April Tidbits

Just my end-of-the-month round up of pictures from my phone... Carigan and I got to hear Gracia Burnham speak at Heritage on a Sunday evening earlier this month.  I remember there being discussion of Gracia and her husband on K-LOVE when they were still being held captive.  It was tremendous to hear her speak and to witness God's faithfulness in her life.  Michael was at Disney (taking Wesley and Anna Kate to Hollywood Studios one last time) and Tate went to the nursery, so Carigan felt really special for being the only kid that got to hear Gracia speak.  We got a signed copy of her book and Carigan read the first few pages out loud to me on the drive home from church.

Sometimes I manage to sneak a pic of a candid moment like this.  Carigan is so sweet reading to Tate all the time (and this is one of my favorite books from when I was little)!  Mrs. Palm told us that Carigan scored a 4.2 (second month of 4th grade) on her Star Reading assessment, and she walked up to my window at carline to tell me how gifted a reading score that is for a 1st grader.  Ever since then, Carigan will not stop reading.  It really lit a fire under her to read non-stop.  She's so proud of herself!  -BELOW- Tate was out sick for March chapel at Little Shepherds, and missed his big chance to go up on stage and have everyone sing happy birthday to him and the other kids with a March birthday.  So Ms. Darcie & Ms. Kerrie let him go up on stage during chapel this month with the kids that have an April birthday.  This was it... the big one... the moment he's been waiting for all year!  Can you tell he was excited?!  Both Mommy & Daddy were there to witness his big moment: 

Selah rode with us to the girls' second week of tennis... and this time we were prepared.  Not only did we know the correct start time for tennis, but our special visors and misting water bottles had arrived from Amazon.  Now they can play some serious tennis.

Sun 'n Fun was in full swing, and The Blue Angels were thundering over our heads, shaking the whole sky while the girls played tennis - It was a pretty spectacular show!  This time we brought swimsuits and the girls got to swim after their lesson.  Claire, Anna Kate and Riley.^

I flew to Little Rock on the 11th, and didn't get home until close to midnight right before Easter, so we dyed eggs on the 10th before I left.  I miss my black granite topped island from the old house... we could do anything on it!  I'm not a fan of the butcher block island here, because we can't use Sharpie or paint sitting there, and we definitely can't splosh dye on it!  So we took our operation outside. 

Jacquie and I celebrated her birthday at Harry's when I got back from Arkansas.  We failed to take a picture while out to lunch, so we settled for a selfie on the porch when we got back.  -BELOW- Wesley's friend Jacob is obsessed with pandas, and it's rubbed off on his friends a bit.  Hyatt, Jacob & Wesley have been counting down the days until this movie release on the 21st!  Luckily it also happened to be a teacher work day, so Jason took the boys to the movie while the girls and I ran Tate to speech.

Anna Kate had a field trip to City Hall on Thursday the 27th and learned all about city government.  I saved the photos above from the city of Lakeland's Facebook page.  Parents weren't allowed to accompany the kids on their field trip downtown, but we did get to meet them at Barnett Park when it was over for a picnic lunch.  Both Wesley and Carigan were home sick (we've been hit majorly hard with illness this spring... it's been kinda unreal), so I left them home briefly and walked to the park to meet Anna Kate while Tate was at preschool.  We finally got a picture of Wynn & Anna Kate with Wynn's baby sister Noel. We've been waiting for all of us to get well before attempting to go visit her at her house, and sadly, that hasn't happened yet since she's been born.
 

I sent Wesley to school Friday, but he was completely run down by the time he got home.  It wasn't looking promising for our Swan Derby just an hour or so before we walked on down to Lake Mirror, but both of the boys perked up. 

Anna Kate missed the Swan Derby because she was at a play date at Marin's with Marin, Ellie, and Lydia.  They swam and painted (Anna Kate said Heather should take Emily's place as the art teacher at LCS because she's amazing).  We're super sad that Ellie and family are moving to Nashville... Ellie has been one of AK's best friends and Emily has been our most adored art teacher ever.  It's a sad thing.  Thanks to Heather for texting me these pics!  Wesley and Anna Kate were looking all dapper on Saturday for their Student Day piano competition:

The girls spent the final day of April at a birthday bash for Isabel at Pump It Up in Brandon.  Sweet Isabel, she's been such a rock star battling a kidney disease that was diagnosed just after Christmas.  She's had a rough go of it so far in 2017, and she deserved an awesome birthday party!  We love you, Isabel!

Swan Derby 2017

Carigan's Chandler smile was out in full force at the Swan Derby this year. 

Anna Kate was sad to miss the Swan Derby, but she would have been sadder to miss a play date with all her best friend at Marin's house, so she'll make up for it next year.  We missed her (and by we I mean me, because Carigan was thrilled to lose the competition), but C got Isa all to herself, so she was a happy girl.

