A Slice of Smith Life

A 5th Birthday Tribute to our Sweet One

2018-07-30T10:32:00.001-04:00

Dear Sweet One,

As I spent some time gathering photos for this post, it brought back memories of your eventful, long, and exciting birth 5 years ago and I can't believe another year has gone by!

You have grown and changed so much since your 4th birthday celebration (that happened to also be a unicorn theme) and now we are so joyful and happy to celebrate your 5th birthday!

This past year you continued to LOVE gymnastics and do all sorts of crazy moves, even in trees! You are super flexible and just about everyday you practice hand stands, rolls, back bends, splits and your dance moves! You really have no fear!

You continue to love to read with Daddy and Mommy and your siblings too!

You love the beach and swimming at Nana and Grandpa's pool and you are getting really good at swimming. So much so that you have taken off your floaties to swim! This past year in the pool you are swimming a lot in the shallow end and you like to jump off the side of the pool in the deep end so Mom and Dad can catch you! And you love to spin around and I get so dizzy too easily! :)

You love hanging out with your big brother! He is so good to you and all his sisters!

I love when you wake up in the morning and come and snuggle with me.

And at Halloween in 2015 you thought the yucky pumpkin guts were quite funny and it made you very silly. :)

You still love to wear all types of shoes including my black boots!

I love this photo of you from our trip to Charleston, SC at one of your sibling's soccer tournament in Nov. 2015 because it shows just how your hair gets curlier and curlier!

You loved the new kitchen and accessories you got for Christmas 2015...

You love playing dress-up and with your sisters and being silly with them!

Your big brother loves to snuggle with you, but you don't always want to sit still enough for his hugs. You happened to fall asleep on his shoulder so I quickly took a photo of this rare moment where your brother got some snuggle time with you!

You love to roller skate with and without help!

You love going to the park and swinging, climbing and sliding!

You love to help out in the kitchen and you are always pulling up a bar stool to get close to the counter as you exclaim often, "I wanna see! I wanna do it!" Here you are helping out with our traditional Easter resurrection cookies.

You've been talking up a storm, learning your ABCs, counting and doing school work like the big kids. You love to sing your ABCs and you always ask us to write out the alphabet by saying "Do an A." This past year you do really well writing the letter "n" over and over again. :)

Recently you loved going on kiddie rides for the first time at Knoebels Amusement Park.

And you went down your first water slide!

You are growing so fast and tall that you can already touch the ceiling! Well, you can at least touch this ceiling with help from Daddy.

You have grown so much and have gone through so many changes this past year! You don't take regular naps anymore, but occasionally you'll find Mommy and Daddy's bed to sleep in during the day or you will walk downstairs at night and come and snuggle with us! For a little person you sure do take up a lot of space!

This past year you loved to say the "Hail Mary" and "Our Father" prayers even more and during family prayer time you tell us who is next to recite the prayers. We love that you love Jesus and kneel during Mass and sing the "Alleluia" at just the right time. All of us are also amazed that you walk up to communion at daily Mass with your little praying hands folded and bow before the Eucharist, though it is still some time before you can actually receive our Lord at your First Communion. Here you are kneeling at The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in front of her final resting place.

We pray and hope that you will always love our Lord and grow deeper in love with your faith and look up to Him and our Blessed Mother as your best role models and friends.

You play and love hard and sometimes you fall and scrap your forehead from playing so hard and then fall asleep from all the playing.

You still love to dress up and this past year we saw you in this outfit a lot!

You loved the snow in January 2018 and we were finally able to put this cute snow suit on you that we got from a friend.

In winter 2018, you enjoyed being around the ponies and horses during your older sister's horse back riding lessons.

You love your family and we love you!

Happy 5th birthday! We had fun celebrating your special day at the beach club and eating unicorn cupcakes!

We love you!

Love,
Mom, Dad and your 4 older siblings :)

Happy 14th Birthday to our Daughter!

2018-06-10T07:34:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe that it's been 14 years!! June 10, 2004 was a joyous day for sure! Both your older sister and your older brother were born on Friday, the 19th, so exactly 17 months apart. Your sister was born on Friday, May 19th and your brother on Friday, October 19th. So it would have been nice if you kept the "19th" day birthday tradition going, but holding you in my womb for 9 more days would have been...well, not so fun! :)

You were loved from the start and what a surprise it was when you came into this world with a head full of beautiful, dark hair! We were in awe of you, God's blessing, and we couldn't believe the amount of hair God blessed you with! You looked like you had a wig! Your big sister is wearing a pink t-shirt that says "I'm the BIG Sister" and your big brother is wearing a blue t-shirt that says "I'm the BIG Brother" in the photo. I made these shirts for your siblings and wrapped them up for your brother's 2nd birthday. At his party, they each opened the t-shirts and this is how we told family and friends I was pregnant with you! It was very exciting to share our joyful news in this way!

Your big sister and brother loved peeking into your bassinet to watch you sleep peacefully! They loved giving you lots of hugs and kisses!

This picture was taken just before your first Sunday Mass visit. You looked so beautiful with your pink and white lace outfit. It was a lovely day to bring you to our church for the first time!

Here you are at 4 1/2 months old, our Little Pumpkin. You even had a pumpkin stem! :)

Here you are at 9 months old with your brother and sister and you still have a head full of beautiful brown (now with streaks of blond) hair! I had to put bows in your hair at 9 weeks old and since you never lost your hair, as many people thought you would, we continued to keep the hair out of your eyes with pretty bows!

You have always been a big helper as you helped paint our new house!

You love being silly with your siblings!

You are such a great big sister!

You love God and your Catholic faith and my prayer is that you always will!

I love how you surprise me with sweet notes! You have such a tender and loving heart!

I love how you surprise me with silly photos that you take on my phone without me knowing! :-)

I love watching you run, dribble, and kick the soccer ball. You are athletic and competitive, yet humble and a team player on and off the field.

I love how creative and artistic you are with photography and paintings.

I love how you have fun with your little sister and you are very patient with your 4 siblings!

Happy 14th Birthday sweet girl! You bring so much joy and love to our lives! We are so blessed to have you in our family!

Love, Mom

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Happy 18th Birthday to our Daughter!

2018-05-19T07:03:00.000-04:00

*I interrupt my blogging hiatus of 5 months with this blog post to wish our oldest child a happy 18th birthday! I've missed blogging very much, but I am still active on social media on Facebook and Instagram. My days have been filled juggling family life and constant ongoing changes, getting prepared for my daughter's high school graduation from our homeschool (!!!!!!) and I've been working part time since October 2017 teaching English online to Chinese students through a company called VIPKid. Referral Code (click here). My days usually start at 4AM when I get ready to teach my early morning VIPKid classes or go running with a friend before anyone in my house is awake. So blogging has had to be put on the back burner....there's only so many hours in the day, huh? Anyway, back to my birthday post for our daughter....

To my firstborn who made me a Mommy for the first time,

18 years ago today we were blessed when we held you in our arms for the first time. Here you are with Daddy and Mommy when you were just a few weeks old. You were so little and Daddy and Mommy were soooooo young! :)

You were 6 lbs, 1 oz., so very tiny, but big enough to fill our hearts and home with love and wonder! I remember being admitted into the hospital 2 weeks prior to your due date because of preeclampsia.

To make a long story short, I was able to labor on my own without being induced and in about 6 hours with no epidural, you went from your dark, peaceful home into this bright, big world! Your Daddy and I had tears of joy when we saw you for the first time!

I remember crying myself to sleep one afternoon soon after we got home from the hospital because you were so tiny and I was struggling to get you to latch on so I could nurse you. Your Daddy woke me from my nap to tell me that he had made a phone call to our local La Leche League and made an appointment for us to see a consultant. I remember the feeling of gratitude and relief after our appointment because I was soon able to nurse you. I remember thinking that you have a wonderful Daddy and I have a supportive and loving husband.

We remember when you were and will always be Daddy's little girl and Dad will never forget his first Father's Day in 2000 when he held you lovingly in his arms and gave you a sweet kiss in the backyard in our "old, old house"...

