His ceremony would be at his office with people from his office. I had no idea what people would wear so I decided to be safe and shower that day. The last time Michael was promoted he was on the ship on deployment so I wasn't around. As Gracie will attest to (because she counted as they entered the room) there were about 25 people there.
Let me start off at the beginning of the day. It was a Tuesday so the girls and Michael left for school. I dressed the girls in what they would wear to the ceremony because it would take place right after school. Jack is on vacation from school this week so we hung out. As it gets closer to the time to go I hand him his "dapper Dan" clothes. No such luck. I tried bribing with food, Euro, whatever it would take. But no, the boy had to wear well, what is basically his uniform. If you go back and count the number of times this boy is wearing this sweatsuit I'm willing to bet it would be at least 70% of the time. By now the sleeves are 3/4 sleeves and the pants are riding a little high. I have to tip toe into his room at night so I can sneak it out to clean it and at times hide it so I don't have to endure the pain of looking at it on him the next day. Anyone who knows me and my clothes requirements for my kids knows that THIS is killing me!
So he wins and wears the dreaded sweatsuit and requires an interesting accessory. He wants to wear his ski mask. It covers his whole head and most of his face except for his eyes. By this time I'm saying to myself, "fine in years to come when you look at these pictures and ask me why I will just laugh at you". By the grace of God I could not find the mask. So I have to hand it to the boy, instead of freaking out, he decided to make his own mask. I grab him paper and scissors and we jump in the car to get the girls.
Half way there I hear him say "uh oh". WHAT NOW?? He cut a hole in his pants with his scissors. Super, that's gonna look even better.
We pick up the girls and are walking over to the ceremony with Michael and of course, the boy wipes out. Dirt all over him. At this point I'm just praying to get there with three living children.
We take our place in the front of the room and wait for all to begin. As people are entering the room Gracie decides she's tired and plops down spread Eagle to take a little break. She insisted that Kanook (her stuffed German Shepherd) be at the ceremony with us (as seen in all the pictures).
Colonel Holt (Michael's boss) did the ceremony. He is a great guy. Definitely army (that is a compliment). I'm sure he is a boss that has very high expectations and is not happy when they are not met. However, he is the nicest guy to me and the kids.
Michael had a part for all of us to play. All of us pinned his new rank on somewhere (coat, shirt, hat...) While Gracie was doing her job Colonel Holt offered to hold Kanook.
After the ceremony we had a reception. Next door to ours was and O6 promotion. Ours was a little different. As you can tell by the pictures the kids made their own fun. Jack took his place at the keg to serve beers, Molly stacked the beer cups and all three played horse with Jack.
As always it was fun to watch the kids. They started to play hide and seek under the tables so we decided playtime was over and headed home. As we passed the O6 promotion I peaked in. There was no cup pyramid, kids playing horse or hide & seek and no chicken nuggets. They might have had a band, a huge spread of food and real glasses for their drinks, but we had entertainment that couldn't be beat!!
By the way...zoom in on Jack's face in the first two pictures!!
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