March Leftovers

Poor Tate had his spring class pictures the day he came down with the flu.  I noticed his nose was runny that morning but assumed it was allergies, but by the time I picked him up from school, they had noticed his sluggishness and taken his temperature and he had a fever.  Poor guy, look at those glassy eyes.  He would have flashed that killer grin of his if he'd been feeling better.  I love that he was trying.  Bless. 

Wesley did such a great job on the LCS Academic Team this year!  They advanced to regionals where they were inched out of advancing to state by only FIVE points.  Heartbreaker.  We're so proud of this team!  Mrs. Burnette with Kaleigh, Elle, Wesley, Allison and Emilie:

You know you're living in a viral era when your son's formal education involves predicting whether his art teacher Mrs. Johnson or April the giraffe will have her baby first.  I found this pic on LCS's Facebook page. We were rooting for you, Emily!  Speaking of babies, the girls have been anxiously anticipating the arrival of Wynne's baby sister as well.  So many babies this month!

The girls have both been long overdue for their next Mommy/Daughter date, so when I realized we miraculously had both a free Friday and a free Saturday (March 5 & 6), they were all over it.  Carigan got to go first.  She wanted to go to the movies and she wanted to pick the movie herself.  I was hoping she'd pick the new Lego Batman movie, but she was adamant she wanted to see "the puppy movie" she had seen a commercial for.  It was called A Dog's Purpose and it looked really cute in the trailer we watched on YouTube.  It turned out to be a bit intense (alcoholic father... had to explain what "a drunk" was), and a total tearjerker, but the heavier scenes seemed to go right over Carigan's head.  She just liked the cute puppies.  She had her heart set on popcorn and an Icee from Target after the movie, but we walked into Target and discovered the snack bar closes earlier than the store.  She begrudgingly settled for Baskin Robbins: 

Anna Kate was thrilled when I told her that our Mommy/Daughter date would begin with an art project.  I'd forgotten that I had RSVPed to a craft party with my old MOPs crew that Saturday.  We worked on making these family birthday boards, and initially Anna Kate enjoyed the sanding and painting (and snacking), but eventually she got bored and wanted to make sure we had time to shop.  So we'll have to return to Heather's house to finish our art project later.  AK picked dinner at GrillSmith and shopping over a movie. Parents of third grade girls, I now officially know all of your secrets.

Carigan had to miss the 1st and 2nd grade music program this year because I had made reservations months in advance to celebrate Tate's birthday at Disney's Sci-Fi Dine-In that evening.  But they performed the program for the other students in chapel the Tuesday prior (March 14), so I went to chapel and got to see her perform the whole thing.  They sang some sweet worship songs and they were really cute.  Carigan really sang out.  I sat with Wesley during chapel and he video-taped while I took pictures.

While I was at chapel watching Carigan, Tate was being celebrated at preschool.  We took cupcakes to his speech class on Monday and then to his preschool class on Tuesday, and Ms. Kerrie texted me these pictures of the birthday boy sharing his treats.

Tate's homework that week was to fill out this tracing of himself.  It's super-awesome to have big sisters that love to play "baby school" and help you with your homework so I don't have to!  Anna Kate said he did it all himself.  And speaking of artists in the family, Wesley's art work was selected to be displayed on the cover of Sunday's bulletin at Legacy.  The subject for that week was not being a slave to possessions.  As for the giant box, I needed some detangler but didn't feel like going to Walmart. Free two day shipping with minimum purchase means I just need to order as much toilet paper as it takes to get the detangler to appear at my front door. Worked like a charm.  The things I'll do to not have to put on a bra.

Well Mrs. Johnson did in fact beat April the giraffe in the race to deliver!  We got to meet sweet baby Jonah after school one day when we took them a meal.  The kids are all really missing Mrs. Johnson at school, and we're so sad that it looks like they will be moving to Nashville this summer.  Ellie has been one of Anna Kate's best friends and Emily has been a sweet and encouraging teacher.  Praying God blesses them tremendously in their new adventures. 

First Day of Tennis Fun Facts:
1. We were 15 minutes late because I had the lesson time wrong.
2. When Heather called me at 4:00 to see where I was we were gathered around my desktop at home ordering cute little visors and overpriced misting-spray water bottles on Amazon, because that will make us (look) good at tennis.
3. Every single girl in the class has a mom that happens to be one of my best friends.
4. In contrast to Wesley's (extraordinarily more expensive) lessons a few years ago when I had to swelter in the heat as I waited, I got to sit in the shaded and screened area by the pool where I got to hang with some of my favorite people.
5. Susan won't relax until you let her order food for your entire family. She feels very strongly that you should take your hubby a steak.
6. I think the Rogers girls have found their sport. 
(Riley, Taylor, Claire, Tate, Anna Kate, Kerrigan, Selah & Carigan)

The girls were both so smitten that the minute Daddy walked in the door from work, they demanded that he take them to go hit balls.  We just walked to the empty parking lot by the church.  I love their enthusiasm!  Let's hope it lasts.

Anna Kate went to school as Helen Keller today (March 31) to present her biography book report.  Mrs. Nilius texted me this picture of the whole class.  These kids have so much fun at school, and we're so thankful for LCS!

One Last Magical Day in the Kingdom

Our final trip to Magic Kingdom before our passes expire - I get super sad thinking how much bigger they will be the next time we're here!

Being our last trip to Magic Kingdom, we had some important business the attend to ~ new silhouettes! This is the third time we've had the kids' silhouette made during our last Magic Kingdom trip. 

