Happy March Fourth

Use today to celebrate the potential in you and your life as you "march forth" and realize all your dreams.

Did you ever realize that this is the only day of the year that is a command?
I found this article in a magazine (and tried to find it online, but couldn't so I'm typing it all out) and I just thought it was the neatest idea!

A Day to March Forth!
A wonderful celebration that teaches our family to reach for our goals...

Our family:
Tina and Matt of Fredericksburg, VA and our kids, Levi, age 3, Emma,7, and Taylor, 10.

Our tradition:
Our entire extended family gets together to celebrate March 4th. We start the festivities by parading around the house to a few classic marching songs, then we have a big meal together. After dinner, each of us records a goal for the coming year. We also read off the goals from last year and vote on who best accomplished theirs. The winner gets The Golden Boot Award! It's an old army boot that's been spray-painted gold and it's stuffed with 25 one-dollar bills to sweeten the prize.

What we eat:
It changes every year, but the menu always has a marching theme. For example, we might serve Let Us (lettuce) March Forth Salad with toe-matoes, foot-long hot dogs, shoestring potatoes, and rocky road ice cream. You get the idea.

Some favorite goals:
Write a song, learn to swim, make three new friends, make the honor roll, finish our family genealogy... But really anything is fair game.

Our special keepsake:
At the end of the evening, the kids stand on the dining room table and we trace their feet on our March Forth tablecloth (an old bedsheet). Later Matt's mom, Kathy, goes back and embroiders all of the footprints, along with the year and each child's name.

Why we love it:
Tina: It's a fun way to show our kids how setting goals can help them achieve more than they thought possible.

Matt: We also get to model for the kids how to celebrate each other's accomplishments.

Taylor: I like that everyone is together.

Emma: My favorite part is when Gram traces our feet on the table.

Levi: I like the marching!

How we got started:
Kathy (Gram) came up with the idea years ago when she learned on a March 4 that she had been accepted into nursing school. She took it as a sign to "go forward" and decided to celebrate the day when her kids were older. That date became so synonymous with positive change that we even got engaged at one of the annual parties.


Isn't that a cool idea? Kinda thinkin' I might try out something like that with our family.
Good stuff.

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I have some pictures to go through and some sleep to catch up on, and I'll be back tomorrow to recap our weekend up north. It was so nice to get away!!
Hope you all had a great weekend too!