The Kassel Family Project Life 365

We went to downtown Columbia to watch the Salute to Veterans Parade.  We were joined by the Lowery family and the Adams family.  As always, the kids loved the parade!  Of all that we saw in the parade, I was struck the most by the World War II veterans.  They fought in a war that started 71 years ago and there are few veterans from that war still with us today.  They were driven through the parade by the Corvette Club and the entire crowd was clapping and cheering.  I had goose bumps watching it all.  God Bless all our veterans and active duty military.  I am extremely thankful and appreciative of all that you do and sacrifice for this great country.

We had our annual Memorial Day Weekend barbecue this evening.  Great old friends along with some new friends were here to enjoy the “beginning” of summer.  By the end of the evening, the kids’ room and our family room looked like a tornado ripped through them.  Seven kids do a lot of damage!  🙂  I wouldn’t trade ANY of it even though it took me nearly an hour to clean it all up!  We had a great evening full of lots of laughs, great conversation, and overall fun.  Us Kassels really do know some great people!

Andy and our friend, Shawn, took John and Laura to the 24th Annual Salute to Veterans Airshow.  They all had a great time despite the oppressive heat and a bit of sunburn.  Laura’s favorite part of the airshow was seeing the F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighter and the sky divers.  John’s favorite part was the Lima Lima Flight Team and the F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighter.  Laura watched intently as one of the Canadian Skyhawks Sky Diving team repacked his parachute.  John just enjoyed everything despite saying, “We can go now.  It’s over.” after the F/A-18 had made a few passes.  He was done with the loud noise!   John does have his picture in the Columbia Missourian newspaper (his is one of five photos) while watching the F/A-18.  He was covering his ears and gazing skyward.  It was another successful trip to the Salute to Veterans Airshow!  If any of you are ever in town over Memorial Day, we’ll take you.  It’s quite an impressive experience.

Boyfriends come and go, but these women, your sisters, will always be here. -Me on Sigma Lambda Sigma Senior Night, December 1995

While I don’t actually talk to my sorority sisters on the phone, I am friends with many of them on Facebook.  We talk back and forth, comment on pictures, etc. all the time.  It’s just a different form of communication these days, but we are all still around for each other.  Today, one of my best and favorite sisters, Carol Rakestraw Tisdale, came for a visit with her husband, Shawn.  They arrived tonight and what fun it was chatting the night away and drinking a bit.  While the conversation has matured and the drinks have “sort of” changed – it was wine, but NOT Boone’s Farm, it was still just Carol and I (and the husbands somewhere in the background).  It was just like we saw each other yesterday.  Some friendships just never get old.

Laura M. Kassel, First Grader!!!!

Laura finished Kindergarten today.  To celebrate, Andy and I picked her up from school and took her to Cold Stone Creamery, her favorite ice cream place.  After that, we went home and combed through the mass of papers she brought home from school.  Among them were her “Favorite Memories” book and her very first Yearbook complete with signatures from her classmates and various Ridgeway teachers and staff.  Today was bittersweet for us…  She’s growing up too fast.

While running in place, Laura asked Andy and I, “When we stop for lunch at the picnic place next week on our way to South Carolina, can we stop somewhere that John and I can exercise our bodies?”

I admit I’m insane.  Roughly a year ago, we bought the kids Zhu Zhu Pet Hamsters.  Laura’s Zhu Zhu is pink and white and John’s Zhu Zhu is black and white.  Now, initially these things are cute.  However, it does not take long to be annoyed by the Zhu Zhu squeak.  I’m not sorry to say that they got “lost” at the bottom of the kids’ toy box.  I plead the Fifth on whether I had something to do with the “disappearance.”  Unfortunately, the kids dumped out the toy box this weekend and rediscovered these things.  Now, I’m forced to listen to them make their noises because the kids think they are awesome and carry them everywhere.  Laura even made them a house from an old tissue box and covers them up every night with blankets made from burp cloths.  Yes, I love her imagination, but I could do without the Zhu Zhu squeak!