Snapshots of September

I found this family portrait by Carigan while cleaning and came across this selfie on Anna Kate's iPod.  Maybe one day the girls will take over family photo documentation and I can watch Netflix instead.  Only seems fair.  September 2 was Team Day at LCS! We're not so much a house divided as a house multiplied... Daddy went to Auburn, and Florida pays the bills around here. But he got his doctorate and a wife from Kentucky, so we're mostly wildcats at heart:

I had to go buy some bow ties to hold us over for the next few weeks of Cotillion while Wesley and I practice tying ties since Michael can't get home in time to do it every week.^  School was cancelled September 8 in anticipation of Irma, but it was a beautiful day and hurricane-prep weary mommas were having to jump through hoops to keep kids occupied.  We had lunch at Dona Julia's and then I took Kerrigan and Carigan to the library to stock up on some low tech entertainment for the looming power outage.

We figured if Lakeland was going to get blown off the map, we would be wise to squeeze in one final swim and a last supper at Mimi and Grandpa's house Saturday night.  Tate was going full tilt, swimming and catching little friends, and then suddenly he crashed.  We realized he felt hot and I had to take him home where I confirmed that he did indeed have a fever.  So Tate got sick right before the hurricane and then I was sick during the hurricane, and Mimi got sick right after the hurricane.  Good times.

Michael and I were walking the lake a few days after the hurricane, and we saw that someone had placed two of these signs at the base of the Lover's Oak.  I took this picture and emailed it to the reporter at The Ledger that broke the story of the tree's death warrant.  I asked him if there was any discussion of cancelling the tree's execution order after she proved her strength during Irma.  He wrote back and said that his understanding was that it didn't change liability for the city and thus did not expect a change of heart.  He said to look for a follow up story the next week after he could get caught up from the hurricane.  I just read last night that the city council allowed Bok Tower's horticulturist to inspect the tree and offer a second opinion.  His opinion was that the tree is much stronger and healthier than the laurel oaks that fell all around it during the storm, and he suggested the city focus its liability concerns on replacing laurel oaks around town with live oaks and leave this centuries old live oak alone.  So there may be hope for this grand lady yet!  -BELOW- Class picture day... There was some confusion about whether we were doing happy faces or silly faces at the moment:

When it's Pet Day at preschool and your options are a swan from the front yard or a lizard from the back courtyard... we went with lizard.Meet Luci the Lizard, who got to meet all of Tate's friends at LCS.  He could not have been more excited.  This is smart pet ownership, right here people.  I worked the set on Friday so I got to see Tate at lunch just a few hours later and hear all about it.  Tate chose Annie and Carigan chose Kerrigan (We were waiting for Tate to swallow, but he had quite the mouthful):    

I also got to have lunch with Anna Kate and her crew (Lydia, Marin and Wynn) between shifts of hot gluing rope around giant wooden spools.  -BELOW- Tate always greets his friends at church with a warm welcome. This was right before Harper went down from over-enthusiastic hugging:

And of course on September 25 every year, we celebrate this hero of the faith.  Proving once again, that superheroes wear tights. 

Go Fourth and Conquer!

Another fourth grade field trip to St. Augustine!  Two down, two to go... but I love this place!  Even when it's scorching hot.  Anna Kate was more excited about riding the charter bus than anything.  She had to be at the school by 6:15 (all kids were required to ride the bus up so they wouldn't be late), and she set her alarm for 4:00.  When I woke up at 5:00, she was dressed and watching TV downstairs.  She was READY.  Callie, Heather and I rode up with Abby, and even after hitting the drive-thru at Starbucks and making a quick stop at a rest area, we still pulled in just ahead of the buses. 

The Old Jail is undergoing major renovation from the outside (They are replacing the roof for the first time in the building's history), so we couldn't go around the building and take all the fun photos like we could with Wesley.  But a man wearing a hard hat ushered us through a tunnel in the scaffolding to enter the jail, and it was the same inside.  We had a pretty dry and boring guide during the museum tour (We had the cutest little tour guide for Wesley's field trip two years ago, that made it really fun), but Sayen provided ample entertainment:

Subway lunch on the lawn before boarding the trolley. 

