Here are some facts about Veterans Day.

* Veterans Day was first celebrated on Nov. 11, 1919 to mark first anniversary of the end of the fighting of World War I. The Allies and Germany agree to an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, on the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. (Technically, though, WWI was not officially over until June 28, 1919 on the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.)

President Woodrow Wilson said of that first observance in 1919, “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”

* The observance may have started in 1919, but in the United States, Congress did not make it official until 1938. Then, in 1954, the name changed from Armistice Day to Veterans Day.

* In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed a law placing the observance on Nov. 11 and there it has remained.

* The holiday started with World War I, but World War II is the war in which the largest number of Americans served. More than 16 million Americans become service members then, according to the 2009 Veterans Day Teacher Resource Guide. Now, there are approximately only 855,070 WWII veterans alive, according to the World War II Museum.

* California is the state that is home to the most veterans, with 2 million veterans calling the Golden State home. Texas and Florida are next, with 1.6 million vets living in each state, reports the Census Bureau.

* Killeen, TX has the high percentage of residents who are veterans, with 28.9% citizens having served. Close behind is Clarksville, TN, with 24% of residents being veterans.

* Why do we spell it Veterans Day and not Veteran’s Day?   “Veterans Day does not include an apostrophe but does include an ‘s’ at the end of ‘veterans’ because it is not a day that ‘belongs’ to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans,” explains the Office of of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

* Veterans Day is separate and distinct from Memorial Day. Memorial Day, celebrated in May, honors those who lost their lives in service to our country, and Veterans Day, celebrated in November, honors all who have served and focusing on thanking living service members, past and present. The Office of of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs explains, “Memorial Day is a day for remembering and honoring military personnel who died in the service of their country, particularly those who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle. While those who died are also remembered, Veterans Day is the day set aside to thank and honor ALL those who served honorably in the military – in wartime or peacetime. In fact, Veterans Day is largely intended to thank LIVING veterans for their service, to acknowledge that their contributions to our national security are appreciated, and to underscore the fact that all those who served – not only those who died – have sacrificed and done their duty.”

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The Turks and Caicos are comprised of 40 islands and cays, eight of which are inhabited. They are located in the Eastern Caribbean, approximately 1,000 miles east-southeast of Miami, and are not all that far from the Bahamas.

Vital Statistics

Population: approximately 50,000

Language: English

Largest City: Providenciales, commonly known as “Provo”

Capital: Grand Turk

Currency: U.S. Dollar

Area: 948 square kilometers (It’s roughly twice the size of Washington, D.C.)

Time Zone: Same as Eastern Standard Time in the U.S.

More facts about Turks and Caicos

They are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Island in the Eastern Caribbean. Turks and Caicos was part of the United Kingdom’s Jamaican colony until 1962, at which time Jamaica became independent. It was then that Turks and Caicos assumed the status of a separate crown colony.

Tourism is the main industry, with more than 1 million visitors annually. The US is the leading source of tourists, accounting for more than three-quarters of them, many arriving by cruise ship.

The Beaches Resort and other resorts and hotels are located near Providenciales, which is at the western end of the territory. Cruise ships most often dock at Grand Turk, which is several islands to the east.

these are not exactly mountainous islands, with the highest point being Flamingo Hill, which is 48 meters high (or 144 feet.)

The flag of the Turks and Caicos features the Union Jack of Great Britain and a yellow shield taken from the coat of arms that features three items: a conch shell, a cactus, and a lobster.

Airline service is seasonal, with more flights during the winter travel season, which is busier.

Provo is home to one of only two conch farms in the world, and you can find conch in many local delicacies.

The Turks and Caicos Rock Iguana, Cyclura carinata, is the largest non-extinct indigenous land animal found in the country, and can be found on Little Water Cay, also known as Iguana Island. They are critically endangered.

Source: The World Fact Book by the U.S. CIA; TurksandCaicosTourism.com; VisitTCI.com

I wanted to learn a bit more about it so here are the facts about Queen Anne’s Lace that I turned up.

* It was first introduced from Europe but is also native to Asia.

* Queen Anne’s Lace belongs to the carrot family.

* It is a biennial plant, meaning it lives for two years.

