Stars like the sun and others more massive end their lives with more of a bang than a whimper and are responsible for a number of remarkable events and "leftovers" in the universe. I will discuss how stars form, evolve, and end their lives. More importantly, aside from the beautiful nebulae they leave behind, such processes enrich the interstellar medium with heavy elements that are the seeds of new stars and planetary systems. Indeed, each of us are made up of elements formed in early generations of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy and are truly "children of the stars!"