MLK Jr. Day with the kids

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr the Jasper family slept in . . . until 8:15am!  Anyone with young children knows that  8:15 is some MAJOR sleeping in.  Considering that I went to bed last night before 10pm I got an INSANE amount of sleep last night, a little too much if I do say so myself.

Today has been wonderfully relaxing. I've gotten to clean, read, bake, and play.

As I type this blog Roger is flying through the sky with a friend. Yes, he is actually in a plane, flying over our house. Is he going anywhere? Nope. Just flying around, taking in the view. Crazy man.

On each MLK JR day we set aside a little bit of time to talk to the kids about what the day means. This time we made chocolate and vanilla swirl cupcakes and I read a book about Dr. King to them while they spread the icing. I also reminded them of our summer adventure to Arkansas to visit the Little Rock High School and civil rights museum.

Little Rock High School

at the civil right museum

Each year I tell the kids a little more about the civil rights movement. A lot of it is really inappropriate for children, but I know they need to know. Thus the reason why I add a little more information each year.  We want them to understand that the civil rights movement was about much more than marching and speeches. It's about people, actual people, who were being treated like animals, men and women being drug from their homes, raped, murdered, all because the color of their skin. The civil rights movement was  about more than lunch counters and water fountains. We want our children to know that the civil rights movement was about a group of people, having spent years being TERRORIZED, finally standing up for themselves and demanding to be treated with respect and human dignity. We want our children to know that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr,  a Baptist Minister, helped end one form of terrorism in America by showing people that it is possible to respond to violence with non-violence. Or as little Anna said today, "He stood up to the bullies!"

Today we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr's birthday with cupcakes!!!

I know it sounds so cheesy to us adults, but it really resonated with the kids to make the chocolate cake batter and the vanilla cake batter and then mix them together as we spoke of Dr. King. As they grow we'll do different things, but this year the cake batter thing made sense. Plus, what birthday celebration doesn't have cupcakes? YUM!!!!

To top the day off we met our neighbors at the park to play and enjoy cupcakes. 

Life is so sweet! 

( . .  and I totally binged on the rest of the cupcakes when I got home. Don't judge! I'll feel bad about it tomorrow.)