* Thought the taproot is edible (like a carrot), the leaves can irritate the skin.

* It’s scientific name is Daucus carota, and it is also known as wild carrot, bird’s nest, and bishop’s lace.

* It is considered invasive, so not only is it a weed it’s a nasty weed that doesn’t belong. “It invades disturbed dry prairies, abandoned fields, waste places, and road sides. It is a threat to recovering grasslands and can be persistent on clay soils,” say the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. They advise that the best way to remove is pulling by hand or mowing in mid to late summer (so, now) before seed set.

* The white flowers each produce two seeds that are released from mid-summer to mid-winter.

* The stem is both hollow and hairy.

* They grow approximately 1 to 4 feet tall.

* Queen Anne’s Lace outcompetes native plants in wildlflower meadows and prairie restoration sites.

So, maybe it seems a bit more weed-like and a little less attractive after reading about it, but I still think the lacy flower is attractive, at least as far as weeds go.

Source: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources; North Carolina State University; FCPS.

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But it is, so in addition to the recipe, I’ve also gathered some fun facts about watermelon that you can share with your family and friends while enjoying your watermelon lemonade.

Watermelon Lemonade Slushie Recipe

* Cut fresh watermelon into 1 inch cubes. (If you’re working with a whole watermelon, this article/video shows an easy way to cube it.)

* In blender, add 1 cup cubed watermelon, 2 cups of lemonade and ice cubes.

* Blend on the “frozen beverage” setting until all ingredients are combined and ice isn’t too chunky.

I like to serve it with a watermelon garnish for fun, but it’s completely optional.

Told you it was ridiculously easy! Use your favorite lemonade. I opted for Trader Joe’s today because I had some and the idea of hand squeezed lemonade was a little overwhelming today. It’s summer, and no one wants to be stuck in the kitchen when you can be outside enjoying a frosty, delicious beverage.

I used our single serving blender option instead of the big pitcher, but the recipe can easily be multiplied to quench the thirst of a big crowd. It’s also not an exact science, and can be altered to whatever your tastes are. If you like just a hint of watermelon, use less and up the lemonade.

If you wanted to make this an adult beverage, adding a shot of lemon vodka would do the trick quite nicely.

Facts about Watermelon

* Americans consume more watermelon than any other melon. Cantaloupe is in second place and honeydew is third.

* The United States ranks 5th in worldwide production of watermelon. Florida, Texas, California, Georgia and Arizona consistently are the leading producers.

* The name “watermelon” is appropriate – watermelons are 92% water.

* It’s official name is  Citrullus Lanatus. It belongs to the botanical family Curcurbitaceae. Watermelons are cousins of cucumbers, pumpkins and squash.

* Seedless watermelons were invented 50 years ago.

* Watermelons with seeds, however, go way, way, WAY back, with the first recorded watermelon harvest happening approximately 5,000 years ago in Egypt.

* According to Guinness World Records, the world’s heaviest watermelon was grown by Lloyd Bright of Arkadelphia, Arkansas in 2005, weighing in at 268.8 lbs (121.93 kg).  That is an awful lot of watermelon!

* There are over 1,200 varieties grown in 96 countries worldwide, and not all of them have stripes.

* A watermelon takes about 90 days to grow, from planting to harvesting.

* Once cut from the vine, a watermelon has about 3-4 weeks of shelf life.

* The seeds and the rind are edible. In fact, the first cookbook published in the U.S. in 1776 contained a recipe for watermelon rind pickles.

Source: The Watermelon Board

Wondering how to pick the best possible melon?

The Watermelon Board offers this advice:

1. Look the watermelon over.
   You are looking for a firm, symmetrical watermelon that is free from bruises, cuts or dents.
2. Lift it up.
   The watermelon should be heavy for it’s size. Watermelon is 92% water, most of the weight is water.
3. Turn it over.
   The underside of the watermelon should have a creamy yellow spot from where it sat on the ground and ripened in the sun..

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* Doughnut vs. donut: The now-accepted spelling of “donut” did not overtake the more traditional “doughnut” until Dunkin Donuts stores dotted the nation a few decades ago, according to Grammarist. One-third of Americans use “donut,” with most preferring “doughnut.”

