A Day of Celebration

Sunday, September 11th...a day of remembrance of the tragic events that occurred 10 years ago. But this year, Grandparents Day also fell on the 11th. In the midst of our teary eyed morning, watching the Today Show coverage of the 9/11 Memorial Service, we were able to catch a silly and smiley moment to say "Happy Grandparents' Day" to Jack and Emma and Amy's wonderful grandparents and great grandparents! Thank you to Grammy, Pop, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandpa Chuck and my Grandma and Grandpa for being wonderful, loving, caring people and inspirational role models for both Matt and I, as well as Jack and Emma. I'm really not certain if Jack was making a kissing face or a fish face, but, either way, it's funny. At least Emma thinks so.

Last night Jack had a special surprise - FIREWORKS! We had some wonderful friends over for dinner - Ed and Gwen. Ed was one of Matt's best friends from the Academy and the best man in our wedding. This was the first time we had the pleasure of meeting Gwen, Ed's lovely wife, since we haven't been stationed near them for quite some time. When we do have friends over, Jack normally gets a free pass to stay up late - until our friends leave. So, last night he was able to stay up way past sunset. Over the last few weeks, our neighbors have been setting off fireworks on the weekends....not the kind you buy at the stand outside the mall.....the kind you buy at a shady roadside stand in South Carolina. These are for real fireworks...the kind you see on 4th of July. They are so big and loud, the first time they set them off, Matt and I thought they were gun shots. (We do live in Norfolk, after all). Anyway, Jack was on the couch in the playroom watching TV and all of a sudden we hear the fireworks go off. Jack shoots up and jumps over to the window and shouts "FIREWORKS! FIREWORKS!" Of course, his partner in crime also jumps up next to him and they sat at the window for several minutes, watching their own personal fireworks show.
Today after naps, we took a leisurely walk to the park. Matt wasn't going to be home tonight, so we didn't need to be home to make dinner at a specific time. Jack, Emma, Hokie and I walked the long way around to the park on the sidewalk and then took the more "scenic" route through neighborhoods on the way home. We stopped on the bridge over a shoot off of Mason Creek to spy on an egret trying to catch his dinner. Jack told him to come to our house because we have fish in our yard. Maybe he'll come over tomorrow!

Today was a pretty good day at school for Jack. He did cry when I left him this morning, but Miss Debbie said he stopped after a minute or two and didn't cry the rest of the day. Unfortunately, he played a bit rough and knocked a little girl over during playground time and laughed so he had to sit in a time out. But, I guess a little bit of that is to be expected. We are working on "being nice to our friends" now. Today in school, they painted their hands and stamped a piece of paper and colored on the paper. On top of the paper the teacher printed "I am special". Jack told me his drawing is a boat on the water. They also made "friendship mix". A kind of cracker mix with pretzel sticks, yogurt covered raisins, goldfish and another type of cheesy snack cracker. Basically, all the kids get an ingredient and dump it into a big bowl. The teacher mixes it up and they share the mix....and they all share the ingredients each other dumped in. Ironic day for Jack learning to be nice to friends :)