On a cold 30 degree day Brooke and I went for a walk after quiet time. She wanted to take the balloon she had received that morning at a birthday party. We had a fun time walking, running and chasing after the balloon, and other shenanigans.
This year for Valentine’s Day I homemade Alex’s class’ valentines and Brooke wanted to home make her’s for her class. After we started creating them her teachers sent home a list of the names so she could practice writing. Brooke had fun writing everyone’s name, her name, and then drawing custom art for each valentine. She stickered the back and we added a treat.
Today, after a week of not seeing the sun and near constant rain, it dried up and we saw the sun for one day. AJ and I took advantage of that to finish painting the playhouse for the kids. It is now ready for lots of fun!
We were invited to attend the Change of Command Ceremony for the USS Truxtun, a destroyer ship of which our neighbor is now the Commanding Officer. The ship deploys tomorrow for seven months. We watched the ceremony surrounded by the ships officers and crew at attention with accompaniment of a naval band on the flight deck (luckily in a heated tent as it is January). Then we were welcomed to the Wardroom for a reception. The previous captain and Troy used a large ceremony sword to cut the cake together. There was a lot of interesting things that were done in the ceremony and after, that we had never seen or known about. We got a coin also. It was an honor to attend.
We were a little busy the morning of AJ’s birthday on the Truxtun, but we got home and AJ enjoyed opening all his gifts. Then Brooke, Alex, and I made AJ his birthday cake while he relaxed playing video games and watching TV. We went out to dinner as a family to his birthday favorite, Smokey Bones and had birthday cake for dessert. Happy Birthday AJ!
