Busy, busy, busy

On Thursday, I coordinated my monthly outreach program for our church. We had a belated Thanksgiving dinner and made a crafts project. The senior citizens put together family trees (or trees of Thanksgiving). Here's a photo of some of my favorite ladies --- all decked out in their hats!







Later that afternoon, my mom and I took the girls downtown to see a commemoration ceremony of the Battle of Franklin. This was one of the last - and defining - battles of the western theater of the Civil War. There were 10,000 casualties (which is really mind-boggling when you compare it to the 3,000 lost on 9/11 and consider that only 2,500 people lived in Franklin at the time). Luminaries were lit (one for every dead soldier) and two bands dressed in period clothing played songs. One band played and dressed as if they were the Union band, and another the Confederate band. They entered from opposite sides of the square, taking turns playing -- and then met in the middle to play the National Anthem and other pieces. It was really quite moving and very beautiful. Mary Clare liked the "marching bands" as she called them.


On Friday morning we met up with our playgroup at an indoor playground (really part of a large showroom for playground equipment). Mary Clare was a little overwhelmed by some of the bigger kids, but it was fun -- the murals on the walls were remarkable -- here is an example of one:

Erin enjoyed watching all the activity, too!


Here's a picture of Mary Clare from our parade party today -- more about that, and more photos in my next post (I can only post 5 photos each time).