Spork's a Star!

The next Lady Samurai who will be having a baby is Deb Warner (pictured below in the red patterned sun dress.) She is super sweet, funny and laid back and we enjoy cracking How I Met Your Mother jokes during our weekly lunch dates at the O Club so I volunteered to help host her baby shower on the 28th. We wanted to throw a very original and fun baby shower, and so we decided to throw a classy evening shower that felt more like a cocktail party than your typical shower. Deb and her husband Mark are waiting until the baby is born to find out if it's a boy or a girl, so we went with a nice, neutral theme with a moon and star motif. Our accent colors were blue and yellow - very appropriate for the newest member of the Samurai since those are our squadron colors. Deb and Mark also have a running joke about their baby being like a spork (hybrid between a spoon and fork) since it's a mix of the two of them - so my friend Beth brilliantly suggested we entitle the evening Spork's a Star! It works since his/her parents are both talented people with big personalities. We all know this kid's going places! B^)

Putting all of the elements together was so fun! Since it's finally starting to cool down a bit, we had it outside with lots of candles and white Christmas lights casting a glow on all of our blue and yellow decorations.

We had people cast their votes for what they think the baby will be with sporks! The picture frame in the background was painted by my friend Lisa. It's a picture of Deb and Mark's joyful reunion after the last deployment.

Usually at our squadron baby showers we present the guest of honor with a beautiful diaper cake - a decorative way to provide them with a necessary gift. However, none of us really knew how to make one, and Deb is a very no-fuss person. So instead of trying to make a big, frilly tiered thing, I jokingly made her a diaper sheet cake. She loved it!

The food that night was incredible. One of our resident chefs, Kate Vella, put together an impressive spread of summer veggies, fruit, and grilled gourmet pizzas. Mmmm!

Deb and Mark are also known for their deep love of sugar cereals, so as party favors Rachel put together assorted bags of cereal with a spork. So cute!

Normally my friend Sharon makes a stunning themed cake for events like this, but as she just had a baby a couple of days ago, I volunteered to make dessert. These cupcakes are not nearly as pretty as Sharon's pastry masterpieces, but they tasted good and the little star shaped sprinkles I found gave them all a personal touch!

It was kind of difficult finding gender neutral gifts for their baby, but leave it to the incredibly creative women in our squadron to find all kinds of wonderful goodies for this mother-to-be. Our friend Anna Kenkel always makes the funniest custom onesies. There was a lot of giggling going on out there last night... =^)

The best part of the night was when we played a special video of Deb's husband singing that he had secretly recorded for her. She had no idea that he had been working with us to put that together and was so touched she cried. A bunch of us did as well. We can't wait till they come home!!

We rounded out the night with a good game of spoons played with sporks instead. It's a card game where you pass cards around the circle and try to get two pairs. When you do, you grab a spoon (or in our case a spork) and the last person in the circle to grab for one of the remaining spoons is out. Again, lots of laughter all around. Afterward we made sure to take a picture of the losers over on our own separate blanket. I love these ladies, they are so funny!

Over all the night was a great success and Deb really appreciated all of the thought we put into every little tiny detail. =^) It was a magical night of twinkly lights and big dreams for the future. Looking forward to meeting their little rock star in October!

Pictures from our Japanese Fans!

Here are scans of the pictures the Japanese people took of us and then gave us copies. I love the one of me in front of the jet. B^)

Yokota Air Show

This past weekend I hopped on a train with a few of the other wives from our squadron down to Yokota Air Base outside of Tokyo to help our guys out at the big air show down there. Air shows are HUGE in Japan and thousands of Japanese nationals turn up each year to see the jets and meet the pilots. The guys ordered a bunch of tee shirts, patches and other swag to sell as a fundraiser and needed our help as they knew their booth would be swamped. Of course, it was a fun opportunity for us to see them while they are deployed! =^)

On Friday night, the base hosted a big meet-n-greet with free food and drinks at the O Club for all of the visiting pilots and their families. We had fun talking to people from all over the Pacific Air Force, and even enjoyed attempting to converse with local Japanese pilots. They spoke very little English so we didn't say much but they got a big kick out of the guys' party head bands. They also complimented all of us wives on how beautiful we are (standard in Japan - they are fascinated by our pale skin, light hair and long eyelashes!)