* The largest donut ever made was a 1.7 ton American-style jelly donut measuring 16 feet in diameter and 16 inches high in the center.

* In the U.S., more than 10 billion donuts are made every year. Entenmann’s alone produces more than 780 million donuts a year at its bakeries in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and Montebello, California. That is the equivalent of more than 100,000 donuts every hour.

* “National Doughnut Day” (the original spelling) began on the first Friday in June in 1938 as a fund raiser for The Salvation Army. In 1917, Salvation Army female volunteers known as “lassies” prepared thousands of fresh donuts to the homesick soldiers that served in France during World War I.  You can learn more in this video:

* At the top of Pikes Peak, you can find the Summit House at 14,115 feet – almost three miles above sea level – where you can find the world-famous and yummy Pikes Peak donuts – the only donuts made at an altitude over 14,000 feet.

* The first doughnut machine was invented in New York during 1920 by a man named Adolph Levitt, a refugee from Czarist Russia.  Levitt’s doughnut machine was a huge hit causing doughnuts to spread like wildfire.

* To ‘dunk your doughnut’ was allegedly introduced as a trend after actress Mae Murray accidently dropped one in her coffee.

Many stores are getting in on the action with free donuts. Wahoo! Here’s where to get the goodness:

– Dunkin Donuts: Get a free treat all day when you buy a beverage. The offer lasts all day long, as long as supplies last, and is available at locations around the country.

– Krispy Kreme: Get a donut for free at all U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada locations.

– Entemann’s  is giving one winner a year’s worth of free doughnuts, via a Facebook contest and donating a dollar to the Salvation Army for every entry into the contest. Get more details here.

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* There are a lot of moms on the planet. Approximately 2 billion women are mothers, with 4 babies born each second.

* Anna Jarvis is considered the found of Mother’s Day in the United States when she sought in 1908 to honor her mother, who had died three years prior and who had organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day” in 1868 to promote reconciliation following the end of the Civil War.

* Although she created the American Mother’s Day, Jarvis was not a life-long supporter of the holiday. As it evolved, she disliked the commercialization that surrounded it. Jarvis was even arrested protesting Mother’s Day and said that she regretted creating the holiday. She eventually tried to have Mother’s Day abolished. Clearly, she was unsuccessful. Guess this is an example of “be careful what you wish for.”

* FTD (The Florist Telegraph Delivery) association offered Jarvis a commission on the sales of Mother’s Day carnations if she would resume her support of Mother’s Day, but she was was insulted by the offer.

* FTD didn’t need Jarvis’ support, as it turns out, because today people spend $1.9 billion annually on flowers for Mother’s Day and 69% of all gifts given are flowers. 13% of moms buy themselves flowers for the occasion.

* In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day a national holiday, but not all lawmakers were on board. New Hampshire Senator Jacob Gallinger, a Republican, found the idea of limiting the celebration of his mother to just one day insulting. Senator Henry Moore Teller of Colorado, a Democrat, felt even more strongly, saying it was both “absolutely absurd” and “trifling.”

* The holiday is technically Mother’s Day, not Mothers’ Day. Jarvis wanted it to be a holiday to honor each individual’s mother, your mother, not all mothers. Thus, the name of the holiday is singular, not plural.

* According to Hallmark, 133 million Mother’s Day cards are given each year. Mother’s Day is the third-largest card-sending holiday in the U.S.

* Many people let their fingers do the walking. Phone calls increase up to 37% on Mother’s Day. Find more stats on Mother’s Day gifts here.

Happy Mother’s Day to one and all!

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* It’s not cheap to run the race. The entry fee costs $25,000. If the horse enters the starting gate, there is an additional $25,000 fee.

* Many people know that Secretariat was the fastest Derby winner, posting a time of under two minutes (1:59) in 1973, but the slowest winning horse doesn’t get much attention. Maybe it’s because you have to go back to 1891 to find that Kingman won with a time of 2:52.

* Five women have ridden in the famed “Run for the Roses”: Diane Crump, Patti Cooksey, Andrea Seefeldt, Julie Krone, and Rosemary Homeister.

