Memorial Day is probably my favorite holiday next to Christmas. My family (the Morgan side) has a long-standing tradition (more than 60 years) of gathering together in Clayton, West Virginia on the Sunday before Memorial Day. It's a really wonderful day full of great stories and possibly the best food EVER!! I just love it.

Mom and the kids show their colors

(courtesy of Uncle Jonathan).

Lilly and Evie at the grave of their great,great,great grandparents, Luther and Virginia Morgan.

Gran and Evie at the old (very old) schoolhouse

where the reunion takes place.

Prior to this weekend, I had never seen any pictures of my grandfather younger than perhaps his late teens. Here he is as a baby (with my great-aunt Belva and my great-uncle Arnold).

Lilly is quite serious about her education.

Here she is waiting to receive her "diploma".

Moon Bounce Hair.

Lilly, having fun at "Fun Day".

Lilly graduated!!

Actually, they don't call it a graduation at Lilly's school, but the children did have a closing ceremony today that was so touching that Steve and I had to admit to becoming a bit verklempt. Lilly took the whole thing very seriously as you will see in the photos once I have them developed. After the ceremony, the children and parents joined the teachers for a cookie-and-lemonade reception under the picnic shelter which was a nice way to close the year. I helped supply half of the refreshments (the cookies) and did a little extra baking to add a special touch to the day. Yesterday was a long day of baking and cleaning...baking and cleaning...baking and cleaning, but I think the results were worth it.

I made mini 3-tiered cakes for the teachers and director.

These ready-to-eat treats come with a fork so there's no waiting!

I made these large take-home cookies for the 25 children who will be going on to Kindergarten.

Cookies. About 12 dozen of them!

Steve laughed and said it was the most cookies he'd ever seen in one place -- even in a bakery. I was thinking I might have overdone it but as we left the school I noticed there was only 1.5 cookies left on the tray.

Splish Splash I was taking a bath...

Well, *sigh* this day begins Lillian's last week of preschool. In a few short months, she will begin Kindergarten and I have VERY mixed feelings about that.

I thought this was a really nice photo of me and the girls. It's rare for me to get a picture taken with my children as I am usually behind the camera. (Thanks, Lori!) It was taken at a Mother's Day tea given by the children and teachers at the preschool. The event was simple and charming -- with lemonade and cookies and a few cute songs sung by the children. Each Mom received a gift made by her child -- mine was a decorated flower pot!

Evelyn started crawling at the 8-month mark

(about 2 weeks ago) and this week,

she started pulling herself to standing.

She's having a great time exploring her world.

We hardly recognized these guys!

Can you believe how much they've grown in just 12 days?

Magic happens.

This weekend, we went on a short trip with friends and chose to drop by Natural Bridge on the way to our final destination (Douthat State Park near my hometown of Clifton Forge). If you've never been to Natural Bridge, you should go. It's an easy two-mile hike with much to see, and there are so many area attractions that you could easily spend 2 days there. Although it was very wet and a bit messy, we had a great time. Here are just a few pictures from our weekend. They do not tell the entire story, but will give you a general picture of how much fun you can actually have on a chilly, damp weekend in early May.

The kids (especially Henry and Amanda) really enjoyed visiting the Monacan indian village located along the walk through Natural Bridge park. This wigwam was a real treat. It had a fire going inside and was quite cozy.

The kids get a lesson from a Monacan indian.

Here we are at the end of the trail. You can see Lace Falls cascading in the background. After a brief visit here, we began the one-mile hike back. It was amazing to watch the kids just go, go, go! They were soooooo good!

Toward the end of our hike, we came upon oodles of tadpoles (one of my favorite things in the whole world). They were really cute and the kids enjoyed watching them wriggle around in their shallow pools by the creek.

No, we did NOT have a European vacation. This modern marvel is "Foamhenge". That's right, a life-size replica of Stonehenge made entirely out of styrofoam. Lilly, Amanda and Payton climbed the hill with gusto even after the two-mile hike at Natural Bridge. After scraping two inches of sticky, red mud off our shoes, we headed on to Douthat State Park.

We arrived at Douthat just before dinner time and checked into our cabins. Since we'd already had a big day, we decided to have an easy meal of hotdogs. Here, Amanda and Payton get some roasting tips from their Dad.

On Saturday morning, we all had a big, artery-clogging breakfast consisting of pancakes and bacon, sausage gravy and biscuits, banana bread, etc. The kids ate inside the cabin and the adults ate outside on the picnic table. It was chilly but the hot food and coffee kept us warm. After breakfast, we went for a walk that was AMAZING!!! I wish I could tell you more about it but I just can't. Sorry.
After that walk, we went fishing (not "catching"). When the fishing was over, Steve, James and the girls went to the beach area and took a couple of boats out on the lake. The rest of us went back to the cabins and had a bit of a rest. My family (who lives near) stopped by the cabin and when everyone got back, we all went to dinner at the restaurant by the lake. It started to rain and got dark pretty early but we had to take one last amazing walk into the woods. Then, it was off to bed. We had breakfast together at the restaurant and then began the journey home. It was a wonderful weekend. I'd like to do it over again tomorrow!