, 1941
Photographed by John Phillips

From the archives of LIFE magazine.

Thanksgiving Day Art Projects

One of my favorite Thanksgiving activities as a kid was to sample all of the delicious foods that were being prepared. Of course, I was constantly being shooed out of the kitchen by the cooks. Here are a few projects to keep your young ones busy this holiday. Click the links for instructions and have a Happy Thanksgiving!


Photo-Realistic Paper Turkeys


Cereal Box Turkeys


Fingerprint Turkeys


Pine Cone Turkeys using feathers.
Pine Cone Turkeys using pipe cleaners.

Visiting the White House

Barack and Michelle Obama's recent visit to the White House reminded me about Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out,
a new anthology of White House history, in the form of illustrations, nonfiction writing, short stories, poetry, texts of actual speeches, transcripts of television interviews, and "illustration essays." It includes an amazing collection of work from over 100 award winning children's authors and illustrators, as well as, historians and former White House employees and residents. It is a great place to help our kids dig deeper into the history of our country during this historic election year.

Also, check out the official website.

Google Life

Children at the Guignol puppet show, Parc de Montsouris, Paris, 1963
Photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt

No doubt, looking at the black and white photojournalism in Life magazine when I was a child inspired my future career and the style of my work. Google has a new feature that allows you to search through millions of images from the archives of LIFE magazine. One of my early favorite photographers was (and still is), Alfred Eisenstaedt.