Wynn, Marin, Anna Kate and Lydia make up the Bow Buddies.  That's what they've entitled their group chat anyways, where they text each other from their iPods (And yes, I monitor it - It's 80% them taking turns texting "Best Friends Forever" with a slew of emojis).  They are pretty cute, and I'm so thankful Anna Kate has such a tight knit group of friends.  She had a rough time at the beginning of second grade two years ago when she landed in a class without any of her close friends.  These girls grew very close last year in third grade.  AK knows what a luxury a tribe like this is, and she doesn't take it for granted.  The trolley delivered us to Memorial Presbyterian Church.  Anna Kate had been inside before because we attended worship there over spring break two years ago when Wesley was in fourth grade.  He really wanted to attend a church service here after his field trip that fall.  We went on Palm Sunday and they handed each of us a palm and Tate exclaimed the whole time about the "really big instrument."  Such an impressive place!   

From the church, the trolley delivered us to the fort.  We started our tour with a BANG, gathering just outside the fort to watch them fire a cannon. 

It. was. HOT.

We took so many pictures of the girls, we decided we needed a momma photo!  Heather, me and Callie^ (Paula was down inside the fort sitting in the shade with a sleeping Sayen, trying not to sweat to death).  And look what I found while going through photos just after returning from the field trip... Check out this tall drink of water in the same spot up there on Castillo de San Marcos about thirty years ago:

Now that's history!  We survived the sweatfest tour of the fort and made a beeline for ice cream on St. George Street.

Wesley had been begging me all week to buy him a fire wallet in St. Augustine .  The magic shop was the highlight of his trip two years ago.  Well you have to be 18 to carry a fire wallet, so I didn't buy him one, but I did waltz into the magic shop and announce, "We've come to see your fire wallet."  The guy proceeded to give us an amazing magic show!  Even better than I remember seeing with Wesley.  He made a penny out of Heather's pocket levitate, passing it through a hoop to prove it wasn't on a string.  Amazing!

I forgot to bring cash to give Anna Kate for the dinner stop, so I had to ride the bus home with her so I could pay for her dinner with my credit card.  Actually, plenty of people were offering to give me money for Anna Kate, but she was insistent that she wanted me to ride home on the bus, and it's hard to pass up being wanted by Anna Kate these days. She's going through a too cool to snuggle or love on your mom phase, and while my other three still love me, she had started to give me the snub lately.  So I forfeited the nice smooth ride in a Suburban with adult conversation to sit next to Anna Kate in a bumpy bus while she talked to her friends and mostly ignored me.  But at least she wanted me. When we got back to Lakeland, I took Ila home and Anna Kate got to hold the Rodda's new Chiweenie puppy.  They named her Katniss, so they have a dog named Kat.  She looks like a Beanie Boo and Anna Kate is obsessed with her.  I told Abby we are going to have to work out some visitation rights.  Fun way to end the day!

Celebrating a Dozen

Wesley was willing to wait however long it took to have all of his best friends in town for his birthday party. 1+ month and a hurricane later, he finally got his boys' night. I bounced a lot of party ideas off of him and said I'd take them to any restaurant he wanted, but didn't want anything to cut in on their time together at the house. So it was a pizza, Mt. Dew, Captain Underpants Movie, Nintendo Switch and iPad kind of night. Wes was in heaven. And can I just say how thankful I am for this group of boys, that are seriously the kindest, most polite bunch of tween boys I have ever known. These boys stick together and truly have been a haven for each other. I can honestly say that at 12 years old, Wesley has been virtually untouched by peer pressure or bullying of any kind, and I credit that to this protective pack of boys. Every kid should be so lucky as to have a pack like this.  Caden, Wesley, Jacob, TJ, Hyatt and Sean:

I dared exclude Tate from a pic and he burst into tears. You can tell below that he's still trying to recover while cheesing for the camera once I said he could be in the pic:

Early morning waffles before all day Robotics practice.  It's pretty nice when they get old enough that you can just go to bed and let them stay up.  I told them they had to go to bed by 1:00, and Michael and I were in bed by 11:00.  We had to get up before the sun though (simply against the laws of nature on a Saturday) because Caden and Sean both had soccer games and were picked up super early.  This is why we are not a soccer family.  But there's always the possibility of an afternoon nap to look forward to.  

Pen Pals

Can I just tell you how happy it makes me that my daughters are now official pen pals with the daughter of my best friend from Kindergarten?? Cindy Tholen and I were best friends from kindergarten until I moved away the summer after second grade. We've only seen each other twice in the 30 years since I moved, but she is still one of my favorite people on this planet. I am so proud that we've stayed in touch all these years.