Today we are grateful to and honor the many men and women who have served and currently serve in our armed forces. Thank you.
The symbol of the day is a red poppy, that comes from this poem by John McCrae, May 1915:
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.
You can learn more about the poem and McCrae here.
Pittsburgh has a yearly parade to mark this day, so we'll head downtown, all bundled up, to salute our veterans. We'll be wearing these (not at all durable) poppy pins on our coats. Perhaps you'd like to make the craft with your kids; I've posted a few pictures below.
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| Supplies you'll need. Just hand-draw a couple of poppies per pin. |
After cutting them out, glue one on top of the other, but not lined up together, and fold up the petals of the top piece of paper for a more 3D effect. Glue in the center dot, tape a pin on the back, and you're done!
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| Front |
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| Back |
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| The finished product! |
Whoa - E looks so much taller than the last time I saw her... (Jeff's wedding)!
ReplyDeleteyeah, she's growing like a weed! And she's almost 7-1/2. Isn't that nuts?!
ReplyDeleteHeather, That is a lovely tribute to our veterans. In the UK in the weeks coming up to Nov. 11, poppies similar to this are sold to raise money for veterans' causes. Virtually everyone buys and wears one on Veterans' Day. I have missed that tradition since coming to the US, so it is nice to decided to do this with the kids.
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