A Group Of Stahrs

Eleven

So it’s been close to a month and I am just now getting around to posting about Jamie’s big birthday.  While she is the middle child, that isn’t the reason it’s taken so long to post.  I am having a hard time admitting my girls are getting older and more mature.  Jamie is our emotional little girl who keeps getting older.  It’s hard to just go with it like she is so good at doing.  She’s always gone with the flow of things and has always been easy-going.  So here’s our celebration of her eleventh birthday!

Her actual birthday was on a Thursday this year.  So that meant her birthday celebration ended up being the whole weekend!  She treated her class to chocolate fudge popsicles, ordered up spaghetti and meatballs (no sauce, thank you) for supper, and her peanut butter cake with peanut butter buttercream for her star cake complete with 11 candles.

After eating (fast), skyping with Pop Pop to sing and enjoy a (fast) few bites of cake and to open presents, we had to head to drum lessons.  Thursdays are pretty busy around here.  This is her official birth minute photo after lessons…

Friday she opened a few more presents that arrived a little late.  Seriously, it couldn’t have been better since she was already planning on the whole weekend of celebrating!  Dad took her to Boondocks for her birthday date and to Olive Garden for lunch.

We had her actual party at Sky Trampoline where we jumped for 2 hours and then came home to pizza and her star-shaped cake.  She wanted to share a “big star” with her friends.  She also ordered up some chocolate chips to go with the peanut butter cake/buttercream.

We also go a few shots of her being 11 years old.  She chose the pretty dress she received from the Laughrey’s for her photos.  I think it goes great with her teal glasses!

And just one to keep it real around here.  Turning 11 didn’t change a thing…

We love you, sweet girl.  We hope it was a fun birthday!

Christmas with Pop Pop

Pop Pop was here for nearly 2 weeks and the only thing I’ve posted so far was of the him at the girls’ choir program.  So here is the rest of Pop’s visit.

First when he got here we treated him to a (late) birthday celebration with some shoo fly cake, singing, and presents…

Aside from Christmas shopping, normal errands (such as taking the kids to and from school), and just normal playing with Pop Pop, we also went to Garden of the Gods and walked around for a bit one nice afternoon…Jacob had held, “Goat” and everyone looked like there was really a mountain goat on the rock.

We also had a Christmas celebration.  Pop Pop went way overboard but the kids enjoyed everything!

It took Pop Pop almost 5 hours to wrap all of his gifts.  But it only took about 10 minutes for the kids to tear it apart.  I’m pretty sure this made up the difference in time…We had a lovely time.  It was a great visit.  We can’t wait until next time!

Ten on Tuesday

1.  I had to attend a seminar on advanced gum paste flowers this weekend in Denver.  I had so much fun. 

If you want to see the pictures of the flowers I made you can go the business blog…stahrscakes.com!

2.  Jacob is class leader tomorrow in school.  What that means is he gets to be line leader, helper in the class, provide snack for his friends, and share a favorite toy.  He’s hoping to stump his class with his three clues as to what his favorite toy is.  He didn’t stump his class last month.  They are pretty good clues this time!

3.  We have parent/teacher conferences tomorrow afternoon.  Mazie’s is up first and then Jamie’s.  I can’t wait to hear what their teachers have to say.  I can’t believe our first term is over already.

4.  That means that we have Fall break starting on Friday.  Two weeks of rest and relaxation, right?  I’m thinking it’s not going to be that easy…

5.  One thing we are doing is going to Minnesota!  What’s in Minnesota, you ask?  Well, besides being the Land of 10,000 lakes, the Killins live there.  We are so excited about seeing them! (the Killins, not the lakes) 😉

6.  Jeremiah is off work starting Thursday!

7.  We are getting a new roof on Thursday.  The house will be painted shortly after!  I can’t decide on a slate blue shade or a sage green shade.  I want to keep my door and porch swing red.  Anyone want to add their opinion?

8.  Max is going to be boarded while we are in Minnesota.  It will be the first time she is away from us since bringing her home.  I’m a little nervous about this but hope she will have fun with her new dog friends.

9.  The kennel has an iPhone app so we can check on her.  That makes me feel a little better.

10.  Just in case you were wondering, there are only 51 days until Thanksgiving and 82 days until Christmas!  Start planning now.

Happy Tuesday.

Hero Day

In honor of today, I decided to post the pictures from Hero Day on Friday.  The whole ceremony was amazing.  The choir (Ursa Major-Mazie’s choir) sang a few songs including the National Anthem.  The first graders sang a lovely song.  The second graders also sang a wonderful song.  The students presented the firefighters (which our neighbor-the lieutenant of Ladder 17-was the only one there), the police officers, and the military with banners complete with signatures from all the students.  It really was great to see the Odyssey community come together like that.

On our way in, the Pinwheels for Peace were displayed along the fence.  Apparently schools throughout the country are doing this.  Pretty spectacular if you ask me!