I remember when we were celebrating your first Christmas when you were 7 months old. The outfit you are wearing in the photo below has been worn by all your siblings too to celebrate their first Christmas. Nowadays you are more into what's wrapped in the wrapping paper vs. just laughing at the funny sounds paper can make, like you did as a baby... :)

I remember when you were this little with your sweet bow in your hair...

I remember your 1st birthday when we had a "Ladybug" themed party and I made these ladybug cakes with a friend to celebrate your big day!

I remember when I was 17 weeks pregnant with your brother (although we didn't know if you were a big sister to a brother or sister at the time), and I held you on my first Mother's Day 2001 (the first Mother's Day with you outside of my womb) as you modeled your cute outfit with a hat with your adorable smile that lit up a room...

I remember when I borrowed a watermelon print dress from a friend just so I could take pictures of you beside a watermelon and eating a watermelon with me while my belly was getting as big as a watermelon carrying your sibling. (that's alot of repetition there!) I wanted the matching watermelon (there's that word again!) dress too so I could make the adorable page for you in your scrapbook....

I remember taking this special photo capturing special memories. Here you are with Nana and me. 3 generations!

I remember how you loved peeking into the (pink) bassinet looking at your baby brother sleeping. You were just 17 months old when he was born. You loved taking care of your little brother and still do! And now you take care of your little sisters too!

I remember how you loved to dance so much that you would stand in front of the oven and stare at your reflection while you made all your graceful ballerina moves.

I remember when you went to Mass in this sunflower dress and hat the Sunday before your first sister was born in June 2004.

I remember that you loved and continue to love our family and faith traditions and how you light up our lives with your smile and sweet personality and talents each day.

I remember that even as a little girl you loved learning about our Catholic faith. I remember for your First Holy Communion in 2008, we went and took a picture at the same church that I received my First Holy Communion. I remember thinking "Wow! You really do look like me!"

I remember when we celebrated your 10th birthday with an ice cream cone castle cake and played lots of games with friends in the backyard.

I will always remember how you have grown to love soccer and contribute so much to your homeschool soccer team with all your hard work and talent.

Speaking of soccer, in the 2017 season with the homeschool soccer league you received the Defensive Player Award from your coach and you were selected as an All Conference player in the homeschool soccer tournament. Here you are with one of your sisters. I will always remember how hard you played this past season contributing so much to your team as a defensive player!

I remember when you got your license!

For your 16th birthday celebration our family will remember you going to see Captain America Civil War with Dad, sister and some friends. I made you a Captain America pizza and ice cream cake with an Oreo crust , birthday cake ice cream and homemade whipped cream topped with strawberries, blueberries and marshmallows. Pinterest is a life-saver!

I remember these memories below with you.

I remember this past year you got your first job at a local grocery store and juggled classes at a local community college during your senior year in homeschool high school.

I remember what a great year it has been on the homeschool soccer team and how you were 1 of 3 seniors on the team to graduate high school this year. Here we are after your last home conference game on senior night where you and the other 2 seniors were recognized.

During the annual homeschool sports banquet that we attended with our family, I remember how proud I was of you standing on the stage with the rest of your teammates as the coaches (your Dad being one of the coaches), talked about how wonderful your team played this year and worked together. Here we are at the banquet with one of your sisters, the photo bomber. :)

Since you are a Titanic buff, we celebrated your 18th birthday with family and a few friends with a Titanic cake (thank you Amazon for the cake decoration) with a whipped cream iceberg (before disaster struck), "passenger" pepperoni and cheese pizza, "water"-melon, and "iceburg" salad.

Your Christ-like heart and soul and sweet smile light up the room! We love you and we are proud of the beautiful young lady you are becoming each day!

Happy 18th birthday to you, our beautiful young lady, inside and out!

A Double Digit Birthday Tribute to our Daughter and a Slime Party!!

2017-12-05T19:35:00.000-05:00

Dear Blog,

I miss updating you, but I'm really enjoying my new job (that is bringing in some money for my family! :) ) so my blogging days are few and far between. It's so much easier and faster to update my A Slice of Smith Life Facebook page and Instagram page, so I hope my readers will be interested in following me on social media for quick updates on a slice of Smith life. I'll write a post all about my new job sometime soon so stay tuned! Until then, I've been meaning to write a post about my daughter's 10th birthday on November 19th and her slime birthday party. So here it is and I hope to write another post soon!

A Double Digit Birthday Tribute to our Daughter and a Slime Party!!

On November 19, 2007

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

My! Oh! My! Look how big you have grown!

These past 10 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!

It has been fun to watch you grow strong and grow to love gymnastics these past several years!

You are special everyday, especially on your "Name Day" since your middle name is Rose after Saint Rose of Lima.

You bring much joy to our lives and all those you meet!

For your 10th birthday, you wanted a slime birthday party because you are quite obsessed with making all sorts of slime! So everyone had fun going on a slime scavenger hunt that one of your older sisters created clues for to find the ingredients for the slime, then we made slime and ate "slime" cupcakes at your party! I think everyone had fun!

You bring so much joy, laughter (and energy) to our family and your Dad and I are blessed to be your parents! It is our prayer that you will always continue to fall in love with Jesus Christ with your whole heart, soul and mind and grow closer to Him and our Blessed Mother!

Happy 10th Birthday sweet girl! We love you!

Love,
Mom

Our 2017 All Saints Day Party

2017-11-12T15:00:00.001-05:00

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This year we celebrated our annual All Saints Day party the weekend after All Saints Day on November 5th and another homeschool family hosted it on a Sunday afternoon so that Dads could attend vs. on a weekday when many Dads may be working.

Here are some highlights from our special celebration to honor the Saints that pray for us and support us in our life's journey.

In the morning of All Saints Day on November 1, I had our Feast of All Saints banner hung up.

I made this banner a few years ago from Jessica's blog at Shower of Roses.

HAPPY FEAST OF ALL SAINTS

The centerpiece on our kitchen table were all the peg dolls that I received a few years ago at a Saint peg doll exchange and the various Shining Light dolls we have collected through the years.

At the party we had some Saint themed food...

And speaking of food, we had many Saint themed jars and this year instead of guessing how many treats were in each jar, we just learned about why that particular treat represented the Saint.

We had a few new Saint themed jars this year that our hostess thought of with her children. For some more details about most of these jars, be sure to visit my last year's All Saints Day post with more information.

This year my two youngest daughters dressed up as Mary, Queen of Heaven, and St. Rafqa, which is a new Saint we learned about last year. My daughter, whose name is Rebekah, wanted to be Saint Rebekah, but I didn't know if there was a Saint Rebekah. When we did some research, we found out that there was a St. Rafqa, who was born in Lebanon on June 29, 1832. St. Rafqa means "Rebecca", so my Rebekah has been intrigued by her story. My children definitely remember the part of the story where St. Rafqa went in for eye surgery due to headaches and eye pain. On the operating table, she refused anesthesia and her eye fell onto the floor. "Sister Rafqa, instead of panicking, blessed the doctor, saying "For Christ's passion, god bless your hands and may God repay you." Read more about this fascinating Saint!

It was another beautiful All Saints Day and it's always a blessing to celebrate these holy heroes with family and friends!

All the angels and Saints, pray for us!

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Celebrating the Feast of Saint John Paul II on Oct. 22 with Pizza!

2017-11-12T12:06:00.000-05:00

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On October 22, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of Saint John Paul II, who was canonized as a Saint on April 27, 2014. We enjoyed celebrating his first feast day on October 22, 2014 with lapbooks and videos of this great successor of St. Peter singing "Ave Maria" in 1976 and "Dynamite"!

A few years ago I posted 7 ways to celebrate the feast day of Saint John Paul II.

This year, I set up our kitchen table honoring Saint John Paul II using various resources that I have of him and we had some Papa Johns Pizza!

I recently bought the book Pope John Paul II: A Tribute from our parish's small Catholic store for a great price. It is a beautiful book filled with photos of his childhood through adulthood with interesting captions and information about his life. It was a great way to learn more about this Saint with my children.

We also own a copy of LIFE Pope John Paul II also filled with beautiful photos.

A new book we read this year was A Boy Who Became Pope.

