Third time's the charm: a promotion

Since we've been married, Jim has been promoted three times.  The first time, when we'd been married only a few months, he was promoted (to first lieutenant!  we were such babies!) in front of a squadron formation in the motor pool.  I was there, and I got to pin him, and I turned beet red when the squadron commander instructed Jim to kiss me in front of all the soldiers.  The second time, Jim was deployed to Iraq.  In due time, I got digital photographs of his commander pinning him with his captain's bars.

But the third time's the charm!  And so this time, we decided to have a proper little celebration.  Last week we invited Jim's colleagues from school, our friends from church, and our family to witness Jim's promotion to major.

We gathered in a small library in Jim's department at Stanford.   Even though the day was rainy and miserable, lots of people came to celebrate with us.

Our dear friend John flew in from Hawaii to promote Jim.  We were thrilled to see him, and he did an amazing job.  He explained about Jim's career and awards and he thoughtfully brought some Hawaii with him -- books for the children and gorgeous lei for Jim and me.

being pinned

Like most things at the circus, the ceremony didn't go exactly as planned.  First, John David started wailing, and I had to step out for a bit.  And then, during the reading of the orders, Madeline suddenly needed to be part of what was going on.

Instead of "attention to orders," we're paying attention to Madeline, 

who manages to get what she wants...

After the orders were read, John re-administered the oath to Jim.

Jim had roses for me and sweet bouquets for his "big girls."  They were thrilled.  In fact, they still are.  They love looking at their flowers, which are in mason jars on the china hutch.

Once the "official proceedings" were completed, Jim let the girls change out his epaulets.  They took their job very seriously.

We rounded out our celebrating with dinner at nearby Chicago-style pizzeria.  What better way to celebrate than with delicious, deep dish pizza?   We loved the chance to eat and visit with our family and close friends.

We're proud of you, Daddy!  And we had lots of fun celebrating you and your accomplishments.

Edited to add:  My camera has been missing (who knows where?!) for more than two weeks.  A big thank you to my sweet sister Caroline for all these photographs!  Without them, we'd have no record of the day...