Memorial Day 2018

As we celebrated holidays while I was growing up I never really thought a whole lot about why we celebrated them (except Christmas). Now that I have children of my own I'm more and more wanting to learn the history of our holidays and the reason we celebrate them. I hope I can pass along this knowledge to my children so they understand why we do what we do.

Memorial Day is one of the few days my husband has off so we took full advantage of spending time with him today. My boys were out helping him with yard work even before they had their breakfast!

Of course, finding a snake while working in the yard is always an adventure to our boys. Right before our breakfast of applesauce muffins and scrambled eggs was ready, Jude took a pretty hard fall on the hard road running after Daddy. Poor guy- I think his head took most of his fall!

After our breakfast the big boys went back outside for some play at the water table and Isaac went down for a late morning nap. 

Over our late lunch of leftover grilled hamburgers, we tried to talk to our boys about what Memorial Day is and what we do on this particular day. I say try because as the conversation went on I'm not entirely too sure how much the boys actually understood. 

I started by asking Jude and Ezra what today was. Jude said he didn't know so I asked them to repeat "Memorial Day" after me. They did. I then asked them if they knew what soldiers were. They are pretty familiar with the story of David and Goliath so I explained to them how David and Goliath were soldiers of two different armies. We discussed how David was good and Goliath was bad and that David fought Goliath to save the Israelites from the "bad guys" or the Philistines. Then the topic went on to other good and bad guys of the bible and then veered even further down a bunny trail from there. Tyler brought them back to the topic by explaining that there are people who fight to keep us safe. He explained how some people give up their lives fighting so that we can be safe and free. 

Again, I haven't any idea how much of this actually was understood by the boys, but we did make it a point to at least have the conversation with them. 

Later I showed them a couple of videos about Memorial Day that I had found on YouTube. If I had been thinking ahead I would have been sure to make a trip to our library for a few books but, you know how life with toddlers goes. 

After Isaac woke up from his afternoon nap we made a picnic supper and struck out for a local park. We enjoyed some turkey and cheese sandwiches, chips, and bananas. Isaac snacked on a few cold peas and carrots as well. I saw this great tip from a mom of many who said she made one big sandwich on a loaf of french bread then cut into smaller sandwiches for her kids. We tried this out tonight and it would have been fantastic IF my loaf of bread was not quite as thick. We could hardly keep the boys still long enough to eat anything. They wanted to play! All three had a great time playing on the playground and running free. 

At the end of the day I am left thinking of the reason we are able to enjoy such a great day together as a family. I will forever be thankful for the men and women who have given their lives so that we are able to have the freedoms we have. 

A simple "Thank You" will never seem enough.