The painted peg doll of Saint JPII that I displayed is from the peg doll exchange that I participated last year in November 2015.

We also love to display and admire this pencil drawing (Yes! A PENCIL drawing) of Saint JPII that Cameron Smith drew {did I mention drew with a PENCIL!?!} (no relation to me, but he and his wife are our 5th child's Godparents) This "Portrait of a Saint", pencil on paper, was completed in 2001 by Cameron Smith. Be sure to visit Smith Catholic Art! What talent!

Portrait of a Saint

In our home we also have a certificate that we received as a wedding gift on July 12, 1997 that states that "The Holy Father John Paul II paternally imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of divine graces to Tracy and Anthony Smith on the occasion of their wedding" with the location of our wedding and our wedding date. It is a treasured gift and blessing!

We can learn so many lessons from Saint John Paul II ! I enjoyed this post 7 Lessons from Pope John Paul II from Saints365.

Enjoy this beautiful short video titled "The Gift of Pope John Paul II" that I found on YouTube from Theology of the Body Institute.

Enjoy this animated GIF from EpicPew:

via GIPHY

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Happy 16th Birthday to our Son!

2017-10-19T07:13:00.000-04:00

16 years ago today, you blessed our family, friends, and all those you met with your adorable personality, beautiful smile, dark curly hair, and above all, the special way you nurtured and loved all of God's creations! Here are a few photos that are my favorite to celebrate you!

You love your Mom! (and your Dad and siblings too! )

You love to laugh, but sometimes you say you don't love your curly hair :(

You love being outside and dirt!

You love playing/watching sports, especially soccer, flag football, and football!

You love special outings with Dad! Go NC State Wolfpack!

You love to smile! :)

You love serving God and we hope and pray you always will!

You love your little sister who was born on 7/30/13.

You love ALL your sisters!

You love learning from Dad, a super and special role model and father!

You don't always love when I ask you to take pictures, but you do it because you love to make others happy! :)

You love nature!

You love being taller than your sisters, especially your older sister.

You love being taller than me even when I have heels on!

You love your faith and serving the Church and Dad and I pray you always will! This was at your Confirmation in May 2017.

You love to look forward to your exciting future ahead and we are blessed to walk your life journey with you.

Happy 16th Birthday to our favorite (and only) son! :) We love you!

Love,

Mom

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100th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima!

2017-10-17T00:59:00.000-04:00

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A few years ago we celebrated the "Miracle of the Sun" on October 13 for the first time. Our Lady of Fatima's feast day is celebrated on May 13 and you can read how our Blessed Mother first appeared to three children on May 13, 1917 near the town of Fatima, in Portugal.

May 13, 2017 marked 100 years since the first Marian apparition in Fatima on the May 13, 1917 date. We celebrated the 100th year with "100 cupcakes".

One of the children, Lucia, asked the woman (who appeared to the children holding a rosary), "Who are you? What do you want?" She answered, " I am from heaven. Come hear on the thirteenth of each month for five months. On October 13, I will give a sign that will make everyone believe."

On October 13, 1917, 70,000 people came to witness the miracle that Mary had promised.   The rain suddenly stopped and Mary appeared to the children. The clouds parted and the sun came out quickly drying the soaked ground. The crowds saw the sun spinning and shooting out flames with all the colors of the rainbow.

October 13, 2017 was the 100th Anniversary of the "Miracle of Sun" at Fatima! Such an exciting time to live during!

This is how I decorated our kitchen table in the morning to celebrate this miraculous event.

To celebrate this miracle of the sun, we had our spinning sun fruit platter that I've made for the past few years now. I was inspired to make this fun and festive fruit tray when I saw it on Tiffany's blog post at Family at the Foot of the Cross. Here is a photo from a few years ago where I used watermelon for the red part. This year I used cut up strawberries instead.

I hung this small banner up in front of the table. I took a photo of a 100th Anniversary display that is at our parish and printed the picture. Then I love this photo of the 3 shepherd children Mary appeared to.

The open book I displayed is Visions of Mary that highlights various Marian apparitions, including Our Lady of Fatima. Below the book are the adorable Our Lady of Fatima, Saint Jacinta and Saint Francisco My Catholic Saint Magnets. You can get a new Saint magnet mailed to you each month with a one time low subscription cost!

We also watched CCC of America's DVD again titled "The Day the Sun Danced: The True Story of Fatima".

We have the Fatima Shining Light Doll for this special celebration. I love these little vinyl figures. We already have Saint Nicholas and Our Lady of Guadalupe Shining Light Dolls that are enjoyed by our family. We recently added another doll to our collection, Saint Teresa of Calcutta, one of our newest Saints in the Church.

This year to commemorate the 100th Anniversary, I purchased the Glory Stories "Secrets from Heaven" CD and the Fatima Family Handbook from Holy Heroes. The CD is excellent and the Family Handbook has so much great information and photos about Fatima.

The Lady of Fatima statue on our table is actually a borrowed one from our parish. This statue visits parishioners homes each week where families commit to inviting Mary into their homes and hearts and pray the rosary. I volunteered back in September to have the statue visit our home during the October 13 week as another way to remember this 100th anniversary miracle.

Isn't she beautiful? We loved having her in our home and although the statue has traveled to another home, we always have Mary in our hearts and home if we invite her.

In the evening we had a few homeschool families come over for a potluck dinner where we prayed the rosary and then had food and fellowship. It was a beautiful way to end a beautiful, historic day!

Here are some great posts I came across about Fatima and the miracle of the sun:

An eyewitness account of the spinning sun miracle:

Miracle of the Sun – Fatima,Portugal, October 13, 1917, 1:30pm (7:30am CST)

100th Anniversary of Fatima at My Catholic Kids

Fatima: 4 great lessons from the “Miracle of the Sun"

How the Miracle of the Sun dazzled the sceptics

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

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Our Lady of the Rosary: October 7

2017-10-16T17:07:00.000-04:00

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On October 7, the Catholic Church celebrates another beautiful Marian feast day, Our Lady of the Rosary.

This year my children wanted to use candy corn, M&Ms, and chocolate chips to make their edible rosaries that we have done for the past few years. And they just made one decade of the rosary, which worked out since we then prayed a decade of the rosary.

Recently I wrote a blog post for Peanut Butter & Grace titled 9 Creative and Edible Ways to Celebrate Our Lady of the Rosary. In the post I list other ways you can make edible rosaries to make this feast day extra special.

In the evening when my husband got home from work, we prayed the The Joyful Mysteries using the Holy Heroes CD. We really enjoyed this CD because there are children's voices reciting the prayers which kept my family's attention and before each prayer there is scripture verse given to help mediate on the mystery. At the end of the rosary, there is also a summary of the Battle of Lepanto and Our Lady of the Rosary.

It was a simple, fun and meaningful celebration!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

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Saint Francis of Assisi: October 4

2017-10-16T16:24:00.000-04:00

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October 4th is the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi. He is well-known and loved by many for his love for God, the poor, animals, nature and for his simple, devout life.

In the morning, I set up a "St. Francis" themed table setting and had a very simple celebration.

I also displayed the St. Francis peg doll that I received in a Saint peg doll exchange awhile back. I painted 13 each of St. Luke and St. Kateri for the exchange. See all the beautiful dolls that we hand painted.

The San Damiano Crucifix on the table was given to us from a family friend who is now a Franciscan priest. You can find out more about the significance of this crucifix in Saint Francis of Assisi's life HERE. The Saint Francis statue was given to us as a gift.

Since St. Francis had a love for animals and nature, I usually buy animals crackers/cookies, which are always a big hit (and a very simple way to celebrate liturgically! :)

Last year for this feast day we made the "Rebuild My Church" craft from Catholic Inspired.

This year we celebrated by reading books about his life and we watched Francis, the Knight of Assisi DVD.

The books that we enjoy about Saint Francis that I personally own or borrowed from the library are:

Saints and Angels (this is the book opened in the first photo above)
Picture Book of Saints
Saint Francis and the Wolf
Around the Year Once Upon a Time Saints
Saint Francis
Saint Francis of Assisi

My younger children enjoyed watching Francis, Knight of Assisi DVD from CCC of America while they ate their animal crackers.

