Reunion Cake

Yesterday, we attended a family reunion that brought together my father-in-laws side of the family.  My husband helped coordinate and organize the reunion with the help of lots of family members.
My father-in-law is one of 12 children! There were 3 girls and 9 boys in the family.  Currently, 5 out of the 12 children are still living.  So those that attended were my husband's immediate family, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, third cousins... :) This was the first reunion like this in over 25 years and it was so nice to gather with so many generations under one roof.  Usually we see some of these family members only at sad occasions like funerals so it was a blessing to see everyone during happier times.  There were about 80 family members that gathered.

Each family brought food to share and there were alot of delicious dishes! I brought the homemade white cake with homemade cream cheese icing that I made for my daughter's soccer birthday party and my other daughter's horse cake.  I decorated the top of the cake with the monogram of an "S" which stands for the Smith family.  It was a great time and I hope we can meet with everyone again soon!


Pantry Organization
Since I have been shopping this past week like crazy at Harris Teeter finding all the good deals for Super Double Coupon week, my pantry has looked a bit messy as I fill the shelves with all my good finds:
I had a helper today....


And we got to work today reorganizing the shelves which was quite helpful since I now know what NOT to buy with coupons during the next several weeks. Here's the organized pantry:

"Blog-cation" for Homeschool Planning

This will be my last post until the end of the week sometime since I will be using my "blog-cation", or break from updating my blog posts, to start planning my homeschool lessons for this upcoming school year.  I have ordered most of my books and I have to still go through the 6 boxes of new curriculum that I ordered and then plan out a schedule of how I want to use the resources and when.  So I thought leaving blog land for a bit to concentrate on lesson planning will help me stay better focused on the overwhelming yet exciting task of trying to plan out what will be best for my children. 


I will have the July No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH) post up by Friday, July 1st so be on the lookout for the new July NOBH post with new buttons and friends to meet!

Speaking of homeschooling, I encourage you to go over and visit Hip Homeschool Moms today and read a great post by Jenny Butler, a public school teacher, NOT a homeschooler.  She explains why homeschooling is the best for a family that chooses this route.  I thought it was an interesting post coming from a different point of view.  I hope you enjoy reading it, whether you homeschool or not. 



Join the crew at  No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH) !

This week Harris Teeter is super doubling coupons starting Wednesday, June 22, through June 28th. In other words, any coupon $1.98 or less will double in value!  I got to work and pulled out all my $1.00 off or more coupons that I have collected to be ready to go shopping! In a future post, I hope to show you my coupon binder that I use to organize my coupons and make shopping easier.

Although I've been frustrated because my local Harris Teeters (yes, I've been to more than one store hoping to find all that I wanted) are normally out of stock on the really good deals, I must say it's been a good week of savings so far.  Below is what I just bought tonight.  I saved $44.00 and spent $17.00!  It's always fun to find good deals on name brand groceries and save money! 

Click Here to read Post 1 of 3: Busy and Fun Weekend: Co-Ed Softball Games!
Click Here to read Post 2 of 3:  Busy and Fun Weekend: Horsin' Around at Gymnastics Party!

Happy Father's Day Dad!  I am grateful for you as you give me so much love and support! I love you Dad!

For Father's Day this year, my cupcakes and I made a t-shirt for my husband.  I few days ago I was looking through Rachel's blog at Sun Scholars and she had this post with lots of t-shirt ideas that she has done with her her children for her husband for Father's Day.  So here we are making our surprise:

Click Here to read Post 1 of 3: Busy and Fun Weekend: Co-Ed Softball Games!

On Saturday afternoon, our daughter celebrated her 7th birthday with friends and family at a local gymnastics place.  We were away on vacation during her actual birthday, so we had a party with some of her friends after we got home from vacation. 

I made the same homemade cake and icing that I made for my daughter's soccer birthday party last month. Then my daughter helped me decorate her cake with a horse set that we borrowed from our dear friend R.C. Thanks R.C. for the cake decorations! They were a hit!


Here are some pictures of us horsin' around at her  gymnastics party!


My husband and I got in on the fun too!



I am currently hosting a great giveaway on a great book titled, 500 Writing Prompts for Kids by Bryan Cohen.  You don't have to have a blog to enter, just an email address.  Click HERE for more details and to enter to win! 








 Join the crew at  No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH) !

I thought since I had alot to blog about, I would separate my weekend happenings into 3 separate posts.

This has been a very busy weekend, but I keep asking myself have I ever NOT had a busy weekend??? :)

The weekend started with 2 co-ed softball games for a city league team that my husband and I play on.  We play slow pitch softball each Friday night either at 6:30, 7:30, 8:30 or 9:30 PM. (the one softball game we had at 9:30 started at 10.  Playing softball until 11 PM is quite an experience!)   We happened to have 2 games this past Friday night and we won both! :) It's great to get a babysitter as my husband and I have our date nights at the fields. We have alot of fun with our team as we all try to play the game with no injuries! :) 


Have you been too busy to enter the 500 Writing Prompts for Kids Giveaway that I am hosting?  If you haven't registered your email yet to win, go HERE to do so and get the details!  Good Luck!







Lots of great and busy bloggers are linking up to No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH).  Click button below to join the fun!  Hope to see you there!

If you have been following my blog, you may know that this month is my blog's 1 year "blogiversary". It's hard to believe that a year ago I started my blog as a way to document all the birthday cakes I have made for my children.  But, over the past year I have blogged about other things that I am passionate about.  I have enjoyed posting about my Catholic faith, homeschooling, Natural Family Planning, recipes that are easy and delicious, giveaways, and everything else in between.