Children's Birthday Ball

The Marine Corps Birthday is on November 10, but this past Saturday, there was a Children's Marine Corps Birthday Celebration on base! It was such a fun event - and such a great idea! The Marine Corps takes their birthdays pretty seriously, so it's only fitting that they would have a celebration for kids - on their level! 235 years of the Marine Corps....

The Cake...

The Kilian Family waiting for the cake cutting ceremony (traditionally, the first piece of cake is always presented to the oldest Marine and the youngest Marine, so in this case, they presented it to the oldest kid there and the youngest kid there - and Kendall Kilian was the youngest - yay)!!
The General and SgtMaj
Before the National Anthem....
The General giving a little speech to the kids on the Marine Corps Birthday ....

Going to see the fire truck!! Such fun for Jake!!!
Fireman Jake!
He just wanted to stand, though - he didn't want to sit in one of the seats :-)
Cole checking it out....
So happy...
Military working dog show .... really awesome! These dogs are so smart! Unbelievable!
This was bouncy house #1 .... to make a long story short - earlier in the day, Jake was inside of this with a TON of older kids - and the thing collapsed. Chris wasn't with us yet, so ... all these parents are rushing to get their kids out of there and kids were crying, etc., and I was borderline freaking out! So, I eventually had to set Cole down on the ground, b/c I was going to climb in and find Jake. As I was doing that, I realized that he had been pulled out by someone on the other side, so I turned around to pick Cole back up - and he wasn't there (again, freaking out), but thankfully Chris had walked up right when all of this was happening, saw me put Cole down, and grabbed him. Needless to say, I made Jake just play in bouncy house #2 after this happened!!
Bouncy house #2 :-)
Jake putting on some cammies!
And getting to hold the leash for Hummer!
Jake was sooooooooooooooooo excited about this! :-)
Look at him!
So CUTE!


Daddy and Jake - dressed alike!
Playing some games....
bowling...
Cole with Daddy....
and Jake :-)

Cake cutting ceremony video....

Some videos from the Military Working Dog show....

(what you aren't seeing in this video is the end - where the dog tackles him .... and doesn't let go until given a command - and once he gets the command, he stops. So cool)!!

(and here are some recruits in the background training) ....

NOW, after all of that .... you probably feel like you were there with us :-)

Parris Island Harvest Festival

Last night was the Parris Island Fall/Harvest Festival - and the fact of the matter is that there were 5 bouncy houses (yes, 5!), so Jake couldn't contain his excitement from the time the car stopped! :-) We had some good weather - and although the bugs were HORRIBLE, it was fun having "Miss Ashleigh" come along with us - and Daddy was able to come over after work, too! Here are some of the highlights .....

Jake's favorite bouncy house! It was filled with bigger kids (because it had the fastest slide), so I encouraged Jake to pick 1 of the other 4 that were there, but he INSISTED on this one, so I just told him that if he got knocked down, to just get back up. I'm pretty sure he held his own - he was SO happy and excited .... and every time he'd go down the slide, he would be looking to make sure that "Miss" Ashleigh, Mommy, and Cole were watching :-)

Jake going down the slide....


Cole taking it all in with "Miss" Ashleigh. Cole was a huge fan of the dog on top of this bouncy house, too!
Jake getting his face painted and stamped!

Showing off his SPIDER WEB!
Yay! Daddy came :-) Cole was so happy!

Jake was, too, once he noticed from inside the bouncy house that Daddy was there ....

Jake trying to go back in for more (oh, and he had to ditch the Thomas costume while in the bouncy house, b/c it was hindering his jumping efforts) :-)
Sweet Elise :-)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this girl!!!!!!!






Trying hard for a family picture :-)
BUT it's just so hard to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time - ha! :-)
We ran into Elise and Eliana, so we were trying to get the 4 of them in their costumes, but that wasn't happening, either :-) Too many distractions!

Funny story, but Thomas is a kid favorite by far, so people were saying hi to Thomas (aka Jake) all night, and some kid ran up and kind of punched (but not in a mean way - the kid was just excited) Jake's Thomas head (that sticks out), so it was kind of funny - and Jake wasn't quite sure what to think - and this was the face he was making. You probably had to be there, but it was HILARIOUS!

Having so much FUN!
Now, off to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball for Children this morning. Another fun day ahead - and I think some more bouncy houses!