My preschooler also loves playing with her My Catholic Saint Magnets from My Catholic Kids. Each magnet comes with its own Saint holy card where there is a short paragraph about the Saint's life. You can get your monthly subscription of the My Catholic Saint Magnets for a great price and start collecting these for faith-filled fun! Be sure to check out all My Catholic Kids products in their shop!

If you would like to see some more ideas to celebrate St. Francis of Assisi's feast day be sure to visit Feast Day Celebrations: St. Francis of Assisi at Sweet Little Ones Printable Shop. Maybe one year we will make the adorable heart-shaped bird seed cakes!

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

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Feast of Holy Guardian Angels: October 2

2017-10-15T21:23:00.001-04:00

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October 2 is the Feast Day of our Holy Guardian Angels. It is a day to remember how our guardian angels protect, guide and lead us on our life's journey.

Last year I set up this table centerpiece for this special day.

This year my preschooler made a simple angel craft, one my older children have done before. She wanted to paint in the outline of her hands vs. get her hands wet with paint for handprint wings.

We have done a few angel crafts in the past in 2014 and 2015 if you would like some other ideas.

Some of our favorite angelic books are:

Saints and Angels: Popular Saints of Familiar Saints

Angel in the Waters (This was also a great book to read when we did our Defend Life Lesson.)

Angels for Kids (I won this one from Catholic Child on Catholic Child's Facebook page.)

An Alphabet of Angels

We also watched CCC of America's My Secret Friend, A Guardian Angel Story. My children have grown up with these DVDs from CCC of America's Saints and Heroes series and they are enjoyed by all!

Lacy at Catholic Icing has 10 Ways to Celebrate the Feast Day of Guardian Angels if you would like several more ideas to celebrate this beautiful feast day.

Angel of God, my Guardian Dear,

to whom God's love commits me here,

ever this day be at my side,

to light and guard, to rule and guide.

Amen.

Our Holy Guardian Angels, protect and guide us!

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October 1: Celebrating My Favorite Saint: Saint Therese of Lisieux

2017-10-15T19:33:00.001-04:00

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On October 1, the Church celebrates the feast of my favorite saint, Saint Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower! I blogged about why I love her so much a few years ago and how a pilgrimage to Medjugorje inspired me to name our youngest after this beloved and well-known Saint.

This year, as in year's past, we had a simple celebration with rose decorated cupcakes and we read some books about her.

Our little one whose middle name is Therese loves to celebrate her "Name Day" with cupcakes, books and her St. Therese Shining Light Doll.

At Mass on Sunday, October 1, my daughter brought roses from our rose bush to place in the vase in front of the St. Therese statue that stands in the gathering space of our church.

We read from The Little Flower: A Parable of Saint Therese of Lisieux, which is a beautifully illustrated book about how St. Therese saw herself as a little flower in a garden full of a variety of beautiful flowers.

I won the book Mornings with Saint Therese: 120 Daily Readings at The Edel Gathering in July 2015. I just love reading these short quotes and reflections by St. Therese.

Another book we own and enjoy is The Little Flower: The Story of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

And I'm currently reading, (along with Raising Chaste Catholic Men: Practical Advice, Mom to Mom), I Believe in Love.

If you have younger children, I just discovered Therese of Lisieux: Little Flower of Love.

Another great gift idea for a young child (or an adult ;) ) is the St. Therese of Lisieux Shining Light Doll.

If you would like to find out more about St. Therese of Lisieux be sure to read I Didn't Like St. Therese of Lisieux...Until I Learned These 8 Little Known Facts About Her, which includes a short video by Bishop Robert Barron on the life and lessons of St. Therese of Lisieux.

Have you heard this about St. Therese before? I find this fascinating!

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How We Celebrated the Feast of the Archangels: September 29

2017-10-15T18:52:00.002-04:00

This post contains affiliate links.

September 29 is the Feast of the Archangels, or Michaelmas. The Archangels are Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel and Saint Raphael. We started celebrating this special feast day a few years ago and I'm still learning more about it! What is Michaelmas? I'll let Haley at Carrots for Michaelmas answer that here.

Like last year, we celebrated this feast with readings, food and a craft.

In the morning I set up our kitchen table with books, statues and the symbolic food we were going to eat for the day. For the food we had angel hair pasta, angel food cake with blackberries and homemade whipped cream. Blackberries are symbolic of Michaelmas as explained with this recipe for Michaelmas Blackberry Cobbler at Catholic Cuisine.

The book on the stand is Saints and Angels. The book that is opened is Treasure Box book #18 and then on the far left is Angels for Kids that I won from Catholic Child on Catholic Child's Facebook page. Angels for Kids has a chapter titled "The Archangels" which gives interesting information about each of the Archangels.

Like in years' past, we did an Archangel craft with tissue paper to make "stained glass" Archangels. I found the free printable on Pinterest through Happy Saints.

After eating our angel hair pasta meal, we had our angel food cake with homemade whipped cream and blackberries. I printed out the Archangel cake topper from Happy Saints that I saved from last year and put a popsicle stick on the back.

Our parish was just gifted a huge life-size statue of St. Michael and we had a Rite of Blessing for the statue as another way to celebrate this beautiful feast day!

I've been blogging less for various reasons (mostly due to life always being VERY busy), but I still post photos and feast day celebrations on my blog's Facebook page and on Instagram. So be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram!

Here is the photo I posted on social media on the actual feast of the Archangels...

I found this graphic on Catholic Link's Facebook page which I think is beautiful!

Photo Credit

If you would like to see more ways to celebrate the feast of the Archangels be sure to visit:

Peanut Butter and Grace's post titled 7 Ways to Celebrate the Feast of the Angels.

Catholic Mommy Blogs posted other ways to incorporate the Feast of the Archangels into your meal.

Catholic Icing posted Celebrate Michaelmas-St. Michael and all the Archangels! with a list of fun ideas.

Saintly Seasons has 2016 Catholic Children's Calendar Coloring Book that includes a page of the Archangels.

Life, Love & Sacred Heart has a free St. Michael the Archangel printable prayer card.

A PRAYER TO
SAINT MICHAEL, GABRIEL AND RAPHAEL, ARCHANGELS

Heavenly King, You have given us archangels 
to assist us during our pilgrimage on earth. 
Saint Michael is our protector; 
I ask him to come to my aid, 
fight for all my loved ones, 
and protect us from danger. 
Saint Gabriel is a messenger of the Good News; 
I ask him to help me 
clearly hear Your voice 
and to teach me the truth. 
Saint Raphael is the healing angel; 
I ask him to take my need for healing 
and that of everyone I know, 
lift it up to Your throne of grace 
and deliver back to us the gift of recovery. 
Help us, O Lord, 
to realize more fully the reality of the archangels 
and their desire to serve us. 

Holy angels, 
pray for us. 

Amen.

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St. Padre Pio Feast Day: September 23

2017-09-24T16:57:00.002-04:00

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September 23rd is the feast day of Saint Padre Pio. He is another Saint that the more I learn about, the more I fall in love with his story and the miracles that abound in his life on earth and now in Heaven.

Our family has never done anything special for his feast day before this year, but when I came across Molly's blog post, Pray, Hope, Donut Worry - A Post-Mass Donut Guide, I thought this would be an easy and fun way to celebrate such a special Saint!

Saint Padre Pio is well-known for his quote...

“Pray, hope, and don't worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.” -Padre Pio

In the morning I displayed the book, The Way of the Cross: A Story of Padre Pio, and a plate of donuts to remember that he said, "Pray, Hope and 'Donut' Worry" :) We read a few chapters of the book and will continue to do so. His story is fascinating!

And before you have some sweet donut dessert, you many want to Celebrate the Feast of St. Padre Pio with Farfalle a la Pio. Check out the recipe and delicious photos at Peanut Butter & Grace! Yum!

To conclude this post, I encourage you to read Never Say Never, A Padre Pio Miracle by Susan Brinkmann. It's a powerful story and one of many miracles attributed to this great Saint!

Saint Padre Pio, pray for us!

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Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows: September 15

2017-09-21T19:32:00.000-04:00

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September 15th is the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.

