Betsy Ross Lives On!

Mary Erin was assigned to read a biography of a famous person in history and give an oral report on that person. She got the book read ahead of time, so that she would have less school work to take on her trip with Ross to the US in February. My advice to her: Choose someone from the 1700's or 1800's! We have a costume in the dress up box at home! She prepared her speech, rehearsed it, gathered her props, but her biggest concern was the boy in her class who had read a book on Jesse James. She said, "Mom, he is showing us gross stuff about shooting and blood and it is all he talks about!" We laughed and said, "Guess what, you have a brother now. He'll be doing the same thing in a few years." She looked shocked. Then Ross told her that when he was in 2nd grade he had to choose 2 birds on which to report. He chose the grossest ones he could think of...the vulture and the bat. As we both laughed, he said, "I didn't even know a bat wasn't a bird!" Well, I went to see the presentations yesterday and I thought Jesse James looked adorable. I even told him that there was a story floating around that Jesse James tried to buy land from one of our kinfolk, who wouldn't sell. Here's Jesse...

And an adorable Korean Clara Barton...

And a dimpled Ben Franklin...

And my sweet Betsy Ross, who really hesitated sharing with her audience that she had once eloped. Mary Erin thought it made her seem rebellious because her parents didn't like the man, but I told her she had to tell the truth! The best part of all was that way back in 1976, at our country's bicentennial, I was Betsy Ross in our church's patriotic program. Betsy lives on!

And here they all are!