Yesterday was B.'s pinning ceremony. He is now officially a Navy Chief!! I remember when we were first married, living in Hawaii, and he was applying for an officer program. He was trying to explain the Navy and how it worked. I asked what he REALLY wanted by the time he was done with his Navy carrer. Without hesitation he answered, "be a Chief." Nine years, 4 bases, (3kids!!) and LOTS of hard work on his part, here he is!!

E. pinned on one anchor and A, the other. They were so excited to be part of the 'show' where daddy would get his new 'costume'! It all comes back to pretend play in their minds! He'd ordered flowers for all of us to be delivered on stage. He'd picked blue for E and pink for A- of course- but the delivering sailor got them backwards. Well, little miss A set him straight! Everyone laughed and I loved seeing how uninhibited she was on this huge stage with all these people staring at her! I am truly blessed!

And, of course, no entry would be complete without new pictures of my sweet girls! E posing with her BLUE flowers and A wearing the all important Chiefs hat (yes, I know it's a cover, but that always seemed like a riduculous, unnecessary addition to the already overflowing English language). I didn't take many photos b/c they had a Navy photographer there taking loads, so I just enjoyed for the most part, but a friend of mine took a few. Oh, and the weirdest thing. After the reception we went to eat at the Chinese restaurant. We had lots of presents for B, and the waitress assumed it was his birthday. We couldn't seem to get her to understand the truth, so we smiled and clapped as he was serenaded by a chorus of Chinese "Happy Birthday"! It was incredibly surreal- but we'll never forget it!!