Big Weekend - Jump Master Graduation and McP Girl Birthday Bash

This week we celebrated Jon graduating the Jump Master course and then had a big birthday bash for all the girls.  Jump Master took 3 weeks with lots of blisters for Jon and fun study sessions at night where I quizzed him on all things parachute.  Lets just say I am glad he passed and we won't have to go through that again.  We learned all about universal static lines and pull tabs and what seemed like 300 other elements that need to be inspected before you jump out of an airplane with your military parachute.  Jon has successfully pushed someone out of an airplane after inspecting him! 

Birthday Bash!!

For the girls birthday we had another triple party.  They chose to have a Doc McStuffins.  We made doctor kit bags for each kid and they had band aides, gloves, pencils, notepads, bubbles and tic-tac's.  The girls chose the material for the bags so some were purple with pink polka dots others blue with white polka dots and the last set was orange with yellow polka dots.  We had a bounce house at the beach and a pirate ship right up the hill so the kids had fun running around and playing for a few hours.  A friend made the birthday cake and it was amazing!!! She made us a Lambie cupcake cake.  Knowing that we would be out at the beach I only planned on one game - pin the band aide on Chilly.   I made a poster board with chilly and while I was upstairs getting ready the girls flipped it over and made their own.  They did a pretty good job so we just used their Chilly instead of mine.  After playing with our friends and having fun at the beach we headed up to our cabin on the beach.  The girls requested to stay in a hotel for their present and we taught the cabins would be fun.  Lets just say the girls really enjoyed them but as parents there are some things that can be a little unsettling - like a loft with just a ladder and super uncomfortable mattresses!

 

Molly thought Jon deserved man lipstick or a shiny hammer - we settled for a cookie cake

Dinner - all the food I learned to cook in Thailand

Making Chilly for our game

Setting up for the party

Testing out the bounce house before friends arrived

Fun times

Food!

Lunch with Friends!

I will stick with daddy!

The cake!!! So fun

Between the pirate ship and the bounce house the kids kept moving

Celebrating the life of 3 amazing girls

She loved bouncing on the stair part more than being in the bouncer

Friends

Lots of kids

Bubbles the best medicine

Successful game of pin the band aide on Chilly

Post party fun

Chillin at the cabin

Awesome mattress - glad we got to sleep upstairs??

Mommy Kelly is climbing

But alas none could get down without daddy rescuing them

Dinner!!

The view from our cabin

a doctor kit with its added fun

no nap + tons of fun + sunset walk on beach= exhausted!!

Story time with the Ipad

Breakfast - crazy how big they are getting!

Molly is 5!!!

Today we celebrated our baby girl turning 5.  So crazy to believe that 5 years ago we were living in Alaska and Jon was getting ready to deploy for a year and we had just become parents.  For the past 5 years we have been praying for her to be fearless - 2 Tim 1:7.  She is such a joy and is an amazing little lady.  Her love of following rules and helping others follow those rules are great to watch.  She loves her sisters so much and making sure that everyone is included.  She is good at sharing which is good since she has a great desire to shop.  Here are some fun pictures from the past 2 days of celebrating her life.  We are having their birthday party this weekend for the girls and are excited to celebrate all three amazing girls God has blessed us with.

 

 

Top Molly
Middle Riley
Bottom Kelly
Pictures of the girls on Jon's uniform with his unit patches (so I can remember where they were born)

Last day of being 4

Year of the Horse!

Driving her sisters around already

The chimp threw his poop all over the girls

So we let his stone brother know we don't like have poop thrown on us

Happy Birthday!!!!!!

Getting ready for a day of celebrating our special oldest child!

Donuts and juice - brought some to her classmates

Played at the beach before school

Dressed up for her birthday dinner at Chili's

Excited to eat on her special day plate!

Daddy got her a panda purse - she named it Bob Hope.
Next year she will be going to Bob Hope Primary and they are the pandas
School was named after the comedian Bob Hope who visited on USO tours.

Dessert!!!!

Loved celebrating her life today!

Everyone got to wear new PJ's!

Storytime with daddy.  Best way to end each day!

Valentine's Day and Strong Bond Retreat

This weekend we celebrated Valentine's Day with a Strong Bond Retreat.  Jon got to lead 20 families in his unit in ways to make their marriage THRIVE during deployment.  We stayed at another amazing hotel that had at least 15 pools some indoor some outdoor , a public bath and a spa.  As always when going to new locations on the island we find things that should be normal but still throw us for a loop - like a platform with chairs on the ground that move for pull out beds.  We got to the hotel early so Jon could run over a few things so the girls and I went swimming for a few hours.  There is one interesting thing about places of "culture" and that would be its artwork.  For instance the pool had a dome ceiling with a painting across the entire thing filled with mostly naked people.  Kelly kept looking up and laughing while the other two would point out and yell very loudly what they were looking at and then pointing out that we don't show other people our privates.  Lets just say I am glad that the pool attendant didn't speak English to know what the girls were giggling about - I know this because the 2 of us tried to communicate with each other with zero success.  After a few hours in the pool we went back to the room to shower and get ready for a fun filled night. 

The hotel wanted to make dinner special and boy was it!!!  It was a buffet of uncooked meat!  That is right you would go up to the buffet line get your uncooked meat and take it to your table and cook it on the table top.  Great idea for a date night - not as great for a date night with the kids:)  Molly who loves fire and cooking was super excited.  Riley who cried the entire time we ate at a restaurant where you cooked the meal at your table with fire - well she did the same thing again.   Jon was doing a lot with the retreat so the girls and I had a blast cooking the food and having a good time.  After dropping the girls off for child care we had a date night walking around the hotel, seeing the sights and watching a eisa drum show.

Today Jon taught the families how to THRIVE during deployment.  It was a great time to meet other families in the unit, hang out at an amazing hotel and just relax as a family.

Molly showing Kelly the acceptable hand gesture here - all the kids in preschool do it mom!

kid sized seating - for adults??

Indoor Pool!
Again with the international sign of take my picture

having fun on the stairs

An "indoor patio" where Molly chose to sleep

Outdoor patio

Family Dinner 

I love cooking the meat!

I hate fire! No fire! 

Blury but this is what dinner looked like for us

 At one point I went to get some more rice and other pre cooked things for the girls but left a plate of raw beef I wasn't ready to cook.  I probably should have done things different but left the girls to get it and came back to find Kelly chewing on the raw beef that she managed to grab.  She didn't get sick but still don't think I want her eating raw meat.

Cooking the meat

Watching the Eisa Drum show

Super excited to wear the hotel PJ

Thought she was so big sleeping by herself on the indoor patio