Scarecrow for Cheekwood

In the fall, Cheekwood has a Fall Harvest.  They plant 5,000 mums, have a pumpkin patch, bring in lots of fun entertainment on the weekends, do fall crafts, and fill one of the gardens with scarecrows.

The boys have loved finding all the scarecrows the last two years.  They are all so unique and a lot are children's books characters (last year I remember they had Cat in the Hat, Llama Llama, and Where the Wild Things Are).

So anyone can make a scarecrow to be displayed at Cheekwood, including families.  A lot of the scarecrows are done by Girl Scout Troops, church groups, and other organizations though.  But after seeing how excited the boys were about all the scarecrows last year, I decided we should make one.

Even though I knew this was going to be a busy time of year for us, I signed us up.  Then I started trying to decide our theme.  I scoured the web for ideas.  But lots of things required too much sewing or were going to be just too expensive.  I came across someone that had done an invisible scarecrow.  It seemed simple enough and Carter actually liked the idea (almost everything else I had so far suggested was not making his cut).

Cheekwood provides you with a PVC cross (which is placed over a long metal pipe they place in the ground) as the frame for the scarecrow.  We had to do the rest.

The boys helped me make a shopping list and then helped me buy everything we needed.  We got jeans, suspenders, and a hat at Goodwill, sunglasses for about $1 at Kohl's, work gloves for $2 at Target, a $6 shovel at Lowe's, some wreath frames at Hobby Lobby, spray paint for $3 at Walmart for the frame, and Scotchguard for $6 at Jo-Anns to help protect the clothes from mildew.  I already had a bandana, floral wire, a hot glue gun, trash bags, and newspaper (for stuffing the pants and gloves).

And this is what we (actually, I) made.

The boys helped me by knocking down the scarecrow a bunch of times :) but otherwise it was difficult for them to do much.  But they were around playing while I did most of it so they felt involved (I think).

Rylan and I installed the scarecrow today while Carter was at school.  We were only the fifth ones to install one (they are being installed yesterday through Friday).  On Friday they will put a sign in front of the scarecrow with our title ("The Invisible Scarecrow") and our name.

We can't wait to go back and see all the others and participate in all the fun fall activities!