Memorial Day 2026

'Merica!  Here's some patriotic jello, a rather simple idea from Mom - we've got a red layer of jello at the bottom and then she's sliced and placed some strawberries for stripes onto a layer of cool whip, and of course the field of stars up there is a field of blueberries.  Looks fun, simple to make, and it's delicious!

Today is Memorial Day, and we started out with a really great skillet breakfast that Mom made for us, and yeah, we had all those patriotic tunes playing today.  Got to have the appropriate theme music playing, and the patriotic tree plugged in.  The house looks great for our semiquincentennial.

We got our walking in, and got everyone fed, birds and sea monkeys.  The chia pets look great, and I worked a good bit on the LEGO Wilderness Temple as well, with just one more bag to go until it's complete. 

Afterwards, we went over to Aunt Shain's for a big Memorial Day feast!

Natural wildlife abounds!  Ah, the wild flock of flamingos in the back, grazing in the woods there.  Speaking of "birdies," Maddie, Nate, David and Jonathan were playing badminton for a good bit, and occasionally getting the birdies stuck in low hanging tree branches.  Also getting rackets stuck in them.  

But eventually, it was time for the Memorial Day Croquet Challenge!

This year's contestants were ready to go, a battle for the ages.  The weather was iffy, but the rain pretty much held out for us as the competition began.  The spectators were seated, cheering on the big game!

It's a lot of unpredictable fun!  This year's winner?  Maddie!  She and Marilyn pretty much ruled the course while the guys spent a lot of time floundering on the starting side there.  It was a tough course, but Maddie broke away from the competition, and it wasn't even close from there - she got to the end a good ten minutes before the others.  Still, everyone had a good time, including those of us watching.  We were all laughing at the misfortunes or marveling at the sudden bursts of talent.

The rain did come eventually, but not really until we were all done.  We got everything cleaned up and got inside for our big meal.  Here's the crew just before dessert, having patriotic cupcakes, cookies, and yes, that Jello Flag!

It was a nice time.  Nate was with us, and he enjoyed it too, although he was almost last in the croquet game. But still, we all enjoyed our time together, a really nice tradition on Memorial Day.

Today is also Towel Day, and so we watched "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" tonight.  We read all these books with Maddie once upon a time, but it's been a while.  I think next year I'm going to try and find the original BBC movie 

We closed out the day with some reading and then prayers.  Time for some sleep!