What is the devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady? I'll let CatholicCulture.org explain about this memorial:

"This feast is dedicated to the spiritual martyrdom of Mary, Mother of God, and her compassion with the sufferings of her Divine Son, Jesus. In her suffering as co-redeemer, she reminds us of the tremendous evil of sin and shows us the way of true repentance. May the numerous tears of the Mother of God be conducive to our salvation; with which tears Thou, O God, art able to wash away the sins of the whole world.
As Mary stood at the foot of the Cross on which Jesus hung, the sword of sorrow Simeon had foretold pierced her soul. Below are the seven sorrows of Mary:"

The prophecy of Simeon (Luke 2:25-35)
The flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15)
Loss of the Child Jesus for three days (Luke 2:41-50)
Mary meets Jesus on his way to Calvary (Luke 23:27-31; John 19:17)
Crucifixion and Death of Jesus (John 19:25-30)
The body of Jesus being taken from the Cross (Psalm 130; Luke 23:50-54; John 19:31-37)
The burial of Jesus (Isaiah 53:8; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42; Mark 15:40-47)

There is so much to ponder when thinking about the grief and sorrow our Blessed Mother endured while being a mother to Jesus. We can look to Mary to show us how to endure suffering with great faith, hope and love.

For the first time a few years ago, we did the Seven Sorrows of Mary Activity for Children from Catholic All Year.

We did the same activity, but with lemons this year, and it was a blessing to spend time with my family reading about the Seven Sorrows of Mary. We first read from the book, Mary: The Mother of Jesus, (that is opened in photo). There was a page about Mary's sorrow. Then using the Catholic All Year printable (that I laminated a few years ago), we read each of the Seven Sorrows and the scripture that went with each one. After each one, my children ate some slices of lemon (instead of Lemonhead candy or sour Skittles.)

Some of my kids' reactions to the sour lemon slices were photo worthy. :)

We didn't get a chance to color this coloring page from Vicki Shuck, one of the artists behind the Be Yourself! Journal for Catholic Girls, but I'll share it for future reference for myself and others.

Download the PDF version of the coloring sheet

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us!

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Celebrate Mary’s Birthday with Doughnuts, Cake, and Candles! (My Post at Peanut Butter & Grace)

2017-09-17T17:14:00.000-04:00

The day before my parents' big 50th wedding anniversary party on September 9, 2017, (blog post on the big celebration coming soon!) we had a small celebration with our family and my sister and her family for our Blessed Mother's birthday on the morning of September 8th.

In year's past we have celebrated this special day with other families in our homeschool group, but this year with so much going on with my family's festivities, we decided to celebrate with just our family.

In the morning, I laid out our traditional doughnut rosary (that we have done for several years now) with a vase of roses and our Marian statue holding a rosary. We prayed a decade of the rosary and then everyone had doughnuts for breakfast. I bought 60 munchkins and a dozen doughnuts to make the rosary. (actually we used 53 munchkins and 6 glazed doughnuts total for the rosary)

Here is what our rosary looked like this year:

I wrote a post at Peanut Butter & Grace titled Celebrate Mary's Birthday with Doughnuts, Cake, and Candles!

In the post, I include photos of all the yummy, edible rosaries we have made in the past with our homeschool group for our Blessed Mother's birthday.

Did you celebrate Mary's birthday this year? If so, how did you celebrate? With doughnuts, cake and candles? Or maybe you had cupcakes?

Happy Birthday Mother Mary!

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8 Simple Ways to Celebrate St. Teresa of Calcutta’s Feast Day: September 5 (My Post at Peanut Butter & Grace)

2017-09-17T16:26:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile since I last posted with my St. Rose of Lima Simple Celebration post on August 23.

Life for the Smith family has been a blessed whirlwind as we prepared and celebrated my parents' 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday, September 9, 2017. It took many, many hours of planning, preparing and lots of team work with my mom, sister and friends for the big party with about 150 family and friends gathered to celebrate and honor my parents beautiful accomplishment. Then my sister and her husband baptized their second baby the Sunday after the anniversary party. Then last week my parents, siblings and their families spent a week together for a beach vacation as a way to continue the anniversary celebration and make more memories with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. 19 family members in a big enough beach house for all of us creates some fun memories! :) I am so grateful everything worked out beautifully and Hurricane Irma stayed away, although we felt how powerful the storm was for a few days at the beach with high winds and waves crashing on what little beach was left. Then the skies cleared and the fierce waves settled down for much of the week.

I hope to post photos of the anniversary party and our family's beach vacation soon. I'm still trying to catch my breath and catch up with laundry and life. :)

In other news, I've been a contributor for the blog Peanut Butter & Grace for a few months now and I have written several posts so far for them. I love their Misson statement and vision....

"The mission of Peanut Butter & Grace is to help Catholic parents raise children to be saints—that is, people who love Christ and his Church and take action to continue Christ’s mission in the world today.
We do this by providing digital and print resources that assist parents in forming their children in the faith within the daily life of their family. All of our products are made for Catholic parents—either to use themselves (think of 77 Ways to Pray with Your Kids), or to hand to their kids (think of the Illuminated Rosary prayer books)."

For St. Teresa of Calcutta's feast day on September 5, I wrote 8 Simple Ways to Celebrate St. Teresa of Calcutta's Feast Day on Peanut Butter & Grace. I know her feast day has passed, but perhaps you can pin it and save it for next year's celebration?

If you haven't "Liked" Peanut Butter & Grace's Facebook page yet, please do and share our posts with friends/family who many enjoy our content. Once you like the page, invite your friends/family to "Like" the page too. :)

Also, be sure to subscribe to Peanut Butter & Grace's email subscription since we send out weekly newsletters filled with informative posts and links about upcoming feast days and the upcoming Sunday Mass readings and reflections. You can find the email subscription fill-in box on the home page at top right.

St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us!

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St. Rose of Lima Feast Day: August 23: Our Simple Celebration

2017-08-27T20:12:00.001-04:00

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On August 23rd, the Catholic Church celebrates another beautiful saint, Saint Rose of Lima. She is the first person born in the Western Hemisphere to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church and she is the patron Saint of Peru and all of South America.

Since one of our daughter's middle name is Rose, named after Saint Rose of Lima, we celebrated our daughter's "Name Day" in honor of St. Rose of Lima in a few simple ways.

Before I go into how we celebrated this Saint and our daughter, be sure to watch this beautiful video about her life from Catholic Online:

In the morning of August 23, I set up and read from the Saints and Angels book that gave a brief summary of St. Rose's life along with the Saint Rose peg doll that I received last year in the wooden Saint doll exchange that I participated in. I also went outside and clipped a few roses off our rose bushes that are planted outside our kitchen windows.

Our daughter, who loves her middle name, "Rose", ate off the "You are special today" plate at breakfast. I try to remember to have my children use this plate on their 3 special days: their birthday, baptism anniversary and their "Name Day", which means the day we celebrate the Saint they were named after. Each of my 5 children have a biblical first name and then we used Saint names for their middle names.

We didn't do a craft like last year, but everyone enjoyed the strawberries I cut into roses and the pancake and bacon breakfast. :)

We also listened to St. Rose of Lima Glory Stories CD.

In years past we have read from Saint Rose of Lima chapter book to learn more about our daughter's patron Saint.

And recently I just picked up this book, Saint Rose of Lima: Patroness of the Americas, at a local library book sale for a great price. Maybe when my daughter gets older she will enjoy reading this version.

Summer 2016 we made a stop at The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton during our family vacation. Inside the beautiful shrine there were stain glass windows and our little "Rose" spotted the stain glass of Saint Rose of Lima really quickly! (And there were many stain glass windows to view!) I hope and pray our daughter will always look up to Saint Rose as a holy hero and role model as she grows older and more mature in her Catholic faith.

Celebrating St. Rose of Lima and our daughter's special day was another way our family tries to incorporate the liturgical year in our daily lives and grow to understand and embrace the truth, beauty and goodness of our Catholic faith. For other ways we have celebrated the liturgical year, be sure to visit my page A Slice of Liturgical Life. Maybe one of my posts will inspire you in some way.

