Our family was lucky to have the opportunity to decorate graves at the Golden Gate National Cemetery near San Francisco with my son's cub scout troop. There are 38,000 graves there of service people and their spouses. It was so moving to see all those rows and rows of stones with flags. It was inspiring to see all the boys (it looked like about a thousand) and their families spending time there together to honor those men and women and the sacrifices they made by putting flags by the stones.

On the way home we had our boys call my grandfather and my husband's grandfather who each served in World War II to say "Thank You". They were both really touched I think to know that our kids care about their contributions to our freedom all these years later.

Now we'll spend the the rest of the weekend enjoying each other's company with picnics and time with family and friends.

I loved the article posted below on Memorial Day. I honestly didn't know much about the holiday until I read it and it really helped me talk to my kids about what it means.

Kat

We're flying our flag, and with all the wind we're seeing this weekend, may be motivated enough to make the Freedom Kite too: http://www.education.com/activity/article/make_a_freedom_kite_third/

We're going to call cousin Kyle, who served in the Iraq war and survived a roadside IED (one of his fellow soldiers wasn't as lucky). We'll call grandpa too - he served in the Army during the Vietnam war.

We'll also be participating in the national moment of remembrance at 3pm, for all those who didn't make it home from war.