A Slice of Smith Life: November 2013

Monday, November 18, 2013

Happy Birthday to Cupcake #4 !

11:10 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

On this day, November 19, 2007

You were and always will be the sweet blessing that was sent from Heaven

My oh my look how big you have grown!

These past 6 years with you have been full of blessings and have flown!

Your 3 older siblings couldn't come see you at the hospital when you were born because your oldest sister had strep throat. I don't know if they were more excited to meet you for the first time or if they were more excited to see what "gift" you brought them. :)

You went from a little cutie pie...

To a big (sister) cutie pie in a blink of an eye!

We had a blast celebrating your 6th birthday with a roller skating/in-line skating birthday party with a few of your friends. You have always impressed Daddy and Mommy with your great sense of balance and coordination on the skating rink! I had fun making your homemade fun fetti cake with chocolate mousse layers and homemade cream cheese icing!

Happy Birthday! We love you!

I found the homemade funfetti cake recipe HERE. I found the homemade chocolate mousse recipe HERE. And the homemade cream cheese icing recipe can be found on my blog post HERE.

Labels:happy birthday | 3 comments

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Homeschool Historical Ball

11:11 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Last weekend on Saturday, November 9, 2013 my oldest cupcake (age 13), my youngest cupcake (3 months old) and I attended our first homeschool historical ball...and we are definitely going to make this an annual tradition!

What is a homeschool historical ball you may ask???
It's a fun event for homeschooled young adults and their families. Young ladies are required to wear formal period costumes (medieval to WWII). Everyone else may wear formal period costume or formal attire. All costumes and behavior must be modest.
With a nursing baby in tow, I opted for wearing a nice skirt and blouse while I watched so many adults, young adults, and children smile, laugh and dance from 5:00-10:00PM. The dance was held at a church's hall about an hour from where I live and it was hosted by a homeschool group in the neighboring county. A few of us moms chatted the entire night and watched all the dancers have a "ball"! ...pun intended :)

My daughter is on the right in the purple dress and her sweet friend is in the red dress.

Here I am with my sweet historical dressed girl :)

The entire night I felt like I was watching live episodes of "Little House on the Prairie" as the band taught everyone the dances and then called out the dance steps throughout the evening! It was refreshing to see girls dressed so beautifully and MODEST and they were all so graceful. The boys and men were such gentlemen. No one was paranoid about who they were dancing with and what they were wearing. It was good, wholesome fun that is rare to find these days and witnessing such a joy-filled evening is one of the many reasons I homeschool!

And here's just a short sample of the fun night...

Labels:historical ball | 4 comments

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

My Blog Has Been Nominated!

8:14 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

As in years past, I am honored that my little blog in blog land has been nominated for the 2013 Homeschool Blog Awards! I haven't had the time/energy to promote votes for my blog, but I thought a little post about such a recognition was in order.

My blog has been nominated in the "Favorite Homeschool Mom Blog" Category and is listed as "Slice of Smith Life." (vs. "A Slice of Smith Life").

If you want to vote for my blog or any others here's how:

1. If you want to click a vote for my blog in the Favorite Homeschool Mom Blog category, go HERE.

2. Please click to shade the dot to the left of the blog name. Then scroll down the page to click "vote."

3. You can vote in each category, once per day, per device until November 18!

What's even more exciting is that there are lots of other Catholic blogs who are in the running for the Homeschool Blog Award prizes. Chris, over at Campfires and Cleats, has put together THIS great list of all the Catholic bloggers who have been nominated and the category they have been nominated in so if you want to support other Catholic bloggers, this is the place to go.

Be sure to also click on Chris's blog, Campfires and Cleats, in both the "Best Special Needs Blog" AND the "Best Photos Blog" categories.

Remember you can vote daily in each category per device until Nov. 18!

Thanks for your support!

God bless!

Labels:Homeschool Blog Award Nominations | 2 comments

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

All Saints' Day 2013

9:20 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Last week on November 1, All Saints' Day, our homeschool families got together for our annual All Saints Day party after we attended Mass together. I love learning about the Saints in our Church and each morning I read to my cupcakes about a saint's life in one of my favorite books, Saints for Young Readers for Everyday, Vol. I and II.

Below are pictures from another fun Saint celebration:

Can you find our priest in this photo? Not a child dressed as a saintly priest, but a real priest? :) (Fr. Alex, who does so much for our homeschool families, is just to the left of the crucifix)

Each child told a few facts about who they were dressed as and then the other children guessed who they were. We had some tough ones to figure out this year! Then we gathered for grace before eating a potluck lunch.

Here are 4 out 5 of my saints: St. Genevieve, St. Anthony the Hermit, St. Elizabeth of Hungary holding her loaf of bread, and St. Agnes holding up a lamb.

A friend of mine snapped this photo of my 5 year old as St. Elizabeth of Hungary and then I have sweet baby Leah in my Ergo carrier as she slept through the Saint presentations. I am holding the pumpkin hat that my friend, A.R., gave us which represented Leah being a little pumpkin for St. Isidore's garden.:)

We had a few games like this one: Toss a flower in St. Therese's basket

Thanks to Jennifer at Catholic Inspired, our moms were inspired to make several saint themed guessing jars for the kids. The kids loved guessing the number of goodies and the person who guessed closest without going over got to keep the treats in the jar.

Some games were played outside with a Saint theme.

One of our moms made Saint Bingo cards that she printed from HERE from Shower of Roses.

Guess Who? Saint version was also played. Thanks Monica at Equipping Catholic Families for this idea!

I made "Egg-cellent" Saint Sandwiches and aren't Saints "grape"? :) I also made cupcakes and used Jennifer's saintly cupcake toppers at Catholic Inspired to decorate my cupcakes, but I just forgot to take a picture of them.