Prayer to Saint Rose of Lima

God our Father, for love of You,
St. Rose gave up everything
to devote herself to a life of penance.
By the help of her prayers may we imitate
her selfless way of life on earth and enjoy
the fullness of Your blessings in heaven.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Your Son, Who lives and reigns with
You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen

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Another (Home) School Year Begins with Traditions: 2017-2018

2017-08-26T12:58:00.001-04:00

We started our homeschool year this year on Monday, August 14 and I'm just getting around to posting about our new school year traditions since the past 2 weeks have been busy with the celebration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, the Solar Eclipse T-shirt and cookie making and savoring memories of the actual solar eclipse day! And in case you missed our curriculum choices for this year, be sure to visit Our 2017-2018 Homeschool Classroom and Curriculum.

Cake Tradition
On our first day we decorated and ate our traditional cross cake that represents the name of our school, Sacred Heart Academy!

First Day Photos
We also took our new school year photos with grade signs. I can't believe my oldest is a senior this year! A few years ago I stumbled upon 13 Free Printable First Day of School Signs that I have been using. I don't think I have taken first day of school photos every year since I started homeschooling in 2005, but when I remember to do so, I think it's a great way to start the year.

All About Me Sheets
We also filled out great Back to School Fun Pack free printables from Not Consumed that included Scripture coloring pages, All About Me and a Scavenger Hunt. My kids enjoyed these! You can get these printables for free by registering your email and getting the The Ultimate Homeschool Printable Collection downloaded to you.

Paper T-shirts
Our children enjoy filling out their annual paper T-shirts to add to our "We've Had a Tee-rific Summer" clothes line. My kids draw or write some of their summertime memories from this past summer on the shirts. They always love to compare their drawings from previous years that we leave hanging up through the years. I got the pattern from a teacher resource book, but HERE is a link to a similar t-shirt pattern you can use if you would like. As they use their creativity and draw pictures and write words about their summer fun, it's always interesting to hear some of the memories they have had over the summer. Even my big kids do this simple activity!

Charting Growth
My kids also enjoy seeing how tall they have grown each year so each August we measure their height and record it on the door frame in our classroom. Our son grew the most of all the kids. He grew 3 inches!

Do you have any new school year traditions? Please comment and share!

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Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary: August 15th

2017-08-24T16:42:00.000-04:00

On August 15th, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. For more information and history about what this feast day is about, be sure to read my post at Peanut Butter & Grace blog titled, Celebrate the Assumption with Some History and Crafts. (I am now one of many contributing writers at Peanut Butter & Grace. If you aren't familiar with them, be sure to visit their site and "Like" and follow Peanut Butter & Grace Facebook page.)

Here's how we celebrated the Assumption this year:

Our family went to morning Mass (and not only because it was a Holy Day of Obligation) and it was wonderful that my husband was able to attend with us and get to work a little late. We sang beautiful Marian hymns and as always, it was a gift to receive the Eucharist at Mass and pray as a family and parish community.

After Mass our family headed over to Duck Donuts for a feast day treat. Yes, those are maple glazed donuts with real bacon on top that my son chose to eat. Our dozen donuts didn't last long!

Then my younger 3 daughters did an Assumption craft with a printout from Holy Heroes. I even got in on the fun this time and made my own picture. Can you guess which one is mine? ;)

To close I wanted to share this absolutely beautiful and encouraging post from Ginny at Not So Formulaic titled 15 Marian Quotes Perfect for Catholic Mothers. Thank you Ginny for this wonderful list of wisdom and inspiration! I especially like the quote from St. Therese of Lisieux! :)

Photo Credit: Not So Formulaic

It was another beautiful, blessed feast day in the Church and the best part about it was that I was able to spend it with my family as we honored our Blessed Mother.

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Solar Eclipse Memories 2017

2017-08-21T23:27:00.000-04:00

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Today was one of those days I think our children will remember forever, as well as millions of others! I know I will! We spent the day observing the August 21, 2017, much anticipated solar eclipse with friends. My husband observed the skies from his work and my oldest daughter started her new job at a local grocery store so unfortunately she was unable to get outside to witness the event. :(

Here are some of the memories of our day....

Before my oldest daughter went to work we took some photos outside with my kids' t-shirts they made last week. My 4 year old was not very cooperative with the photo session, as you can see. :)

It was a busy day so we didn't make the cookies I blogged about recently. Rather my kids munched on mini Moon Pies all day. :) They also munched on these unofficial solar eclipse snacks. I NEVER buy soda, so this 2 Liter Sun Drop was a treat, though it did hurt to buy it. ;-) And I used the "Moon" filter on Instagram for the black/white effect.

Our area observed 96% moon coverage with peak time at 2:48PM and at 1:00PM there was just a little sliver of the moon taking a "bite" out of the sun. I have many photos on my blog's Facebook page that I posted throughout the day. Here are photos at the beginning as my children and a few friends looked up with their glasses. It was amazing to see the orange sun shaped like a crescent moon because of the moon. My kids and I were saying "How cool!" a lot!

Here are some photos my son and I took. As the moon gradually covered the sun at peak, we started to hear crickets and it did get cooler. However, even at 96% coverage, the day was still relatively bright and sunny, which goes to show just how powerful the sun's light is! It was so neat to see the tree leaves act as "pinhole cameras" during the solar eclipse. This is a photo of the shadows of leaves on our driveway.

It was an amazing and memorable day enjoyed by all!

O LORD, our Lord,

how awesome is your name through all the earth!

I will sing of your majesty above the heavens

When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and stars that you set in place—

O LORD, our Lord,

how awesome is your name through all the earth!

Psalms 8: 2,4,10

Will you be making plans to see the next total solar eclipse in 2024? Here are the best cities to do that! And you can start planning for solar eclipse 2024.

What was your solar eclipse experience like? Would love to hear in the comments!

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Solar Eclipse T-shirts, Cookies, and Links

2017-08-19T07:20:00.001-04:00

This post contains affiliate links.

We just finished week 1 of our 2017-2018 homeschool year. But, we didn't start all our subjects as we ease into another year.

I will be posting about our first week and new homeschool year traditions soon, but right now I wanted to share in the excitement of the upcoming solar eclipse happening on Monday, August 21, 2017!! I've enjoyed learning about this historical event with my family as we get closer to the date. My area will see 96% of the moon obscuring the sun which is exciting! If you want to see what your area will see by typing in your zip code, go to this site and find out. Cool site! And you can See How the Solar Eclipse Will Look from Anywhere in the United States at TIME by again typing in your zip code.

It really is amazing and fascinating! Here are some quick and easy special things we did and will be doing to help make this a memorable and exciting time for our family! I then have listed several links you may be interested in that I have found helpful and informative through social media and/or the internet.

T-Shirts
I knew when I stumbled upon this DYI: Make Your Own Eclipse T-shirt post it would be fun to do, but I wasn't sure how I would have the time to get the supplies and actually follow through with it. Then in a local homeschool group's Facebook group, a Mom was organizing this project and after paying her for supplies she would buy them and families would meet at a local park to make the t-shirts. Yes! It was a lot of fun and after my 5 children made their shirts, I realized it wasn't that difficult to do. My big kids and little kids all enjoyed this t-shirt craft!

My kids can't wait to wear these on Monday, Aug. 21 !

Cookies
When I was at the grocery store recently with my oldest daughter, we walked down the cookie aisle to see how we could make solar eclipse cookies. I made one tonight to try it out and on Monday my children will make their own cookies as a fun way to celebrate this historic day. They are so easy and quick to make! (and a bit on the sweet side ;) )

This is what I used to make them:
Mini Moon Pies (of course!)
Sugar cookies
White cake icing
Wilton red and yellow sprinkles

I cut the moon pie in half and cut a circle out of the center of the sugar cookie.

Then placed the moon pie top in the center of the sugar cookie and the moon pie with the marshmallow side on the bottom of the sugar cookie. Then used white icing to make the white ring on the moon pie and on the sugar cookie. I then sprinkled red and yellow sprinkles on top of the white icing that was on the rim of the sugar cookie.

