It’s that time of year when our ovens typically go on over drive, and we find ourselves baking around the clock.

Why not take a break from baking, gather the kids,  and create some adorable Thanksgiving cookies and treats?

Every Tuesday, our home school group meets, and my sweet friend, Rebecca, inspired us all with her treats. She showed all the kids how to be “master bakers” without ever turning on the oven.

Since they can do these by “themselves”, do you think us moms will get a reprieve?  Yes, I know I am dreaming, but it’s a wonderful thought.

We’ll start by getting  a little history lesson going and talk about the necessary Pilgrim fashion. 🙂 Pilgrim hats are all the rage.

Take a regular sized marshmallow and dip in yummy melted chocolate. Then place it on an upside-down fudge-striped cookie, and adorn with the bottom half of a candy corn.  Attached it before the chocolate is hardened, and voila – Pilgrim Hat, perfect for eating.

Yes, next we have a new twist on our Cornucopia.

This “Cone-u-copia” is a child’s idea of a horn of plenty. Plenty of yummy treats, that is.

Have you ever baked prepared cake mix in ice cream cones before? It’s a blast, and so simple. Cake mix in the cone, place it upright so they don’t tip over and bake. Yep, that easy (although when I get back from Peru, I’ll follow up with more details.)

For these festive cones, you have two options for the actual cake in the cone part. The easiest is to bake any regular cake mix and mix it in with a can of frosting. Yes, you mix it all together and then stuff it into the cones. Yes, easy and yummy OR once you’ve baked the prepared cake batter right in the cone, frost the top of the “cone cake.”

This is so you have something in which to secure and stuff the candies.   Then dip the end  of the cone in chocolate (you may use frosting for ease), and then dip in colorful sprinkles. This time of year, there are leaf sprinkles which would be so fun and fall-ish. Then little pumpkins, candy corn (could use Nerds) stuffed in the end

Yes, I love all things Rice Krispy Treatish, as you know by my Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats, so how fun are these Rice Krispie Turkeys. I have seen them decorated in all sorts of ways. Above we made it a bit more intricate by adding the head, and then using candy corn for the beak and licorice to form the SNOOD. (Yes, are you impressed? I actually looked up that term, since I had no idea what that little flap of skin that hung down over the beak was called. You have history and biology all in one cooking post. ;))

Who would have thought peeps could strut their stuff at Thanksgiving? Well, they do it quite well here.

I love this simple idea of dipping the peep in chocolate to give it that yummy bottom. Use a kitchen shears to then cut regular marshmallows into a oval shape for the feathers. Dip the sticky sides in colorful sprinkles and put on toothpicks to affix to peep.

And just as I was wrapping up this post, I happened upon this adorable Oreo Turkey from Our Best Bites. See all the instructions at her post.

So are you ready to dive in?

Let the kids have fun. See how much they can do on their own, but don’t be surprised when you quickly hear, “MOM, I need help.”

And then just smile because the days that they need our help go by so quickly, and we are so blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving (in advance).