A Slice of Smith Life

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving: Easy Thanksgiving Wreath Craft

11:33 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Due to some crazy problems with Blogger and Blogger not letting me upload my pictures, I've had to post these Thanksgiving crafts really late on Thanksgiving Eve, but better late than never and you can always pin this post on your Pinterest board and save the ideas for next Thanksgiving! :)

Here is a craft my Cupcakes and I made over the past few days. Thanksgiving wreaths using cardstock paper, paint, marbles and orange ribbon. I've done marble art with my Cupcakes before so I thought they would enjoy this craft. Really easy and really fun!

I cut out circles using a template and then a smaller inner circle to make a wreath shape.

Then I had a circular plastic container, but you can use a box of any shape and my kids placed the circle paper in the container and then dropped various paint colors (we chose Fall colors) on top of the paper. You put several marbles in with the paper and paint.

Then you roll the marbles around in the paint...

...to create a wreath full of Fall colors. Here's one that was just made and is still wet.

My Cupcakes enjoyed seeing how all the wreaths turned out looking different even though they were using similar paint colors and they noticed that different quantities of one color makes the wreaths look different.

Here are their finished wreaths and after they were dry we used a hole puncher to put holes in a "clock" pattern then weaved orange ribbon around and tied a bow at the bottom.

One wreath will be a centerpiece on our Thanksgiving table with a painted pumpkin my daughter painted several weeks ago.

While other wreaths will be decorating our walls...

....Or our doors/windows.

Some other Thanksgiving crafts that I have shared on my blog in the past are: (click on links below to go to the posts)

Pumpkin Cake and Turkey Cupcakes

Pilgrim Hats and Cake

Turkey Crafts with Candy Corn and Paper

I am thankful for so much this Thanksgiving including all those that stop by here at my corner of blog land. May you have a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends! God bless you!

Labels:Thanksgiving 2012 | 2 comments

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Horsin' Around with (another) Gymnastics Birthday Party!

9:50 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Tomorrow, November 19th, our #4 Cupcake will be turning 5 years old! Wow, how time flies when you are having fun!

How did you go from this little... (and your sisters and brother were little too!)

to this BIG...

....in a blink of an eye???

Today we celebrated our Cupcake's 5th birthday with a gymnastics party at a local gym where we celebrated her siblings' birthdays in years past with this gymnastics cake and this horse cake. Our big 5 year old wanted a horse cake for her party so I thought about how cute these horse cupcakes were for my niece's birthday that my sister-in-law and I made, but I knew I had an especially busy weekend and I didn't have time to assemble individual horses on cupcakes like we did this past summer.

So where's the latest and best place to find fun and creative ideas? Well, Pinterest of course! I searched "Horse Cakes" within Pinterest and found a horse made out of cupcakes! Perfect!

Here's what my Cupcake's cupcake horse (now say that 10 times in a row) looked like: :)

The horse before icing

The horse after icing

Close-up of the head

I used 23 cupcakes total and placed them in a shape of a horse and then used my quick and easy decorative toothpicks using a clip art image from my computer to make the horse heads on toothpicks to surround the cupcake horse.

I made both the yellow and chocolate cupcakes from scratch and the white cream cheese icing and chocolate icing were from scratch too! I've made the yellow cake and cream cheese icing before when I made this soccer cake and other cakes, but I have never tried making chocolate cake and icing before now. I just followed the recipe off the back of the Hershey's Cocoa can to make the batter and icing...easy and no hydrogenated oils! These were delicious and really not too difficult to make! I don't think I will ever buy boxed cake mix or canned icing again! I used a Wilton icing bag and #21 tip to make the chocolate icing in a twirl pattern.

Here are some fun photos from our celebration today:

Me and My Beautiful Mom

My Husband and I got in on the fun too!

Silly Shot of the Birthday Girl and Friends

Happy, Happy Birthday to our precious 5 year old! We love you!

Labels:birthday,gymnastics | 3 comments

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Thanksgiving Signs

2:46 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Back in the Fall of 2010, my children and I were able to watch a performance by Rachel Coleman, the founder of Signing Time. I did a blog post HERE about the performance and posted some of the pictures I took during the fun and very educational time!

Today I saw on the Signing Time Facebook page this video of some Thanksgiving signs that I thought were cute to share since Thanksgiving is just a week away! I will teach my children these "turkey-riffic" signs! :) Enjoy!

NOTE: For some reason, I keep seeing that this Thanksgiving Signing Time video that I embedded keeps showing 2 children signing "The National Anthem." In case you don't see the Thanksgiving Signing Time video, here is the direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRua_Jpy79U&feature=share&list=PLC7022089EB1202B0

My blog has been nominated in the "Best Variety Blog" category for the 2012 Homeschool Blog Awards! I was very surprised and excited to be listed with so many great blogs!

If you think my blog is vote worthy and you want to click a vote for me (you can click one vote per day until Nov. 16th...hint, hint ;) ) just go HERE and click the CIRCLE on the left side of my blog name, A Slice of Smith Life, then scroll down and click "Vote". Be sure to check out all the other blogs and categories too! Thanks!

And the blog hop I co-host, No Ordinary Blog Hop, has been nominated also for "Best Family or Group Blog". You can vote HERE for No Ordinary Blog Hop! Thanks!

Labels:Signing Time | 0 comments

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Children's Book for Veterans Day and a Soccer Tournament

9:41 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Today we remember all the men and women and their families that sacrifice so much for our country and freedom! Thank you!

Tomorrow during our homeschool day, I plan to read H is for Honor, A Military Family Alphabet by Devin Scillian. This book is filled with beautiful illustrations and interesting facts about the branches of the Armed Services. I look forward to learning alot with my children while reading this book. Here is a summary of the book from Amazon:

H Is for Honor: A Millitary Family Alphabet (Alphabet Books)

Written by the son of a career officer, this book explores the branches of the Armed Services and speaks from the heart about the honor, privileges and sacrifices of military families everywhere. Children will discover why drill sergeants have to be so tough, what it means to be patriotic and why we need Special Forces such as the Navy SEALS, the Green Berets and the Army Rangers. "H is for Honor" also explains why the annual Army/Navy football game is more that just a game, how much letters from home mean to soldiers, how often military families have to move and what life on base is like. With an underlying message of courage and commitment that every child can relate to, the book will be espcially meaningful to those whose parents, siblings or other relatives serve in the Armed Forces.

This weekend my son was in a local soccer tournament where he played with some boys on his recreation team and then 5 boys from another team in our league. The boys only had one practice together before the tournament and played remarkably well together considering they were a blending of two teams. Their team, "The Avengers", played 4 games in 2 days and they were tired by game 4, but they all worked hard despite the tough schedule and competition. In the end, The Avengers came in second place, but they have alot to be proud of since they played their hearts out and never gave up. It was a beautiful weekend to see some fun soccer! Here are a few pictures of The Avengers.

Great looking bunch!

My blog has been nominated in the "Best Variety Blog" category for the 2012 Homeschool Blog Awards! I was very surprised and excited to be listed with so many great blogs!

And the blog hop I co-host, No Ordinary Blog Hop, has been nominated also for "Best Family or Group Blog". You can vote HERE for No Ordinary Blog Hop! Thanks!