So here are the T-shirts and Moon-Pie cookies side by side:

Links
I have had the book, Someone is Eating the Sun ,for awhile now and I read it to my younger children this week. It is a cute story of how animals think someone has taken a bite out of the sun and they run to tell all their friends as the day got darker and darker. It wasn't until their turtle friend explained what was happening that the animals realized no one was eating the sun, but rather they were witnessing a total eclipse. Unfortunately, it looks like this book is out of print, but maybe there are other books on this topic you can find.

FREE Eclipse E-Book from Apologia

FREE Solar Eclipse Foldable by Science and Math Doodles

Watch: Teaching Students About the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse: An Animation for Science Teachers, Parents, and Kids! at McGraw-Hill Education

This is the best simulation you'll find of the upcoming total solar eclipse at Mashable

Weird Things Happen with a Total Solar Eclipse at Astro Maven Blog

Total Solar Eclipse 2017: When, Where and How to See It (Safely) at Space.com

Eclipse: Who? What? Where? When? and How? at NASA

2017 Total Solar Eclipse at The National Weather Service

2017 Solar Eclipse at The National Parks Service...

How to See the Best Solar Eclipse in a Century at National Geographic

How to Photograph a Solar Eclipse at National Geographic

NASA will be live-streaming the eclipse at this link

As someone who loves the Catholic liturgical calendar I found The "Great American Eclipse" and the Catholic Liturgical Calendar at GetFed a fascinating read!

Another fascinating read: Striking Phenomena During This Centennial Year of Fatima at Roman Catholic Man

Will you be viewing the solar eclipse? Are you in the path of totality?

Have a great day on Monday, August 21, 2017 and be sure to be safe with the proper viewing procedures!

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Our 2017-2018 Homeschool Classroom and Curriculum

2017-08-13T19:23:00.000-04:00

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We will be starting our 2017-2018 on Monday, August 14! Where did the summer go?

I am grateful we have a room in our home that is designated as the "classroom", but when we first started homeschooling in 2005, we used our dining room table in our previous home and didn't have a room just for school. (And really a "homeschool room" is not a necessity to have a successful and thriving homeschool experience.) In reality school work is done all over the house and even outside. We just have all our school "stuff" stored in one room.

Not much has changed through the years with how our room looks and how I organize our homeschool books. If interested, take a little tour of the room and an explanation of our book baskets and foam boards where our curriculum is stored and stays organized . I must say I struggle finding the "perfect" system for many things, but our book baskets have worked for us for several years now so that's one thing I'm not changing (yet). Maybe it will inspire you and be helpful!

In year's past I have spent most of my summers discussing, contemplating, discerning, feeling sometimes a bit overwhelmed about curriculum decisions and praying about our upcoming homeschool year. This summer I didn't spend as much time researching and looking at curriculum options because I have soooo much stored in boxes from the past 12 years of homeschooling. So I spent time looking through my storage boxes. :)

I don't buy a "box curriculum", but rather I pick and choose from several different companies of what I think will work best for each of my children's learning styles and needs. That's one of the beauties of homeschooling..being able to meet each child's needs with curriculum choices that I hope will help them thrive and become successful, but most importantly will help them grow closer to our Lord and His Church.

If interested, here are posts from previous years of what I selected for each child:

2010-2011 Homeschool Curriculum (my kids were 5th, 3rd, 1st grade and a 3 year old)

2011-2012 Homeschool Curriculum (my kids were 6th, 4th, 2nd grade and a 3 1/2 year old)

2012-2013 Homeschool Curriculum (my kids were 7th, 5th, 3rd grade and a 4 year old)

2013-2014 Homeschool Curriculum (my kids were 8th, 6th, 4th, and Kindergarten grade and I just had Baby #5)

2014-2015 Homeschool Curriculum (my kids were 9th, 7th, 5th, 1st grade and a 1 year old)

2015-2016 Homeschool Curriculum (my kids were 10th, 8th, 6th, 2nd grade and a 2 year old)

2016-2017 Homeschool Curriculum (my kids were 11th, 9th, 7th, 3rd grade and a 3 year old)

In this post I will just list the curriculum for each of my children with their ages, but I'm still tweaking things. I'm still working out all the scheduling details, but it may look similar to our daily routine from 2015 with some changes, of course.)

*I use baskets and foam board dividers with subject headings to organize each child's books as explained HERE.

*I use one basket for all the Teacher Manuals for the various subjects and the foam boards are used to divide each child's Teacher Manuals so that I can quickly grab them when checking over work.

* Family Morning Time
After breakfast, we will continue to do things as a family on our living room couch before we head upstairs to start our other school work. Here is an outline of Family Morning Time:

- Couch Catechism
- watch CNN Student News (free, daily, online 10 min. news briefs that my children look forward to watching each day, Mon.-Fri. I know CNN is not a favorite news source for many families (including mine), but I really do like how CNN Student News shows are geared toward middle school/high school aged kids. Note: you can always preview the shows before showing your children.)
- Couch Conversations (if you have heard of "Morning Baskets" this is what "Couch Conversations" time is just with a different name that I made up.) :) Here are some of the books I plan to use with our Couch Conversations.
The Harp & Laurel Wreath (learn poetry together)
The Story of the Orchestra

Now onto the curriculum for each child...

Daughter, Grade 12 (Senior Year!!!!!!)

Religion/Theology
* Couch Catechism with Mom and siblings
* Various service projects throughout the year with our homeschool group/church youth group
* Daily Mass on Thursdays and Adoration on Fridays
* Once a month Confession
* Tea Times where we spend time as a family reading over the Gospel readings for the upcoming Sunday Mass and have a fun snack
* Celebrate the liturgical year with faith, food and fun
* Following Christ into the World by Anne Carroll (Seton)

Math:
* My daughter will be taking a Math course at our local Community College in the Fall and Spring with their dual enrollment program. So her math class will count as both high school and college credit. Juniors and Seniors in public/private/homeschool may apply and test into this program. This will be a big change for my daughter and for me! But, it's exciting too!

English
* My daughter will also take an English course in the Fall and Spring at our local Community College

History:
* My daughter enjoys history and reads various books through the year on different historical topics

Extra-Curricular Activities:
* Piano
* Cross-Country with homeschool league
* volunteer at local library
* sing in girls' choir and play bells at church
* member of church youth group and youth board
* baby-sitter for a mom at our parish
* My daughter just got her first job at a local grocery store near our home!!!!! (This will count as a Life Skills/Time Management/Economics/Accounting course ;) )

Son, Grade 10

Religion/Theology
* Couch Catechism with Mom and siblings
* Various service projects throughout the year with our homeschool group/church youth group
* Daily Mass on Thursdays and Adoration on Fridays
* Once a month Confession
* Tea Times where we spend time as a family reading over the Gospel readings for the upcoming Sunday Mass and have a fun snack
* Celebrate the liturgical year with faith, food and fun
* The History of the Church with workbook (Didache Series)

Math:
* Teaching Textbooks, Geometry

Literature:
* World Literature (Seton)

Writing/Cursive
* IEW US History-Based Writing Lessons (With 13 year old sister. We didn't finish the book last year so I'm just carrying it over to this year)
* Continue with daily cursive practice using Seton's Better Handwriting for Young Catholics 2011 workbook edition

History:
* Christ the King Lord of History text with workbook
* Continue putting in dates and timeline figures in their "Record of Time": Timeline Notebook Binder (from Homeschool in the Woods) as they read about world history.

Science:

* Physical Science or Chemistry (with a homeschool co-op group, still working on the details)

Foreign Language:

* Spanish course with Rocket Spanish

Map Skills:

Maps, Charts, Graphs

Extra-Curricular Activities:
* Piano
* Soccer team with homeschool league in the Fall
* altar server at our parish
* member of church youth group
*mountain bike team in the Spring

Daughter, Grade 8

Religion:
* Couch Catechism with Mom and siblings
* Various service projects throughout the year with our homeschool group/church youth group
* Daily Mass on Thursdays and Adoration on Fridays
* Once a month Confession
* Tea Times where we spend time as a family reading over the Gospel readings for the upcoming Sunday Mass and have a fun snack
* Celebrate the liturgical year with faith, food and fun
* Read various Saint books and apologetic books (ie: Saint Kateri: Lily of the Mohawks, The First Christians, Did Adam and Eve Have Belly Buttons? )

Math:
* Teaching Textbooks, Pre-Algebra

Literature:
* Various Literature suggestions in All Ye Lands-World Cultures and Geography

Writing/Cursive
* IEW US History-Based Writing Lessons (With 15 year old brother. We didn't finish the book last year so I'm just carrying it over to this year)
* Continue with daily cursive practice using Seton's Better Handwriting for Young Catholics 2011 workbook edition

History:
* All Ye Lands-World Cultures and Geography text with workbook
Continue putting in dates and timeline figures in their "Record of Time": Timeline Notebook Binder (from Homeschool in the Woods) as they read about world history.