You can't see it in the pictures, but Melissa found the most beautiful swan dress.  She looked amazing!  We tried to take a picture just the two of us without Tate... he wasn't having it.  He cried when he realized he was being left out, so I picked him up and tried to appease him by having Daddy take a picture of just him and me, but that wasn't what he wanted.  His lip quivering, Tate pointed to Melissa and said, "I need mowr people!"  So Melissa came back, noting, "I think you took more pictures of me just now than I've had taken of me in a year."  Just another day in the life for a Rogers kid: 

Showing off their Swan Derby hats.  Look at the way Carigan looks up at Isa all adoringly:

And they're off!  They raced a smaller perimeter in the middle of the lake.  Apparently paddling is exhausting, and the jockeys requested a smaller track this year.  The dancing crew was a little sparse this year... the kids definitely dominated.  Tate just ran in circles going full force.  I kept saying, "Slow down, don't fall!  Slow down, don't fall!"  But he was still just a blur the whole night: 

Isa kept pulling Melissa onto the dance floor.  It was so stinkin' sweet it made me get all misty!  Carigan kept pulling me and Michael up to dance as well, but she's a wild one to dance with, so there's no time for misting.  We took a break from dancing to play cornhole and get balloons and cotton candy while waiting for the fireworks. 

Nothing beats fireworks & bubbles!  We love Lakeland and our sweet little Swan Derby.  Makes this Kentuckian Lakelander's heart happy!

Goodbye, Crib!

So the peer pressure finally go to me... my other babies all graduated from a crib at age three, and Tate's been four for over a month now.  Some people started to give me grief for not letting my baby grow up.  So I decided to leave it up to Tate.  I asked him if he wanted to sleep in his crib, or start sleeping in his big boy bed, and he said big boy bed.  So to the big boy bed we go.  One fun thing about letting him stay in a crib so long, he was super aware of the hugeness of this milestone.  He was so excited. *Chalkboard sign courtesy of Anna Kate, my fellow family historian.

This crib (that has been a comfy bed for one of our babies for almost TWELVE years now) is going in the attic. This was my last night to put one of my babies to bed in it (April 21). I still remember the rush of joy I felt coming home from the hospital with Wesley in 2005 and gingerly placing him in this very crib for the first time. Thank you, crib, for helping my sweet babies sleep securely in their OWN bed (laugh at me for keeping him in it this long if you want, but we've never had a problem keeping kids out of our bed!) for well over a decade. Thank you, Babies R Us in Brandon, for selling us our first "big" baby purchase when parenthood was still just the dream. We salute you as you prepare to make that beautiful journey to the glorious storage in the sky. Because I will never throw you away. Ever. 

Saturday morning was the annual World of Reading event at Barnett Park.  We love this event - You get free food and free books, and we can walk to it!  This year we got to meet Florida authors Janeen Mason and Sandra Markle. We even got to meet Miss Florida!

Carigan wasn't with us because she got a better offer... Kerrigan's dad picked her up Saturday morning for some mini golf in Orlando.  As for the rest of us, we treated ourselves to ice cream at our favorite downtown ice cream parlor across from Palace Pizza (Michael says the salted caramel is the best ice cream he's ever had!) and then walked home to take down the crib! 

Michael putting up the crib for the first time in June, 2005^ and taking it down for the last time on April 22, 2017:

First night in his big boy bed!!!

Sunday morning refusal to let me take their pic.  We had lunch at Chili's with Mimi & Grandpa and then headed to Addie's birthday party.

Lizzy, Kerrigan, Carigan, Rudi & Anna.^  Party in the hot tub... except for Anna Kate, who was enjoying a snow cone away from the crowd:

Ainsley, Carigan & Riley.^   Happy Birthday Addie!!

I took this picture while driving home from Addie's party Sunday afternoon.  They actually did it.  They tore down the historic Lakeland Yacht Club.  It makes me absolutely sick.  Members felt like they couldn't compete with Grasslands Country Club in amenities and didn't want to spend the money to preserve a historic building.  So they tore it down so they can build them a fancy country club that will compete with Grasslands.  Money, prestige & snootiness won out over history.  I can't even. It's such a huge loss.

And in other bad news, I'm totally regretting caving to societal pressure and retiring the crib. Despite using every pillow, blanket and stuffed animal in the room to build up walls around a sleeping cocoon in the middle of his big boy bed, Tate has taken multiple hard falls out of bed in the three nights he was in it.  The first night he was fine (as far aw we know), but the past two nights he's fallen out twice before we've even gone to bed ourselves, and we've heard the giant thud from the living room. And I know he's fallen out at least once after we've gone to bed and we've not heard it, because he told us he got back up himself. He doesn't roll out... he sits up and plops back down over the barriers. He's fallen off both sides, from the top and from the bottom. The only thing that could keep him safely in bed would be rails on all four sides. Hey, like a crib.  So for now, he's on the floor.  Bless it.