A Salute and a Howdy

On September 23, Chris became the Charlie Company Commander of 1st Battalion, 7th Group, Special Forces. It was held outside, which was neat, albeit very hot and humid. It was a neat ceremony and Chris did a great job giving his speech. I had taken a great video of the official passing of the flag ceremony -- and it was actually like being there, with Kate talking and waving her yellow rose in front of the camera (they gave one to each of the girls, including me) -- unfortunately, after three attempts to download the video, I gave up. It was just too big of a file. So the pictures will have to suffice.

The girls sat pretty well through the ceremony, but enjoyed getting some pent up energy out after the fact.

During the reception afterwards there was brunch and a cake - there's always got to be a cake. So the girls had cake for their second breakfast . . . and then found this utility cart to play on - more pent up energy I suppose.

And here he is in his new office - hooray for an office with a window! He just looks the part, doesn't he? Chris, you're going to be a great commander! We support and salute you.

And now for the howdy . . .

September 23 was a very busy day for us, because, that night, was Kate's Howdy night for her preschool. Families brought a picnic lunch and then the kids performed a few songs. It was super cute. My favorite song went like this:

5 little cowboys galloped off to school,

The first one said, "ya-hoo, school is cool."

The second one said, "there's learning to be done."

The third one said, "there's also time for fun."

The fourth one said, "I'll learn my abc's."

The fifth one said, "I'll learn my 123's."

"Yippee", said the five, as they learned all day

And the five little cowboys galloped off to play

They also taught the families a cowboy dance, "Yippee yi yo, yippe yi yay, do the cowboy dance this way!" It was just as much a crack up watching my family "do the cowboy dance" as it was watching the little kids. Aly and Chris were kind of bending their knees up and down and Kylie was bee-boppin' along, but Lise was doing some sort of interpretive dance that was very interesting to watch. Wish I could have gotten some video of that.

After Howdy Night we took the kids to Dairy Queen for ice cream. We were pure entertainment for the entire joint, as everyone kept staring at us and counting our kids - especially when Chris got into a tug of war with Kylie over a cup of ice cream. She's got the death grip, I tell ya.