He was anything but cooperative for this pictures...or anything else for that matter. We had some cake and frozen pizzas. BOOM, he's two! He doesn't seem to be slowing down. I am hoping that he will follow in Simon's foot steps and mellow out a bit by age three. But this mother is not holding her breath.
And though a child's birthday is a wonderful thing to celebrate, Chris completing flight school was a close second...if not a tie.
Wednesday Chris' parents arrived around lunch. Chris took Amelia and Becket to family day to see the helicopters. Becket is obsessed with helicopters. Chris said he was so excited to be there.
That evening we had the ball. Chris has been in the Army for almost eight years and I have never attended a ball. There is a lending closet on post where I was able to borrow a dress for the ball. All that I had to do was have the dress dry cleaned. Done and done! My mom lent me the wrap. A friend was so kind to come over and do my hair for me. I had black shoes in my closet. So, I was winning on being cost efficient.
The ball was fine, but I didn't know anyone there other than Chris. So, I made the most reasonable decision and went to the bar to order a bottle of wine before going through the receiving line. We eventually made it through the receiving line were we shook hands as they welcomed. We returned to our table to pour our glasses that we would need for the toast and made small talk with the other couples at our table. There are some formalities that we had to remain standing for like presenting of colors, prayer, and the toast. I don't like saying "formalities" but I couldn't think better way to put it. And I don't remember all the details. Please forgive me. I really do enjoy the traditions that come with military events.
Then it was food. The high ranking officers went through the line first and then the started calling table numbers. Table one and eleven were called first, and we were at table eleven. So Chris and I got up and went to get food at a completely normal pace. We were almost to the buffet and realize that everyone from our table were taking their time. So we tried slowing our stride so we didn't look like fat kids. But our efforts were worthless because in true fat kid fashion we were halfway down the buffet before any other couple entered the room with the food. We did wait for the others to get to the table before digging in, but dang. Our table was right beside the "important people". I kept joking that it was the adult table and we were at the big kid table...clearly I deserved the little kid table.
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| Sneaking a picture of the "adults" as we waited for the others from our table. And the sweet potato casserole was bangin'. Just sayin'. #wearefatkids |
Another tradition is presenting the spouse with a set of wings. A necklace we bought. Side note: the owner of the jewelry store was a super sweet German lady. Seriously, Ingrid needs a little shout out! ;)
Remember that bottle of wine we bought...Chris only drank the sips for the toast to be responsible. So I had to do the responsible thing by not letting the Merlot go to waste.
They concluded the event and welcomed us to dance. I have never seen a room empty so quickly. Chris turned down my request to dance as he always does and we headed home.
The graduation was at 10:00 the next morning. We got ourselves ready and out the door my 9:20. My mother in law had had surgery on her foot so we needed some time to get from the car and to a seat. The graduation was quick. I stood in the back because Becket insisted on yelling at me if we were at our seats.
Chris's dad pinned his wings.
And then we had a brand new Army Aviator.
After the graduation we went home a hung out with his parents. He graduated on Michaelmas, the feast of the Archangels. We specifically celebrated St. Micheal since he is the patron of soldiers. I made chicken and angel hair pasta and devil's food cake that we stabbed with "swords".
We are extremely proud of Chris. When I wrote this post graduation seemed soooo far away. It's crazy how long it felt even though it went by quickly. Now we are waiting for the next step. He has another course to take. It's a special duty course for equipment inspections or something. Anyway, that course and some briefs for our upcoming move is all he has left. Then we head to Hawaii.
Come back to periscope!
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