Science:

* Finish Nutrition Science Complete Set from last year and Reignite Glow with Physical and Spiritual Health (my daughter has an interest in Nutrition Science and Health so we chose curriculum to match her interests)

Foreign Language:

* American Sign Language (ASL) course (still researching which curriculum to use)

Map Skills:

Maps, Charts, Graphs

Extra-Curricular Activities:
* Travel Soccer team with local league
* member of church youth group

Daughter, Grade 4

* Continue with daily cursive practice using Pictures in Cursive Book B

History:
* Read aloud A Child's History of the World
* Continent Study Bags that I bought from a friend
Continue putting in dates and timeline figures in their "Record of Time": Timeline Notebook Binder (from Homeschool in the Woods) as they read about world history.

Science:

* a friend of mine who used to teach school gave me a whole bag full of The Magic School Bus Science Club science kits on various topics so we are going to try to do these kits again throughout the year .

Foreign Language:

* Prima Latina

Map Skills:

Maps, Charts, Graphs

Extra-Curricular Activities:
* Gymnastics classes
* sing in girls' choir at church

Daughter, Age 4
* My Little Patron Catholic Preschool Printables from SaongJai
* Letter of the week activities
* Various workbooks
* Read-alouds
* She will be going to the Good Shepherd Montessori program at our church one day a week for a few hours.
* I'm in the process of planning activities for her to do independently and with her older siblings as I work with my children on a rotating schedule. I've been looking through these books for ideas:
Catholic ABC's from Catholic Icing
The Preschooler's Busy Book
A Year of Fun Just for Three's

I am currently sketching out our schedule with the curriculum I have chosen. I've been busy jotting down notes and schedules as rough drafts trying to figure out what will work best for our family. But, even when the best plans are made and laid out, it doesn't always go as "planned." So we will see how it all goes.

On the first day of this 2017-2018 homeshool year, we will continue with our new homeschool year traditions that includes morning Mass, a Sacred Heart cross cake, draw on their "We've had a T-riffic summer paper T-shirts", measure everyone's height and fill out All About Me sheets. So I'll be doing a post about these traditions that we do this week!

May you have a blessed 2017-2018 school year whether you are called to homeschool or not!

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A Unicorn Cupcake Cake for our 4 Year Old!

2017-08-04T14:12:00.001-04:00

This post contains affiliate links.

Our youngest just turned 4 years old and I always love looking back at photos from the past to write my annual birthday tribute posts.

We celebrated her birthday on her actual birthday, July 30th, with a Unicorn Cupcake Cake and some fun beach time with family and friends.

I've made a similar cake for the Horse Cupcake Cake party for another daughter in 2012. For this unicorn cake I just had to add a sugar ice cream cone, ice it and roll it in rainbow jimmies to make the unicorn horn.

The chocolate cupcake recipe came from the Hershey's Cocoa can that I have used many times in the past with many of the other cakes I've baked. I put the cupcakes on a flat mailing box.

Then I wrapped the flat box with gold glittery wrapping paper, then decorated the cupcakes with homemade cream cheese icing that I first made when I iced another daughter's soccer cake. The pink and purple sanding sugar was used to decorate the mane and tail and we found small paper pink and purple flower embellishments that were used just for decoration. I added more cupcakes with unicorn clip art on toothpicks for the toppers, an idea I have used often for past parties.

Here's the before and after Unicorn Cupcake Cake....

Close up of the head and mane...

One of my daughters made the cupcakes, while 2 other ones helped me ice and decorate the cupcakes.

We had the party at a local beach with family and friends and it was a beautiful evening filled with fun, food, sun, surf, sand, beautiful weather and a beautiful sunset!

Happy 4th birthday to our littlest "Cupcake"! We love you!

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A 4th Birthday Tribute to our Sweet One

2017-07-30T08:56:00.000-04:00

Dear Sweet One,

As I spent some time gathering photos for this post, it brought back memories of your eventful, long, and exciting birth 4 years ago and I can't believe another year has gone by!

You have grown and changed so much since your 3rd birthday celebration and now we are so joyful and happy to celebrate your 4th birthday!

This past year you continued to LOVE gymnastics and do all sorts of crazy moves. You are super flexible and just about everyday you practice hand stands, rolls, back bends, splits and your dance moves! You really have no fear!

You continue to love to read with Daddy and Mommy.

You love the beach and swimming at Nana and Grandpa's pool and you are getting really good at swimming. So much so that you have taken off your floaties to swim! And you love to spin around and I get so dizzy too easily! :)

You love hanging out with your big brother! He is so good to you and all his sisters!

I love when you wake up in the morning and come and snuggle with me.

And at Halloween in 2015 you thought the yucky pumpkin guts were quite funny and it made you very silly. :)

You still love to wear all types of shoes including my black boots!

I love this photo of you from our trip to Charleston, SC at one of your sibling's soccer tournament in Nov. 2015 because it shows just how your hair gets curlier and curlier!

You loved the new kitchen and accessories you got for Christmas 2015...

You love playing dress-up and with your sisters and being silly with them!

You love to roller skate with and without help!

You love going to the park and swinging, climbing and sliding!

Recently you loved going on kiddie rides for the first time at Knoebels Amusement Park.

And you went down your first water slide!

You are growing so fast and tall that you can already touch the ceiling! Well, you can at least touch this ceiling with help from Daddy.

We pray and hope that you will always love our Lord and grow deeper in love with your faith and look up to Him and our Blessed Mother as your best role models and friends.

You play and love hard and sometimes you fall and scrap your forehead from playing so hard and then fall asleep from all the playing.

You still love to dress up and this past year we saw you in this outfit a lot!

You love your family and we love you!

Happy 4th birthday sweet one!

We love you!

Love,
Mommy, Daddy, and your 4 adoring siblings

A Slice of Smith Life

A 5th Birthday Tribute to our Sweet One

Happy 14th Birthday to our Daughter!

Happy 18th Birthday to our Daughter!

A Double Digit Birthday Tribute to our Daughter and a Slime Party!!

Our 2017 All Saints Day Party

Celebrating the Feast of Saint John Paul II on Oct. 22 with Pizza!

Happy 16th Birthday to our Son!

100th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima!

How the Miracle of the Sun dazzled the sceptics

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

Our Lady of the Rosary: October 7

Saint Francis of Assisi: October 4

Feast of Holy Guardian Angels: October 2

October 1: Celebrating My Favorite Saint: Saint Therese of Lisieux

How We Celebrated the Feast of the Archangels: September 29

A PRAYER TOSAINT MICHAEL, GABRIEL AND RAPHAEL, ARCHANGELS

St. Padre Pio Feast Day: September 23

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows: September 15

Celebrate Mary’s Birthday with Doughnuts, Cake, and Candles! (My Post at Peanut Butter & Grace)

8 Simple Ways to Celebrate St. Teresa of Calcutta’s Feast Day: September 5 (My Post at Peanut Butter & Grace)

St. Rose of Lima Feast Day: August 23: Our Simple Celebration

Another (Home) School Year Begins with Traditions: 2017-2018

Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary: August 15th

Solar Eclipse Memories 2017

Solar Eclipse T-shirts, Cookies, and Links

Our 2017-2018 Homeschool Classroom and Curriculum

A Unicorn Cupcake Cake for our 4 Year Old!

A 4th Birthday Tribute to our Sweet One

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

A PRAYER TO
SAINT MICHAEL, GABRIEL AND RAPHAEL, ARCHANGELS