On Saturday, we set out early to set up our booth in front of the jets on the flight line. It was unbelievably hot and humid out there so we were thankful for the shade of our canopy. By the end of the day our clothes were completely soaked and we had a garbage bag full of empty water bottles. Some of the Japanese people took pity on us and gave us their fans, which helped a little bit as we stood behind our tables. Regardless of how sweaty and miserable we were, it was 100% worth it.

I have never experienced anything like this air show. We were prepared for the crowds and for how quickly all of our stuff would be bought up, but I don't think we realized that WE would be the biggest attraction! All of the Japanese people had huge cameras and couldn't get enough pictures of us. We felt like celebrities posing for the paparazzi as they crowded around behind the barriers and snapped photo after photo. The guys were incredibly gracious and posed for picture after picture with excited fans, and signed the tee shirts and things they sold. James not-so-secretly enjoyed being in the spotlight and feeling like a rock star. We were highly amused by the fact that several men wanted to get a picture of their wives with a pilot, or of themselves with one or more of us girls.

One of the coolest things about the air show was how excited the Japanese people were to share with us. Many of them came up on Sunday and gave us prints of the stunning photos they had taken of the guys landing on Friday and us at in front of the jets on Saturday. Typically they gave us one copy and then asked us to autograph their copy. Other people came up with shirts and photos that had been signed by the guys in our squadron last year and wanted to see if they were here again and meet the new pilots.

Another fun part of the day was seeing all of the adorable little Japanese kids! I'd be lying if I said that we girls didn't get a touch of adoption fever watching all of them pass by. My favorite story of the weekend concerns one little boy and his dad who talked to James for a bit. The dad had printed out questions about planes written in English and helped his son sound out the words so he could talk to a pilot. We still laugh about the fact that the first question he wanted to ask was: "Can women fly airplanes too?"

Toward the end of the day on Saturday, the guys opened up the canopy on one of the jets and allowed people to come up in small groups to get up-close-and-personal with the F-16. I've never seen a line form so fast!

After we closed up shop on Saturday at 6:00, we hurried back to the hotel, showered and got all dressed up for a nice dinner out. Of course, by the time we were ready to go we were ravenously hungry and too impatient to look for an off-base restaurant. So we feasted in our finery at Chili's. Burgers and ribs never tasted so good!

Sunday was very similar to Saturday - lots of people, pictures and sweat! However, at 2:00 that afternoon they pushed all of the crowds back for a couple of hours so that a few of the planes could take off for home. Because we were authorized personnel we didn't have to leave so we took advantage of having the jet to ourselves to take some fun pictures. One of the guys had the brilliant idea of having us girls pose up on the wing of one of the jets - something that would be very difficult to orchestrate at home. The Japanese people could see us from where they were lined up behind the barrier and you better believe that all of their cameras were pointed at us. I heard that many of them are planning on coming up to our air show here at Misawa in September. I am looking forward to seeing how many of them got shots of us up there with their ridiculous zoom lenses!!

After we'd had our fun with the jet, we walked around to see the other planes. There were a lot of "heavy" cargo planes and helicopters across from us, and other Navy, Japanese and Air Force flighter planes. The real stars of the air show were the F-22 guys. Apparently the line just to get up to their booth and meet them or buy something was super long. I still prefer the Viper though. B^)

That night after the air show was over, we got cleaned up and actually made an effort to venture off base to find a place to eat. The area outside of Yokota is surprisingly not a great place to hang out - very shops and restaurants. But after a lot of walking we found a good Chinese restaurant. Very strange. Dinner ended just in time to catch the end of the festival closing fireworks.

It was a great weekend - hard work, but an experience I will never forget!