They're growing up before our eyes!  Wesley ages 5, 8 & 11.  Anna Kate ages 3, 6 & 9.  Carigan ages 1, 4 & 7.  And Tate ages 1 & 4.

Wesley had never driven the race cars once on these annual passes - we always take Tate on race cars while Wesley's riding Space Mountain.  Wes didn't want our passes to expire without driving a race car.  Carigan was more interested in snacks.  She was all about riding Barnstormer though.  This was C lecturing me on the way up the hill that she doesn't need me to hold on to her while going down:

I love that we can always spot the other kids cheering us on from the ground.  We always have to take turns riding Barnstormer with the kids because Tate never did warm up to it.  He's still traumatized from that first time Michael forced him on it thinking he'd end up loving it.  No such luck.  Tate still proclaims his love for "slow boats" and his disdain for "fast planes." 

It's been awhile since we rode the Winnie the Pooh ride, so I got a couple fast passes so I could take Tate.  It was cute how eager Wesley was to get to be the one to go with us. All the kids love doting on Tate.  Tate was a bit apprehensive... it's like he couldn't remember if he liked this ride or not so he was going to be prepared for the worst:

One last plunge down Splash Mountain with my girl!  When we exited the ride, we found Daddy sitting in Tate's stroller by the Splash Mountain playground, just scrolling through his phone.  You can tell he's getting a little tired of Disney. Then it was time for one last ride down Thunder Mountain with Wesley and Anna Kate - back row and the fireworks were in full swing!  Great way to say goodbye

Tate was awake and going strong almost until the end!  Wes, AK and I took Tate on Pirates of the Caribbean one last time while Carigan had her turn on Splash Mountain with Daddy (they got soaked).  Our big reason for making sure we made it back to Magic Kingdom by the end of the month was to redeem the FIVE rider swap passes for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train that we racked up last week!  We didn't even use them all!  We went four times in a row and then nobody felt like going again.  You know it's the perfect day at Disney when you have more fast passes for Mine Train than you care to use!  We sat in the very back, and in the very front.

Tate and Carigan both finally crashed, and I took Wesley and Anna Kate on the very LAST ride... and of course it had to be Space Mountain!  And then even though all the attractions were closed and it was nearly midnight, We still couldn't extract Wesley and Anna Kate from the park... Wes was determined to go shopping on Main Street and find his end-of-passes present.  He picked out a big stuffed Stitch and left a happy boy.  Goodbye for now, happiest place on earth!  Thanks for the memories!!

It Ain't Over 'til It's Over

Spring Break isn't over until we say it's over!  Or at least not until 7:30, which I told the kids is the absolute latest we could stay.  The party ends here, my friends...

We arrived just in time for our Fast Pass for Spaceship Earth.  I didn't let the girls change clothes after church, because it would have slowed us down too much, but I told them to change their shoes and told Wes to quickly change into shorts.  Apparently Wesley took that to mean, "Change into shorts and spike your hair." He's loving his Spring Break mohawk. Highlight of Carigan's day was that the melon-flavored Fanta is back in the magical land of free soda:

Epoct has always been Wesley and Anna Kate's favorite because of Test Track and Soarin'.   

Carigan and Tate love this playground at the exit of Mission Space.  They got to play for a long time while Michael rode it twice with Wesley and Anna Kate.  Tate won't go into the top portion of the playground.  His speech is getting so much better (seriously, in the past couple of months we're suddenly understanding pretty much everything he says, which is such a blessing!  He's just had a major explosion in progress with his pronunciation), and he told me clear as a bell, "I'm afraid of heights."  It's becoming pretty clear that his vocabulary has always been advanced, we just never understood what he was trying to say.  Poor guy, no wonder he always got so frustrated with us!  Tate let Carigan help pull him up to that spot, but you can tell he was still a bit nervous up there.  Carigan is such a social little thing... she started chit-chatting with this girl and she just talked her ear off for 15 minutes.  When I told her it was time to go, Carigan nodded and waved nonchalantly chirping, "Okay, bye Arlyn!  See you later!"  I think in this era of of social media kids truly believe everyone is in touch with everyone and they think it's reasonable weeks after an encounter like this to ask me if I can send one of these random stranger's mom a message for them.

The big kids headed back to Test Track, so I took the little ones on the Figment ride. 

As many times as we've been to Disney, we tend to do the same things (at Epcot we always spend most of our time riding all the rides mentioned above), and there are things we totally forget about.  We rediscovered the jumping fountains outside of the old Captain EO theater.  We hadn't played over there in years, and Cariagn and Tate were mesmerized.  Tate laughed and laughed... he thought it was the funniest thing!  

There was a family decked out in full UK gear sitting right by the fountain, and they kept giving me updates on the Elite 8 UK/UNC game in progress.  Anna Kate and I were boarding Soarin' a little bit later when a guy in line watching it live on his phone said UK lost by two in a nail-biter.  Heartbreaking!  Michael said I missed the best part of the day, seeing Tate watching the Disney short films.  He took the other kids while Anna Kate and I rode Soarin' one last time for the day, and he said Tate laughed hysterically.  This is the theater that used to show Captain EO (so glad that closed!) and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (which was awesome and they need to bring back). 

We always bribe the kids out of a Disney park by promising them a slushy on the way home.  Tate starts asking for a "shushy" the minute the sun starts to go down.  The BP at Champion's Gate has 8 slushy flavors and any size is 99 cents.  So of course we get the huge ones.  This time we didn't need gas so Michael pulled up right in front of the convenience store and I decided I need to photo-document how we close out most every Disney day.  Happy memories.  :-)