I wish I could take credit for this project because it’s probably the coolest one we’ve ever done, but the truth is that Pumpkin Doodle came up with it all on her own.

One day last week, she set out on an “adventure” with her Pop, and when she returned, she declared that she wanted to make a bird book to record all the birds she saw.

We make little books a lot, using several sheets of construction paper folded in half with staples through the crease to hold them together, so I put one together for her, unsure of what exactly she was imagining a bird book to be.

She asked me to draw a bird on the cover, and it was at that point that I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. I did not want to spend all day drawing birds in her book, and I am definitely not gifted in the drawing department anyway.

Sure enough, when she finished coloring the cover, she asked me to draw another on the inside.

Thankfully, I came up with a brilliant idea instead, and I quickly cut her a stencil from a scrap piece of paper.

She then spent the next several hours drawing birds and coloring them. She drew a red-headed woodpecker, a blue jay, an oriole and a few that I think she made up along the way.

Bird Book Cover and Stencil	Purple Martin and Oriole
Red-Headed Woodpecker and Hawk	Blue Jay and an "Eight-Layed Eggs Woodpecker"
"Baby Quill Hatching" and "Grass Nest"	"Golden Clue" and "Mom Woodpecker"

I have a feeling that this project would have been a whole lot less fun if I’d tried to guide her to do it! Instead, I followed her lead, and it was a huge learning experience for us all. The one part I do hope to recreate is to make some more stencils that the girls can use for various projects!