Congratulations

15 short years ago we looked at someone wearing the silver oak leaf and thought, "wow, they're really important." Now Ted has his own silver leaves--making him important now, too. He would humbly say he's not that important, but we all know better.

Unfortunately, all of our pictures from the promotion ceremony are blurry--somehow my camera focus settings had been switched to manual focus--argh! Peggy or Liz, where were you when I needed you? Ted promises me that we will soon have pictures from the official photographer, so hopefully we can post more from the ceremony in the future, but above is us at home immediately afterwards--before the kids dashed off to change into play clothes.

No pictures, though, will be able to demonstrate the singing and commotion that Lucy made throughout the event--she was a hoot. Luckily it was our ceremony, so we weren't bothered, and she's 2, so she is allowed to act a little goofy. I just figured that the sweet, singing noises were much better than the loud, miserable wails that we could have been hearing from a little girl who was awake during her normal nap time. Eventually, though, the lack of a nap caught up with her, and this is how I found her around 5:30

while everyone else was helping themselves to yummies

and eating

Brisket, potato salad (thanks Stacey), cole slaw, watermelon, rice krispie treats (thanks Heather), cookies, brownies (again, thanks Stacey), and Ted's homemade ice cream--YUM!