* There has been measurable rainfall on 46% of all Derby days, but the race has only been postponed once due to weather. Even in 1918, when 2.31 inches of rain fell on race day, the race was held and Exterminator won.

* The Kentucky Derby is called the Run for the Roses because the winning horse is draped with blanket of red roses. The red rose became the official flower of the race in 1904. The blanket consists of 554 red roses and is presented, along with the trophy, by the  Governor of Kentucky.

* When the horses are moved to the starting gate, The University of Louisville Marching Band performs “My Old Kentucky Home,” which Stephen Foster wrote in the 1850s.

* The Kentucky Derby was first televised nationally on May 3, 1952.  On May 16, 1925, the first live radio broadcast of the Kentucky Derby was originated by WHAS and was also carried by WGN in Chicago.

Sources: 365horses.com, cnn.com, Kentucky Derby Musuem, KentuckyDerby.com

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Check out these facts about Brazil and take advantage of a chance to introduce your family to a country with which they may not be very familiar.

The official name of the country is the Federative Republic of Brazil

What cities are hosting World Cup games?

Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janero, Salvador, and Sao Paulo. You can read more about each of them in this Travel Channel article. This is the second time Brazil has hosted the World Cup. It first hosted in 1950.

The capital of Brazil is Brasilia. It’s a new city – it was built between 1956 an 1960  Prior to then, Rio was the capital.

The largest city in Brazil is Sao Paulo, which has a population of 10.9 million people.

What is its population?

Brazil has a population of approximately 194 million people  It is the fifth largest country in the world when measuring by both population and land area.

Less than 1% of the population is indigenous and more than half of the population is of primarily European origin.

What does the Brazilian flag symbolize?

There are 27 stars, one for each state and the federal district – they are arranged to look how the night sky looks over Brazil The white band has the motto Ordem E Progresso, which means Order and Progress.  Just like the American flag, the number of stars has been expanded as more states have been added to the country. It was first approved in 1889 with 21 stars and the version with 27 stars became official in 1992.

The green original represented the House of Braganza of Pedro I, the first Emperor of Brazil but now symbolizes the country’s forests and the yellow signifies its mineral wealth.

Brazil is big, but just how big?

The country of Brazil covers 46% of the continent of South America. The country has three time zones.

That means it has several neighbors.

Brazil shares a border with every country in South America except Chile and Ecuador.

It also has more than 4,500 miles of coast line, many of which feature amazing beaches. TripAdvisor recently named Baia do Sancho the best beach in the world.

Discovery

Pedro Alvares Cabral, a Portuguese explorer, is considered to have discovered the country when he sailed into what is now Bahia in April 1500.

Languages

You may know that Portuguese is the official language Brazil, and it is the only South American country that can say that. Portugese is far from the only language spoken there. In fact, you can hear more than 180 languages.

Independence

Brazil became independent from Portgual on September 7, 1822.

It became a democracy in 1985. Brazil’s current President, Dilma Rousseff, was inaugurated on January 1, 2011.

Amazon

The Amazon River the world’s second longest river (after the Nile) but it is is the largest by volume of water discharged.  The river can measure up to 30 miles wide during the rainy season.

The Amazon runs through a vast expanse of rain forest, which helps explain why there are more species of monkeys living in Brazil than in any other nation. Deforestation is a huge problem in the country.

Crops

The country was largely agrarian until the 1960s and still produces a quarter of the world’s coffee and a large portion of the world’s sugar cane.

Carnival

Rio de Janero’s famous Carnival, which is known around the world as being an incredible party held before Lent each year, attracts around 2 million revelers each day

Helpful Dolphins

In the town of Laguna, dolphins help the fisherman by herding fish towards their nets. The local report that the dolphins have been helping the fishermen for generations.

Money

The currency in Brazil is called the real and it is written R$.

Permission to Land

Brazil has a lot of airports – 4,000 of them in fact. The only country to have more airports is the United States.

Christ the Redeemer

One of Brazil’s most well-known landmarks is the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janero. It is the world’s tallest religious statue and in 2007, it was included in the New Seven Wonders of the World list. It was officially presented to the public in 1932.

Sources: The Telegraph, National Geographic, The CIA’s World Factbook, Science Kids, FIFA and Travel Advisor Tips

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