Memorial Day Recap

Memorial Day was last weekend.  The official start of summer is supposed to include barbecues with friends and families, pool openings, and most of all honoring our military heroes. Our town usually has a three day festival with food, rides, concerts, and carnival games.  This year it was cancelled, and frankly, it was a real bummer to see so many pictures pop up on Facebook to remind us of the fun of previous years.  On a normal Memorial Day weekend we would go to the festival one day, relax at home with a barbecue the next, and spend the third day visiting a battlefield or cemetery to learn about our nation's history and the brave men and women that sacrificed so much for our freedom.  This year we had to figure out a new way to celebrate.
We still divided the weekend into different types of activities, and we were still able to hold on to the essence of this holiday and honor its meaning. Some of these ideas can work for any summer weekend and especially for the Fourth of July.

Saturday:  We decided it would be great to take advantage of the nice weather and tackle a few yard projects.  Can't have a nice barbecue and eat on the deck if the table and chairs are coated in pollen, right? The kids were able to help pull weeds from between the stones of the patio while I swept and washed down the table, chairs, and deck.  Hubby mowed the lawn and cut back overgrown bushes.  He also found a toad that was patient enough to sit for a bit and let the kids inspect him.  He was put back where he belonged after a few minutes.  Later we got out our American flags and decorations to set up the front yard and show our patriotic spirit.  When we were done the yard and deck looked a lot better and we'd spent a good portion of the day outside working together.  We played a little badminton after the work was done, and sat on our newly cleaned patio to read.  Dinner was grilled sausages and we decided to watch a battle movie to help the kids learn a bit of history they weren't familiar with yet.  The movie we picked for Saturday was "The Alamo" with John Wayne, an American classic.  I remembered seeing it as a kid, but I was pleasantly surprised that such an old movie still held the attention of my kids.

Sunday: This was our relax day with a few household chores, a home haircut for Connor, and a couple of crafts.  We decided to paint a few rocks to take to my father's grave at Arlington so the kids got to get creative and chose patriotic designs.  Since my dad was in the Air Force they picked an eagle, an airplane and a blue sky with the flag.  Painting rocks is an easy activity that doesn't need a lot of preparation.  We found the rocks in our front yard, washed them off, then set up tempura paints in the kitchen on some newspaper.  Once the rocks were done we sprayed them with some shellac since we knew these ones would be outside and we didn't want the paint to wash away.  You can also use mod podge. I gave Connor a simple haircut.  I'd never done this before so I looked up a few videos and instructions.  It turned out pretty well, but my husband isn't too sure of my barbering skills yet.  He's holding out for the real thing. That evening we grilled outside again and then enjoyed some outdoor happy hour adult time while the kids watched a movie inside.

Monday: On Memorial Day we went to Arlington National Cemetery.  It was only open to people with family passes, meaning immediate family members of those buried there.  My father was buried at Arlington in 2017, and we had not gotten the chance to visit since quarantine began.  My mother is in the high risk population for Covid and her community is currently closed to visitors.  Having not gone there yet to see what it was like we thought it wouldn't be a good idea for her to go, and we weren't sure what the rules would be like for returning to her apartment.  We did think it would be relatively easy to social distance near his gravesite, so we decided to try and go with the kids.  Arlington required everyone wear masks and had strict rules about no site seeing.  It took a very long time to get through the traffic and get in the gate, but I am so happy that we made the trip.  We brought roses from our garden and the rocks we painted.  It was also good to see so many families there to honor their loved ones.  We didn't get close to any groups and it was very easy to remain ten to fifteen feet apart.  When we got home we made an American flag cake, with the flag on the inside.  It was pretty easy to put together.  You just make white cake batter, divide it into three round cake pans and color one red, one blue and the last remains white.  When they were baked we cut a hole out of the middle of the blue cake, cut the red and white cakes in half, cut the same sized hole in one layer of the red and white cakes, and layered the cakes to create the flag effect.  My husband grilled burgers and we ate outside.  We were going to watch "Saving Private Ryan", but it was getting late and a school night so that one will have to wait. The cake was a huge success, and we have enough left over for dessert for a few days.  A special treat to look forward to!

 Overall it was a good weekend.  We accomplished what we set out to do.  There was some fun, some relaxation, some creativity, and a lot of remembering our heroes.  Hopefully next year the whole family, including my mom and brothers, will be able to celebrate together.  Happy Memorial Day, Daddy! We miss you, love you, and are so proud of your service!

Flag cake 

inside with the flag showing.

A Parent's Guide to 2020: Activities for Families Stuck at home

Our family started self-isolating on March 13, 2020. Schools was cancelled, non-essential businesses were closed, travel was postponed, and it felt like our whole world shrank to the size of our house. At the time there were still so many unknowns about Covid-19. Did masks help if you could find one? Did we need to sanitize mail, packages, and groceries? We have two people with severe allergies and asthma, were they more at risk? Suddenly everything we'd taken for granted just days before seems dangerous and not worth risking. Through all of the unknowns day to day life went on, and our family realized we still had to live our lives. I've always been a planner and this whole situation threw all of my plans, and my ability to plan, right out the window. I'm also happiest when I have something to look forward to, something exciting to dream about. We needed something to think about besides the doom and gloom on the news. My kids needed something to do besides video games and Netflix. My solution? Travel the world. Well, travel the world from the safety of our house that is. I planned a whole week of international travel where we never got on a plane. We went to France, Italy, Australia, Thailand, a different country for each day of the week. We ate exotic foods, saw amazing cultural sites, participated in national pastimes, and created beautiful art. Everyone learned something new, ate something new, made something new, and most importantly got away from it all. 

The crafts we made during our travels.

Elephants from Thailand.

We had so much fun on our trip that we decided to do it again, only we added Hogwarts and Tony Stark's house to our list of places to visit. Every week or weekend we'd take a day or two and turn our lives into a fun, creative getaway from reality. And we realized something. Maybe this quarantine didn't have to be so bad.  Maybe instead of empty days that we wouldn't remember could turn into wonderful memories we made as a family. And, if we could do it why not help our friends with ideas, too? So the idea for this blog and our book was born. We wrote about what we'd already done and added ideas for plans we still wanted to try. We put in activities that the kids enjoyed at different ages to help families with preschoolers all the way up through teens. Nothing we did was complicated or took a ton of preparation. We stuck to a strict budget and tried to use things we already had at home. The whole idea was to find ideas for crafts, recipes, science experiments, and activities that would be easy to do at home with what you already have, or could easily and inexpensively order for delivery.  You can find our book on amazon kindle here: https://www.amazon.com/Parents-Guide-2020-Activities-Families-ebook/dp/B08944D9WR/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Rebeccah+graves&qid=1590522285&sr=8-2

Dressing up for Germany.

Everyone wants to show their kids that we can still have fun at home. Summer camps may be cancelled and pools may be closed, but we can still be us and live our lives, at least a little like we did before. Our book can help you make plans for fun with your family while you are stuck at home. We wrote it to help families get through this and come out the other side with fond memories instead of empty days. We will add more ideas every week on this blog. They say this situation could last through to 2021, and with high risk family members we are pretty sure we will be spending more time inside than out this year. But inside doesn't have to be so bad. If we can't go out to the world, we will bring the world home to us!