After the ceremony (didn’t take my flash so no pictures of the ceremony), Jacob quickly found dad among the large number of military present…not a great picture but you get the point…

Then it was onto the parade of Heroes…

The students made handmade cards for the heroes.  The heroes were given bags to collect all the cards.  I know what it means to Jeremiah to read these great cards.  I also know that it means so much to the heroes who received them.

And one of my hero with his biggest fans!

Mazie asked what really happened on this day 10 years ago.  I have recorded a dateline special for the kids to watch because I can’t put it into words that would make her get the magnitude of the events that went on that day.  She and Jamie also have asked what I was doing that day when it was all happening.  I remember it so very clearly.  I had just gotten to work that morning.  I worked at Dr. Chatterji’s office (a GI specialist).  His wife happened to be at work already and just turned on the news like she did every morning.  She turned it on just in time for us to see the plane crash into the second World Trade Center tower.  We couldn’t believe what we were seeing.  Dr. Chatterji had heard a report that a plane was heading to the Sears tower where their son worked.  So Mrs. Chatterji was trying to call her son while I watched in disbelief.  I was also very pregnant with Mazie at the time.  A million things went through my head all at the same time.  How could this be happening?  How does this change things?  Why?  What was going to happen now?  What was happening to all those people in the towers?  What about their families?  It was surreal and I was thankful Jeremiah was locked down on base.

I am thankful for all the Heroes who were directly and indirectly helping that day and since that day.  I am thankful.

Ten On Tuesday

1.  The kids have two weeks left of summer break.  That’s right they start school August 2 and they are so excited.

2.  Jacob is the most excited of all.  He gets another month at home with Mama while the girls are at school.  He doesn’t start until September.  I have a feeling he will be the most ready for 3:30pm that first day too!

3.  School starting for the kids means that the academic year will begin at the AF Academy.  Maybe the hours will change just enough that we will see Jeremiah home more often.

4.  Funny how in June we were all ready for him to go back to work.  I’ll admit that I was ready for him to go back to work but not to the complete opposite extreme.

5.  I really wish my brother and fam could visit.  I think he would love to see Colorado and I really would love to see my niece (and her mama and dad!). 

6.  That’s not to say I don’t miss the rest of my family.  Just sayin’.

7.  Jamie told the funniest story of how she was being chased by gorillas.  While running away from them, she found a house of smaller monkeys who helped her out.  It was really a funny story.  When we were finished laughing, she calmly said, “That’s what my nightmare was about last night.”  We just started laughing again.  Nice nightmare!

8.  Mazie’s bangs have finally grown out to the point where she can have her hair all one length.  She’s been parting it down the middle.  I think it makes her look older but I can’t say that or she will just keep wearing it like that for spite.  Yep, we’re in that stage now.

9.  Jacob has some mad dance moves.  If you have seen the movie Despicable Me, he reminds me of the character Vector.  Seriously, I should record him sometime.  It’s goes with his singing too.  No one can keep a straight face when he starts either one. 

10.  The kids have a dentist appointment tomorrow and are so excited about going.  I love that.  Their dentist is awesome.  I wish I were as excited about going to my appointment on Friday.  My dentist is awesome too but I still strongly dislike going.

Happy Tuesday!

Miniature Golfing

We decided to take the kids mini golfing this weekend.  It’s our first time doing it with the kids.  They were so excited to go!  There were three courses so we decided to push our luck completely and just go for it all.

Jacob did pretty well considering he had no idea why he was so excited to be doing something he knew nothing about.  The putter was green and he was able to pick a green ball.  He was set!

He made it about four holes before deciding that his hand worked better.  Quite honestly he did go a little faster when he helped the ball along with his hand.

Mazie was a little bummed at the fact she never made a hole-in-one but she did a great job at concentrating.

Jamie was so excited about going golfing…

In fact, she was the only child who did get a hole-in-one.  It was on the next to last hole of the last course!  She was so proud…

They had fun and were pretty good considering the crazy heat we were in…

This is an outing we will do again…just give mom and dad a little time to recover after 36 holes and kids!

Ten On Tuesday: The Academy

1.  So the basic cadets arrived at the Academy on Thursday.  In honor of the new class of gold, I’m posting pictures of our visit to the Academy with Pop Pop.  The kids thought the footprints were funny…

2.  Jacob’s face is hilarious.  Like he understood he would be yelled at if he were there for training…

3.  Jamie is just too adorable to be yelled at, right?

4.  I could see Mazie being the Yell-er instead of the Yell-ee…

5.  We made our way to Jeremiah’s office where Jamie found Jeremiah’s old cadet hat.  She decided to pose…

6.  I was never in the library any time I visited Jeremiah while he was at USAFA.  Jacob was happy to see the airplanes at the top of the stairwell…

7.  The kids with Pop Pop…

8.  Jacob couldn’t wait to get to the airfield.  He needed to stand near the plane.

9.  And the chapel, of course…

10.  This one is for all the 99ers out there.  The class of 2015 is also a gold year.

Happy Tuesday!