This fall, we’re being mindful of what brings us daily JOY by writing gratitudes on a family pumpkin.
As preparation for this Halloween/Thanksgiving/Autumn gratitude activity, we selected a LARGE pumpkin and purchased new Sharpie Markers.
This year several of our pumpkins came from a local farm, but we also snagged a few from our local Aldi where each pumpkin was under $3! You can’t beat that pumpkin price! (check Sharpie prices on Amazon)
How we’re making our Joyful Pumpkin
Each evening, we’re spending a few minutes talking about what brought us JOY today.
Our daughter is in first grade and this exercise is great practice for her spelling, penmanship, and reading. Her lack of precision has our “very precise” son laughing quite a bit, too!
The beauty of a fall gratitude pumpkin is you can make it in October or November. In fact, because it’s not carved this pumpkin will last for weeks! You can start this pumpkin in October and keep it on display through Thanksgiving.



More Family Daily Gratitude and Joy Ideas
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If you love our Joyful Pumpkin idea, then you’ll also enjoy our LEGO Alphabet of Gratitude project and free printable. We first started the Alphabet of Gratitude in November 2020 when there were 26 days before Thanksgiving. Each day, we wrote and shared on Instagram our gratitude prompted by a Lego brick-built letter of the day. Starting at Z, we’ve made our way to A, day-by-day!

These same letters, we now use in the designs of our personalized Brick-Built Name Decals for kiddos to use as room window and wall decor! Display your child’s name in Arts and Bricks’ Brick Font decals.
