Memorial Day 2013...

Today was Memorial Day for us here in the United States...

I hope that those of you celebrating the holiday had a wonderful day!

I mostly crafted with the girls today...it seemed like a lovely way to spend the day.  We made remembrance poppies.  I love the poem "In Flander Fields" by John McCrae...

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

 The remembrance poppies are something that is not as much a part of the holiday here as it once was.  Most everything has gone to Red, White, and Blue and you rarely see the poppies any more.  Occasionally, I still see someone  from the VFW selling the buddy poppies and always buy them.  I genuinely like and appreciate the sentiment and it is something that I want the girls to know of and make a part of the day...they should know that to wear a poppy honors our fallen heroes and the history of how that came to be.

We filled our bulletin board with a variety of things, some coloring pages we found on line here, and some paper crafted poppies from here.  My favorites where the coffee filter poppy flowers and the little poppy pin I found the time to put together.  

I would have liked more time to play with that pattern and tweak it a bit to my own tastes...but little Rosie Posie required considerable help with her projects and the big girl needed help today working on her sewing for 4-H.  I also saw a little poppy on InTatters that I wanted to play with and had a poppy embroidery I wanted to stitch, but I really need another 24 hours in each day for my own creating whims...