Memorial Day Weekend

My birthday always falls on Memorial Day weekend, which is kind of depressing I guess but I went up to north Missouri and put flowers on all of the graves last week and so this weekend was for food, family and fun. :)

When you have five kids (plus 2 additional friends of the oldest) the best things in life ARE free, so we headed down to Union Station in Kansas City yesterday for "Celebration at the Station".

The Kansas City Symphony plays a variety of patriotic music at Union Station with Liberty Memorial in the background with an awesome fireworks show when it gets dark.

We packed the kids all up in a couple of cars and headed downtown...Here's my friend Sherri with my daughter on her shoulders, my friend Bryan and his girls came down and met us too.
The littlest in shades...hilarious...
Bryan and his girls, aren't they pretty?? My middle child has a big crush on the one on the left and he would love it even more if he knew I put that on here. :)
Here is what a pile of boys looks like sprawled out on a picnic blanket.
Miss Priss was loving the music and the crowd and all the excitement.

Brotherly love...

I played around a little with my camera once it got dark and we got the kids all those glow in the dark necklace things....I thought this one turned out kind of cool with the flash off.
Liberty Memorial, the only WW-I memorial in the nation...you can see the eternal flame lit at the top.
Union Station with stars and red white and blue...so neat!
The fireworks show with the Memorial...so pretty.
I had a great time with my entire family together and we really enjoyed the evening. When they played "Taps" towards the end of the concert, it made me a little teary remembering my dad, uncle and all of the other veterans in my family who have passed on; however, this was a celebration of their lives and we enjoyed it to the fullest.

We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them. ~Francis A. Walker